HAMILTON — The Hamilton Tiger-Cats can still overcome a painful overtime loss to the Toronto Argonauts and make the playoffs thanks to a weak CFL East division.
But they are quickly running out of games.
The 43-35 loss to Toronto at Tim Hortons Field on Saturday, in which they blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, dropped them to 3-10 and third in the CFL East Division. But the Ottawa Redblacks also lost this week for a 5-9-1 record and are still within reach for second spot.
The Ticats have two games in hand. Ottawa has two byes in the final five weeks of the regular season. The Ticats and Redblacks have split their meetings this year and will meet a third time in Ottawa on Oct. 27.
The Ticats lost their first eight games of the season but are now 3-2 since June Jones took over as head coach just before Labour Day.
“We’ve just got to get back and find our mojo again,” said Hamilton linebacker Simoni Lawrence as the Ticats head to Winnipeg next week. “I feel like we’re a super confident group. We know what kind of football team we are. But we’ve just gotta go out there and put it on the team’s neck where we’re supposed to win.”
Toronto solidified its hold on the top spot in the East with the win, improving to 7-7. Toronto holds the tiebreaker against all three Eastern teams.
It’s more likely that the West’s fourth-place team will finish with a better record than the East’s third spot and earn the crossover. That bumps the East’s third-place team out of the playoffs (making second place imperative) and places the West’s fourth-place team in the East semi-final. Saskatchewan currently sits in that position with a 7-6 record.