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Written By:
James Rule, CFL Interactive
Wednesday, August 23, 2000
"Cats in a Crisis"
Defending champs scramble to stop the bleeding
The team that was considered a shoo-in for another East Final birth is
now unsure of its playoff future.Last year's Grey Cup champions, the
Hamilton
Tiger-Cats, suffered their fourth straight defeat, 27-24, to division
rivals
Winnipeg on October 20 and are now in a tug of war for the remaining
playoff
spots with Winnipeg, Toronto and a potential Western division
cross-over.
The game featured the first start by Tiger-Cat quarterback, Danny
McManus,
after missing three games with a pulled hamstring.
Though the old addage that a team wins or loses as a team may be true,
the
Ti-Cats' three previous defeats can be directly attributed to the
misfortune
of one man,McManus. A rare and certainly questionable naked bootleg play
by
last year's Most Outstanding Player award winner in the first half of
their
September 30 contest against Montreal resulted the injury rendering
McManus
idle. To make matters worse the Cats' back-up, Cody Ledbetter, was also
sidelined from an injury earlier in the season.
The team turned to recently required Billy Dicken, late of the Arena
Football League, to take the reins of offense. Dicken could not salvage
anything from the second half verses the Alouettes,Dicken promptly threw
one
pick, third stringer Todd Bankhead managed a modest touchdown drive but
the
Tabbies fell 32-16.
McManus could not start Oct.7 in Toronto and Cat fans were hoping a
week of practice would help Dicken and Bankhead against a beatable
Argonaut
team. Instead, travelling Cat fans were treated to one sorry and
unprofessional display of quarterbacking.The Tiger-Cats' league leading
defense kept the game in reach but both Hamilton pivots cost their team
four
turnovers and lost 29-12.
The rematch on Oct. 13 verses the Argos was another horror show for
Hamilton's offense. Under Bankhead, the Cats never mustered any kind of
threat and the usually dependable defense fell prey to a well-prepared
Argo
squad and the Cats lost again.
Despite the team's most recent loss, McManus looked crisp in the second
half as the Cats mounted a comeback after being down 21-3 at the half,
but
was victimized by dropped passes and an uncharacteristic fumble.
Considering what happened in McManus' absence it is now obvious to all
Cat
observers that if team could realize another Cup appearence, it would have
to
be McManus leading the way, McManus or bust.
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