Simply not good enough: 10 thoughts on Hamilton’s 31-15 loss to the Toronto Argonauts

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats lost 31-15 to the Toronto Argonauts in front of a sold-out house of 24,312 at Tim Hortons Field on Friday night. Below are my thoughts on the game. Coaching questions The Ticats have a coaching problem that extends beyond the X’s and O’s. Hamilton got called for too many men on the […]

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  • ZambonimanM
    2·
    2 years ago

    Glad you enjoyed it! Always nice to see a new person interested in the three down game.

    As for the play you were referring to, it was an onside kick. It’s a low-percentage high-reward way to stay on offense. You usually see it near the end of a game when a team is behind by a touchdown or less, and really needs the ball back because they don’t think they’ll have enough time left to get it back.

    It’s called that because all the players on the kicking team must stay behind the ball (onside) before it is kicked, and this way they can legally recover it. Another part of it is that the ball has to travel at least ten yards in the kick. If a player on the kicking team recovers it after less than 10 yards then that’s a penalty. So the idea is that the kicker will try and kick a real short punt just over ten yards, and towards the sidelines. The kicking team’s players will try and catch up to it while it’s either in the air or bouncing (and they hope it bounces backwards which, of course, often happens due to the shape of a football) and recover it before the other team can do so just past the ten yards.