Hamilton offence flops in Winnipeg beatdown

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If you needed a further illustration of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' offence's Jekyll-and-Hyde characteristics, the last two weeks have proven the connection beyond the shadow of a doubt. Last week inside the domed atmosphere of Montreal's Olympic Stadium, we saw the beautiful side, as they exploded for 52 points in a historic shootout. This week in the cold in Winnipeg, the ugly side of the Hamilton offence was on display, as they put up just three points in a 19-3 loss to the hometown Blue Bombers.

The Tiger-Cats' offensive failure was complete and total. Their ground game was completely absent, with Avon Cobourne held to just 28 yards on nine carries, and their passing attack wasn't much better. Kevin Glenn completed 13 of 18 passes (72.2 per cent), but only threw for 113 yards before getting hurt, and replacement Quinton Porter was terrible, completing just three of 11 passes (27.3 per cent) and picking up just 40 yards with one interception. Some of the blame there is on the Tiger-Cats' offence, some of the credit there is to the Winnipeg defence, some of it may be due to the conditions. We don't know the exact mix, but we do know that Hamilton couldn't move the ball at all, and that doomed them in this one.

It wasn't that the Winnipeg offence was any great shakes either, especially through the air where Buck Pierce (seen above shaking hands with Glenn after the game) completed just 16 of 28 passes (57.1 per cent). Some of that's certainly due to the cold (and some of it might be thanks to some clever espionage), but the Tiger-Cats defence did its job and only allowed 13 points on the day before Winnipeg scored on the final garbage-time play. Usually in the CFL, if you hold the opponent to 13 points, you come away with the win.

The Hamilton defence did give up yardage on the ground, as Chris Garrett picked up 190 yards and a touchdown, but he needed 29 carries to get there. That's a still-impressive 6.6 yards per carry, but Hamilton got defensive stops at crucial times and often forced Winnipeg to punt. Their own offence couldn't take advantage, though, and that kept them from winning this game.

With the victory, Winnipeg closes out Canad Inns Stadium in style. They'll be in a shiny new stadium next season, and they'll be hoping to bring a Grey Cup home even before that. They'll be heading to Vancouver this week to face either the B.C. Lions or the Edmonton Eskimos (go to the live chat to see which one will triumph) for the trophy, and that could be an interesting matchup. Both West teams have great defences that ranked #1 and #2 respectively in points allowed during the year, while Winnipeg's was #3. B.C. has a much more highly-powered offence than Edmonton, though.

The Bombers can celebrate this one for now, but they'll have to work on several areas before they get to the big game. They'll have to wait and find out who they're facing, too. For the moment, though, this is a great day for Winnipeg; they've gone from 4-14 and last in the league in 2010 to 10-8, first in the East and now an East Division championship and a trip to the Grey Cup. Regardless of how that trip turns out, it's already been a great season for them. For the Tiger-Cats, though, it's another disappointing playoff loss, and one that might overshadow their stunning first-round win to at least some degree.