9:00- Hey boys and girls this is the first version of “On the Road with the Cats” my running blog on all of the Ti-Cats road games. Tonight the Cats face a couple of old friends in the form of Dwight Anderson and JoJuan Armour. As Armour put it so nicely in his blog (http://www.stampeders.com/news_blogs/players_blog/?id=214) it’s his, “Old team in my new home.”

9:04 On the off chance you are living under a rock or didn’t watch TSN’s kind of useless pre-game show Jesse Lumsden is not in the lineup tonight. He took a helmet to the knee last week against Saskatchewan and with the short week he is not playing. Tre Smith, who is the fifth leading rusher in the league, will start. Terry Caulley will see his first action of the year. Both of these backs were outstanding in college putting up great numbers at Auburn and UConn respectfully. Should be fun to see what they can do with Printers and co. tonight.

9:06 Gametime! And thankfully Chris Cuthbert has the call, I wonder if the people at CBC watch a game and just shake their head at letting him go.

9:09 The league’s leading returner Tre Smith takes it to the Ti-Cats 40 yard line. Let’s see what Printers has tonight he missed some great chances last week. And that’s an understatement.

9:11 Two and out from the offense after a sack of Printers on the first play, not what you want to see. In typical Dwight Anderson fashion he’s all pumped up despite not really doing anything.

Booming punt by Nicholas Setta, 77 yards through the endzone and the Ti-Cats strike first, up 1-0.

Hamilton 1 Calgary 0

9:13 Ti-Cats take after Calgary and sack Burris on their first play. The Cats came in knowing they had to get pressure on Burris in order to have a chance.

9:14 Tre Smith bobbles the punt looking into the sun and the Stampeders recover on the Hamilton 25. On an unrelated note the ads during CFL games are brutal. RONA’s the how to people; I think we all get it, despite the fact we all go to Home Depot anyway.

9:19 The Ti-Cats get a huge stop and force Calgary to settle for the field goal. Bend but don’t break.

Calgary 3 Hamilton 1

9:21 TSN Crew gives a nice description of the “Zone Read” the Ti-Cats have used so well this season.

9:23 Printers gets sacked once again at the Hamilton 15. Great job of using the official to box in Printers. CFL refs if they are making phantom holding calls, they’re probably in the way. Another 2 and out from Hamilton.

9:30 Joffrey Reynolds caps off an impressive drive with a 14-yard run for the major. Looks like yet another slow start for Hamilton. In their two preseason games and now four regular season games their first quarter has been forgetful.

Calgary 10 Hamilton 1

9:31 6 plays 78 yards by Calgary that’s precision for you.

9:34 Two long passes from Printers, two incompletions.Third straight two and out from the Ti-Cats.

9:38 After Smith fumbles yet another punt, Printers and Smith have communications issues and barely fall on another fumble.

9:40 Fourth consecutive two and out from Hamilton. On the bright side (?) Setta’s 62-yard punt garners another point for Hamilton.

Calgary 10 Hamilton 2

9:43 The first quarter mercifully comes to an end. Looks like the Ti-Cats went out and enjoyed the Stampede festivities last night. Thankfully they are only down by 8. As the TSN announcers mentioned it could be a lot worse.

After the first quarter the Hamilton offense has -18 yards on 9 plays. That means they’re on pace for -72 yards tonight. Yikes.

9:47 Henry Burris can apparently bench 225 at 18 reps, now I don’t feel so bad about him pushing the Ti-Cats’ defense up and down the field. Good to see someone so dedicated and reaping the benefits of their hard work.

9:49 Couple of brutal drops by Calgary’s receiving corps bail out the Ti-Cats D. Stampeders add on another field goal though.

Calgary 13 Hamilton 2

9:50 It’s almost time for the broadcast crew to remind us that Lumsden is not in action… wait for it. We’ll soon see if the rest of the offense made the flight or not.

9:53 Cats line up with only three lineman in front of Printers, in typical CFL fashion they even confuse the officials into thinking it was illegal.

Big Chris Bauman reception gives Hamilton their first, first down of the game.

9:54 Bauman catches another pass for seven yards then Dwight Anderson the former Ti-Cat rips Bauman’s helmet off 2 yards out of bounds. Adding another 15 yards to the play. Shocking I didn’t know Dwight had discipline issues.

9:56 Printers loses control off the ball on the scramble and turns the ball over some 29 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Hamilton challenges but this isn’t going to end well for them.

Clearly comes out, that’s a killer for Hamilton. Just brutal.

10:00 Unbelievable Calgary needs only two plays from the air to put six more points on the board. After the PAT the Cats’ deficit is now 18.

Calgary 20 Hamilton 2

10:01 So many Hamilton miscues and Calgary has taken advantage of every one of them.

The more they show that TD catch the more impressive it looks, truly an magnificent catch by Nik Lewis.

10:03 Printers finds Scott Mitchell 31 yards down the field on first down. Cats also benefit from a roughing the passer call. Mitchell out of Kentucky has really emerged as a deep threat for Printers.

