Is there any good news here, moving forward?

Of course, there is. First, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are still in the playoffs and have two weeks of practice, and a lame-duck home game Saturday against Montreal, to remedy what ails them medically and on the scoreboard.

And there's ….hey, did we mention they're in the playoffs?.

You could also note that Lirim Hajrullahu, who was four-for-four in field goals in the Ticats' humbling 30-13 loss to the visiting Ottawa Redblacks amidst Saturday's wretched wind and rain, hasn't missed in four games; that receiver Terrell Sinkfield indicated he can become a factor; and that the Ticats did not squander a double-digit lead.

But that seems like a desperate search for positives.

What you don't have to hunt very far to find are the negatives accruing just as a championship-aspiring team should be hitting stride: The Tiger-Cats played six of their worst quarters of football on successive weekends against the Redblacks when first place, with its peaceful bye into the Eastern final, was a jump ball.

The Hamilton offence did not score a single touchdown in those six quarters, which includes the second half of the Redblacks' rally from a 16-point deficit to win 35-31 in Ottawa eight days earlier.

The defence gave up 30 points for just the fourth time this year, but all four have been over the last six games, which points the wind sock in exactly the opposite direction to the one that teams seek at this time of year. Saturday, they permitted Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris to control the tempo and the field and complete 23 of his 30 passes. With the eastern money on the line, Harris tore apart the Hamilton defence to complete 42 of his final 50 passes over the two Ontario weekends.

Meanwhile, cover teams surrendered 130 field-position yards to punt returner Diontae Spencer, who added a game-high 116 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Plus, two more Ticats wide receivers, Mike Jones and Marquay McDaniel, were bruised and removed, before returning to play later. Head coach June Jones isn't too worried, but he's felt that way before in this receiver-endangered season.

Add it all up and you can see why one team (now 10-7) finishes first and the other one (8-9) must face a first-round western playoff opponent at Tim Hortons Field on November 11.

Things went awry from the opening snap, when a nice Ticat gain was negated by a holding penalty, precipitating the first of four consecutive two-and-outs.

"We went the wrong way on the very first play," Jones said. "When we're in the situation we are, we need to take care of the football and take the football away to even the playing field. And we didn't do that.

"But we're in the playoffs and we're going to get to play them again."

Not necessarily. The Ticats must win the Eastern semi-final, for a chance to avenge three regular-season losses to Ottawa, now officially their nemesis.

If you consider Saskatchewan, Calgary and Ottawa the top three teams in the CFL, consider also that the Ticats went 0-7 against them this season. Extend that to all playoff-bound teams and they weren't much better, at 2-9.

Hamilton was in decent position to win all but two of those games, but the only position that actually counts is the final one.

"It's disappointing," said defensive end Connor McGough, "But at the end of the day we're still going to the playoffs. We left a lot on the field. We just have to capitalize a lot better. Today they were better than us. We have to be better at getting pressure as a unit, we have to be better at covering. It goes hand in hand."

Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, 25-for-48 for 243 yards and two fourth-quarter interceptions, said, "We have to do a better job on offence of staying on the field. Do a better job of sustaining drives, give our defence a break. Too many two-and-outs."

There were too many things on too many sides of the ball.

"You just have to forget it and move on," offered Ticat defensive tackle Jason Neill. "Next play, next game, type of thing. It's all fixable, all correctable."

Professional players are imbued with self-belief so that was the attitude of every Ticat surveyed, but for now the larger jury must remain out.

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Notes: Harris had three touchdown passes but the pivotal toss was by short-yardage quarterback Dominique Davis on a second-quarter 3rd and 1 at midfield to wide-open former Ticat Greg Ellingson, pushing it to 15-4 . . .CB Delvin Breaux was a late scratch with pre-game knee swelling . . . Jeremiah Masoli climbed to 5209 passing yards, the third-highest single season total in Ticat history . . . LB Larry Dean's 11 defensive tackles give him 105, third-most ever in a Ticat season

smilton@thespec.com

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