Tiger-Cats blow out Eskimos 49-20, notch six offensive touchdowns against top D

The Edmonton Eskimos may have entered Friday night's game against Hamilton with the CFL's best defence on the year, but that strong defence was nowhere to be found in the 49-20 beating they wound up taking from the Tiger-Cats. Hamilton notched six offensive touchdowns on the night, remarkable considering that Edmonton had only allowed seven on the year before this game and had conceded a league-low 14.6 points per game ahead of this. The Eskimos' own play was a substantial part of their own demise, as turnovers, penalties and general ineptitude all hurt them, but the Tiger-Cats' dominant performance was a big factor too. With this massive road win, Hamilton showed again how they might be the hottest team in the CFL, and how they're certainly a team to be reckoned with.

The Tiger-Cats' offence was clicking all night Friday, and that's remarkable continuing how good Edmonton's defence had been to this point. Hamilton quarterback Zach Collaros threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns, both substantially higher than the averages the Eskimos had allowed through their first seven games (216.4 and 0.71 respectively). Collaros found a variety of receivers, too, with Luke Tasker catching five passes for 129 yards and Terrell Sinkfield making six grabs for 118 yards and two touchdowns, while Terrence Tolliver added three catches for 37 yards and another touchdown. Now, Edmonton did hold him to a surprisingly-low 58.6 per cent completion mark, but he still burned them regularly. The Ticats' rarely-used ground game was also in good form Friday, with Nic Grigsby collecting 49 yards on just four carries and others adding 26 more yards and three touchdowns. Heading into this, Edmonton had conceded just two rushing touchdowns, so Hamilton thumped them in surprising fashion on the ground too.

A lot of this was about the Eskimos' mistakes, though. Edmonton lost three fumbles on the night, and gave up some bad fumble returns, including a late 106-yard one for a touchdown by Hamilton defensive end Eric Norwood. Eskimos' starting quarterback Matt Nichols also threw a bad interception and completed just 12 of 19 passes (63.2 per cent) for 138 yards before giving way to James Franklin. Franklin was better, throwing for 254 yards and two touchdowns in relief (with a 61.1 per cent completion mark), but he also threw an interception, and his stats should be taken in context considering that the game was already out of hand by that point. The Eskimos just weren't in this game, and their errors were a big part of why it was so lopsided.

Where do these teams go from here? Well, one loss shouldn't be necessarily a crisis for Edmonton, as they're still 5-3 on the season. There are a lot of things from this one that they'll have to improve on, but it isn't all doom and gloom. For Hamilton, though, this is perhaps even more meaningful. The Tiger-Cats are now 6-2, and they're alone in first place in the East Division (for the moment, at least). Even more importantly, they showed that they can win on the road, and that they can put up points against the CFL's toughest defence. That bodes very well for them going forward, and it should strike some fear in the heart of their upcoming opponents.