10:05 Now it’s first down from the Calgary 13, the Cats need to put up six here to have a chance.
10:06 Tony Miles makes a nice grab on second down at the 5 for a big first down for Hamilton.

10:08 Second down and Caulley definitely broke the plane but does not get the call.

10:09 Stampeders lineup offside on third down and stop Tre Smith but Ti-Cats catch a break. First down on the 1 for Hamilton.

10:10 Printers takes it in from the one yard line, huge score for Hamilton courtesy of a couple of Calgary penalties.

9 plays 73 yards from Hamilton.

Calgary 20 Hamilton 9

10:20 Seemingly effortless drive by the Calgary offense capped off by a Nik Lewis TD. His second of the night. Any Hamilton momentum eliminated right away.

17 Calgary points in there last three possessions.

Calgary 27 Hamilton 9

10:23 Two and out from Hamilton, without the running game this Ti-Cats offense looks just lost out there. Jesse Lumsden, the Canadian player of the week the past two weeks, has clearly been missed tonight.

10:26 Rontarius Robinson makes a circus catch interception off his hand then knee, then shoe tops to give Hamilton the ball back.

Good chance to at least get a Setta field goal here.

10:28 Printers and Smith combine on a couple of big rushing plays to get Hamilton down to the Calgary 30 with 26 seconds left.

13 yard pass to Tony “the Tiger” Miles on first down.

10:30 Former Ti-Cat JoJuan Armous picks off the Printers pass at the five yard line.

10:32 When your offense only has 98 yards and your team has turned the ball over three times you find yourself down 18.

Halftime
Calgary 27 Hamilton 9
10:47 Here we go, lets see what type of heart this football club has now.

Nice return by Tre Smith to the 44-yard line.

10:50 A scrambling Printers finds Prechae Rodriguez 54 yards down the field to the Calgary 10. Rodriguez another Auburn product makes his first CFL reception a memorable one.

10:52 Terry Caulley takes the next play into the endzone. The Ti-Cats have life after all.
Calgary 27 Hamilton 16

I don’t mean to be down on Printers but they could really use that interception in the last minute back now. But it still means an awful lot that this club hasn’t quit on this game.

10:57 Despite being in a 1st and 20 situation Henry Burris finds Rambo for a first down to the Hamilton 50.

11:03 Joffrey Reynolds runs in another major for the Calgary offense. Every time the Ti-Cats have shown signs of life Calgary has responded.

Calgary 34 Hamilton 16

10 plays 70 yards from Calgary, talk about answering the call.

11:11 (Make a wish) Pat Woodcock drops an easy first down pass after bobbling the ball. Hamilton is forced to give Burris and Co. the ball back….

11:20 And the Stampeders drive the field, with multiple second down conversions. Reynolds runs it in for his third TD of the season. Am I beginning to sound like a broken record?

Calgary 41 Hamilton 16

11:22 This all sets up what should be a disastrous blacked out game in the Hamilton area next week. Blowout the week before combined with no TV coverage, everyone’s gonna want to watch this club next week…

11:23 Kickoff is downed in the endzone by Tre Smith.

Calgary 42 Hamilton 16

11:25 Third quarter comes to a merciful end with a nice completion to Tony Miles.

11:30 Printers gets intercepted again, the look on his face kind of says it all right now for Hamilton and their fans.

11:46 Teams have exchanged non-scoring possessions. Lot of evidence that Casey Printers and Scott Mitchell are building a nice chemistry together with a couple of nice receptions. At the end of the last Ti-Cats possession Dwight Anderson once again was doing a fair amount of talking. I guess that’s his right, but what is it that he thinks he’s responsible for? If he is as special as he clearly thinks he is wouldn’t that have shown through last season?

11:50 Printers and Burris are done for the night as Richie Williams and Dave Dickenson take over the reigns in garbage time.

11:51 According to our insightful commentators the Ti-Cats are much better than their 1-4 record after week four would show…. That makes sense. But they have a point this club is still in much better shape at 1-3 then they were at any point last season.

Calgary 43 Hamilton 16

11:56 Another conceded point adds to the dismal night for Hamilton.

12:03 Richie Williams is picked off in the endzone after leading an impressive drive down into the redzone. It’s the sixth Hamilton turnover of the night.

12:07 That’s it, on the bright side when Hamilton came to Calgary last season they lost by 28, this year only 27…

Final Calgary 43 Hamilton 16

Obviously a rough night for Hamilton but that being said there was a lot going against the Ti-Cats tonight. It was a short week for them, they had only two practices to prepare, had to fly out west and then to cap it all off their MVP Jesse Lumsden was out. The good news next Friday all of those same factors are flipped around as Edmonton will be in town to face Hamilton after playing on Sunday.

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Tags: Calgary, CFL, Dwight Anderson, Hamilton, Henry Burris, Nich Hall, Stampeders, Ti-Cats