As the old saying goes, turnabout is fair play.
After seeing the Saskatchewan Roughriders score 20 points in the fourth quarter on their way to a 38-7 victory in Week 6, the shoe was on the other foot for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday night.
That translated into 16 unanswered points in the final frame for the Ticats, who came away with a 26-19 home victory in CFL action.
Quarterback Tre Ford was a major reason for that success, as he came on in the third quarter and completed 13 of 17 passes for 151 yards and threw what would stand as the game-winning touchdown.
“I just felt like in three phases, we just did not meet the expectation and standards of ourselves,” Riders coach Corey Mace said on the Rider Broadcast Network postgame show. “Obviously, we have to have some stops defensively there. Offensively, we struggled. Special teams, we took some crucial penalties there. You can't lose those battles within the game and we lost those. That's bad ball. You can't play bad ball in professional football.”
The game quickly turned into a defensive battle, with Saskatchewan taking a 13-10 lead into half time. The Riders put up only 158 yards offence to Hamilton’s 127.
Little changed to start the second half, and, after a couple of Alex Hale field goals, Saskatchewan held a 19-10 lead heading into the final frame.
Ford came into the game for Hamilton starter Harrison Frost midway through the third quarter, and he went to work from there. In the end, the Tiger-Cats put up points on every drive in the last 15 minutes — a 41-yard bomb of a touchdown to Keric Wheatfall and three field goals from Marc Liegghio — to take the lead and pull away.
“I think it was a tale of two halves,” said Riders linebacker Josh Woods, who led the team with seven tackles. “I think we started strong, but in the second half we didn't execute.
“We didn’t play top of the league football across the board and that was the result.”
Ford coming into the game changed the flow of the contest dramatically, and Woods would have liked to have seen the team deal with what he brought to the game.
“It’s a different dynamic,” Woods said. “I think we all had to make adjustments. Tre used his legs. We couldn't play the same way we were playing in the first half, and I think we didn't do that. We didn't make the adjustments to help ourselves win.”
Hale ended up as one of the few positives in the game after finding himself under extreme scrutiny in recent weeks thanks to some early season kicking struggles, but he was absolutely on point on Saturday. He went 4-for-4 on the night, with three from 40 yards or longer and a long of 52. That was enough to keep Saskatchewan in the game until things came apart in the final quarter.
Asked by RBN analyst Luc Mullinder how he dealt with the pressure, Hale said he simply kept on keeping on.
“Just staying true to my process, not trying to change too much, just fix the errors,” he said. “Then great holds and great snaps from the two guys (Oscar Chapman and Mike Benson) and great protection.”
Hamilton’s defence had an outstanding night, holding the Riders to 244 yards of offence, with Trevor Harris going 23-for-35 passing for only 207 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Johnny Johnson III had Saskatchewan’s lone touchdown in the second quarter, the first of his CFL career.
Myron Mitchell had Hamilton’s other major.
The Roughriders fall to 6-3 with the loss and drop into second place in the West Division. The Tiger-Cats improve to 4-6 and are third in the East.
Saskatchewan is now off until Aug. 23 when they travel to Vancouver to face the B.C. Lions.
