Simoni Lawrence was in front of an arbitrator in Toronto Tuesday, joining with the CFLPA in appealing his two-game suspension for a head hit on quarterback Zach Collaros of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the opening game of the CFL season.

The league suspended the Hamilton Tiger-Cats linebacker for two games, but the union and player appealed. July 9 was the earliest the two sides could agree upon for an appeal hearing, so Lawrence played in the Ticats' next three games.

The hearing was scheduled to begin in the morning and was still in session late into Tuesday afternoon. A league spokesperson told The Spectator on Tuesday that a decision wasn't expected until Wednesday, or even Thursday. Some insiders expected the suspension to be cut in half, but others saw it upheld. In either case, he would probably miss Saturday's home game against Calgary.

Former Mac Marauder Nick Shortill would be the leading candidate to replace Lawrence at weakside linebacker, although impressive rookie Chris Frey from Michigan State could also get reps there.

Penalty trouble

The weekly CFL stats pack makes an informative co-relation — listen up, you Ticats- between penalties and success, or lack thereof.

Based on the first four weeks of play, if a team does not take an offensive penalty during a possession, that drive has a 22 per cent chance of resulting in a touchdown. But if it takes an offensive penalty, the success rate drops to nine per cent.

Similarly, if your opponent takes an offensive penalty your offence has a 40 per cent chance of scoring a touchdown. If the defence goes flag-free, offences score on just 13 per cent of possessions.

So, there were the Tiger Cats last week in Montreal taking 15 penalties across all three phases of the game, including a whopping seven on defence, for a total of 179 yards. Um, guess who won the game.

"Penalties are going to happen," says head coach Orlondo Steinauer, who's most worried about at what points in the game (the worst, in Montreal) they occur.

"We're always working to limit those, it's been an emphasis in training camp. Thus far, we've had some decent games where we haven't had a lot. Then you have an outing like that and you're working against yourself. Some of them aren't preventable, some of them are judgment calls. But we're a non-excuse football team, so we definitely are addressing that.

"You can't really correct it until the next game. That's what's unique about football: unlike any other sport, you're basically a loser for a week and you have to wait until the next week and then see if you've improved in that area."

The Ticats are averaging 101 yards, nearly a full football field, in penalties per game, while their opponents take 14 yards fewer. In only one of their four games, against Montreal in Hamilton, has an opponent been flagged for more yardage than the Tiger-Cats.

Steinauer says his team's defence needs "to make some better decisions, especially around the quarterback" and sees other teams across the league struggling with the same penalty issue.

"We just need to be better, no doubt about it. It's hard to win football games when you're not taking penalties and when you're taking those types, it's really tough."

The Ticats have been assessed 12 offensive penalties, 15 on defence and another 15 on cover/return special teams.

Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said Tuesday that among the things he wants to improve in his own game this week, "is to figure out how I can help us just not take so many penalties."

RB missed

Masoli also expressed empathy for running back Sean Thomas Erlington who was put on the six-game injured list after being hit in the knee early in the Montreal loss. "I feel really bad about how it went down," Masoli said. "He was going to have a breakout season ... and he already was having one. You just feel bad for a guy that puts in the work and deserves to have that opportunity and then it gets cut short like that. He was a locker-room favourite."

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

William Stanback ran right through the Tiger-Cats and into the CFL Shaw top performers of the week. With three touchdowns and 249 yards from scrimmage in last Thursday's 36-29 win over the Tiger-Cats, Stanback was named the week's first star, followed by Calgary's Tre Roberson, who had two interceptions, and Winnipeg's Mike Miller, who had seven special teams tackles.

smilton@thespec.com

905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec