Late touchdown lifts Tiger-Cats over Argonauts
Cobb's 5-yard plunge caps come-from-behind 16-12 victory at Rogers Centre
This was hardly the classic everyone expected, but the Hamilton Tiger-Cats aren't going to complain.
In a Canadian Football League game that featured more than 650 yards of offence, five key turnovers, 21 penalties, a slew of dropped passes and one badly timed spit, the Tiger-Cats found a way to score 10 points in the final six minutes to beat the host Toronto Argonauts 16-12 on Friday night.
DeAndra' Cobb ran the game's only touchdown in from the five-yard line with just under four minutes to go, a scoring drive set up when Toronto's Ryan Christian fumbled a Ticats kickoff, and it allowed Hamilton to win its third straight and improve to 4-4.
Toronto, coming off an emotional victory last week against Montreal, fell to 5-3 before 24,493 at the Rogers Centre.
Shell denies spitting at Ticat
To add insult to injury, Argonauts defensive back Lin-J Shell was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct following DeAndra' Cobb's touchdown late in Friday's 16-12 victory by the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
He reportedly spit in the face of Ticats linebacker Auggie Barrenechea, a contention Shell denied following the game.
"He spit in our player's face," Hamilton head coach Marcel Bellefeuille said. "I don't know which player it was, but that's how it was explained to me … those are the types of things that happen in a game."
Toronto bench boss Jim Barker said Shell isn't the type of player to resort to such tactics.
"That's totally not his character," Barker said. "He probably shouldn't have been talking to the player.
"We take full responsibility for all the penalties that were called against us."
— The Canadian Press
Christian’s fumble was caused by a nice strip from Jason Shivers and was recovered by Will Heyward at the Toronto 22.
Glenn was philosophical afterwards, realizing neither team could do much inside the 20 on this night.
"That's just football," said the quarterback, who was 25-of-36 for 247 yards and one interception, stats that should have produced more points.
"They get paid on the other side of the ball too, and it's just one of those things. There were a couple of plays we had that I don’t think we capitalized on."
Until the end.
Huge hole
On second and 15 from the Argos' 27, Glenn dropped back to pass, saw a huge hole and took off for the goal-line, coming up just short at the five.
Cobb, who finished the night with 99 yards and is finally back to his form of last year following a slow start to 2010, ran the ball in from there.
"A lot of the times, Toronto's defence plays off [in coverage]," Glenn said of his scamper. "In that instance they all fell out and it was one of those things where all game they were doing that, and if you get that opportunity as a quarterback, you have to take advantage of it."
Argos quarterback Cleo Lemon was 18-for-31 and 208 yards, while the Cats did a nice job of holding Cory Boyd, the league’s leading rusher, in check as he finished with 81 yards on 16 carries.
"It comes down to execution," said Lemon. "We had success, but not finishing it really hurts. We’re a team that focuses on what we do well and I think tonight we came up short when it was time to put the ball in the end zone."
Both teams head for the bye week and will meet again on Labour Day in Hamilton.
Wasted chances all around
A first half of wasted opportunities seeped into the second as the Argos, leading 9-3, came out of the dressing room with a traditional flea-flicker.
Christian took a toss from Cleo Lemon going right, handed off on the reverse to Chad Owens and then took off down field to find an open spot. Owens set up and threw a 37-yard bomb to Christian for a first down at the Hamilton eight.
Again there would be no major, thanks to Shivers, who knocked down a pass intended for Brandon Rideau in the end zone and Grant Shaw came in for the field goal to increase Toronto's lead to 12-3.
Hamilton looked to have something going when a pass interference call put the Ticats well into Argo territory. That led to a dropped pass, an overthrow and a field goal try by Sandro DeAngelis that hit the right upright.
Toronto had a chance, set up by a crisp drive that put the ball third and one within the shadow of the Cats' posts. Things went wrong when Toronto head coach Jim Barker challenged the spot.
Except the rule book says you can’t do that on second down (only third unless the ball wound up in the end zone), the Argos were penalized 10 yards and then lost any chance at points when holder Kevin Eiben bobbled the snap for the field goal attempt.
Bringing us to the fourth quarter, where the Tiger-Cats had a 56-yard, 10-play drive highlighted by a 30-yard pass and run from Dave Stala, putting the ball on the Toronto 12. Two plays and a Hamilton penalty later, DeAngelis kicked a field goal for 12-6.
Toronto went nowhere, and Hamilton took over as passes to Stala and Marquay McDaniel put them in business and the Cats moved to the Argos' 30. Arland Bruce caught one eight yards up field and ran around for a while, losing six of them.
The Ticats settled for another field goal for 12-9, setting up the fumbled kickoff and Glenn's heroics.