Video: The Tiger-Cats’ superb fake field goal helped them pick up a TD Atlantic win

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' narrow 28-26 win over the Montreal Alouettes in Saturday's Touchdown Atlantic clash in Moncton was far from a display of superb execution overall, but there were some individual plays that did meet that standard. One in particular came right at the start of the second quarter, with Hamilton trailing 7-3 and facing a third down near the Montreal 10. The Tiger-Cats set up for a field-goal attempt, which is the standard decision here (even if it goes against the probabilities), but then they did something else entirely:

That's a perfectly executed fake field goal, and it's done in a really interesting fashion. A lot of the CFL fake punts or fake field goals we've seen involve the punter or the holder taking off themselves or throwing a downfield pass, which can work well. The Tiger-Cats did things a little differently, though, sending blocker Marc Beswick across the formation from left to right (pre-snap blocker shifts aren't uncommon on plays like this) and having holder Andy Fantuz flip him a quick shovel pass behind the line of scrimmage as soon as he received the snap. Beswick then rumbled through the confused Alouettes for an easy touchdown.

It takes immaculate timing to pull this off, and you also have to have a lot of faith in your holder's ability to catch the snap and quickly toss it to the man in motion, but it worked out superbly well for Hamilton Saturday, and the extra four points they gained from this touchdown instead of the field goal proved to be more than the difference in this one. Full credit to Tiger-Cats' special-teams coordinator Jeff Reinebold (the CFL's international man of mystery) for drawing this up, to head coach Kent Austin for having the guts to go for it here, and to Fantuz and Beswick for superb execution. It's an impressive play, and one that shows some of the benefits of unconventional thinking.