Ticats break East's 10-game losing streak against West with win over awful-looking Riders

On Sunday, it finally wasn't the East that's the least. The East Division's teams were collectively 9-32 overall and 2-26 against the West Division heading into the day's Hamilton Tiger-Cats-Saskatchewan Roughriders clash, but it was 2-7 Hamilton that looked much better than 8-2 Saskatchewan Sunday, pulling off a 28-3 home win and breaking a streak of 10 straight West wins over the East. The win suggests that the Tiger-Cats might be improving, and/or that the Roughriders look far from dominant without Darian Durant.

For Hamilton, this was a huge victory. It improves the Tiger-Cats' record to 3-7 and puts them in first in the East (Montreal and Toronto also have three wins, but one more loss each than Hamilton). This win was largely about their defence, which managed to hold Saskatchewan to just 88 passing yards and 100 rushing yards while also notching five sacks, generating lots of pressure and recording an interception. The Ticats' defence hasn't been terrific this year, but it looked awfully good Sunday.

The Tiger-Cats' passing offence alsp appears to be making progress under Zach Collaros, who only returned to the lineup on Labour Day after missing most of the early season with a concussion. On Sunday, Collaros completed 29 of 36 passes (80.5 per cent) for 287 yards and two touchdowns with one interception; he also picked up a team-high 49 rushing yards on seven scrambles. There's still plenty of work to be done in Hamilton; with C.J. Gable out thanks to injury, their rushing attack was rather feeble (after Collaros, their leading rusher was Mossis Madu, who had just 39 yards on eight carries), and there were some major communication breakdowns (particularly near the end of the first half). Still, this was perhaps the Tiger-Cats' best game this year, and one that suggests they could improve substantially down the stretch.

If it was the best showing for Hamilton, it was also perhaps the worst showing this season for Saskatchewan. The Riders' 48-15 Week Two loss to Toronto is a contender there as well. but their offence didn't look as utterly inept in that defeat. This time around, their passing attack didn't get anywhere at all (Tino Sunseri completed just nine of 21 attempts, 42.9 per cent, for 88 yards with no touchdowns and an interception) and their rushing offence was held relatively in check (Anthony Allen had 10 carries for 64 yards, but Jerome Messam picked up just 36 yards on nine carries). While the team's passing offence wasn't great this year even with Darian Durant at the controls, it looked much worse without him, and that made the rushing attack less effective as well. A fair bit of credit needs to go to the Hamilton defence for their performance Sunday, but there will also be major questions in Saskatchewan coming out of this. For at least one day, it's not the East team that's going home in defeat.