Friday 21 September 2012

Preview: Tiger-Cats at Blue Bombers

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The Cats head to the 'Peg this week with a chance to get right back into the playoff race and put the final nail in Winnipeg's 2012 coffin.

Hamilton got back on track with last week's systematic beating of the Edmonton Eskimos, but the team will need to defeat the Bombers to make sure last week wasn't just a one-off stop in Winsville. Hamilton is still fighting for their playoff lives and they cannot afford another hiccup.

Winnipeg has lost their last three games by a combined score of 121-27, but sandwiched between the 52-0 loss to the Riders and the 44-3 loss to the Stampeders was a 25-24 loss to the Riders. The difference between the first two games and the last one was that the one-point loss came at CanadaInns Stadium. Winnipeg has actually been a very good home team. Winnipeg is 2-3 at home and there biggest loss at home was by 10 points to Montreal. There other two losses were by a combined four points. Contrast that to their road games and you see that Winnipeg plays much better when they are in their house than when they travel. That makes tonight's game scary, especially considering the Ti-Cats have won just once in their last four trips to Manitoba. Winnipeg has also won five straight total against the Ti-Cats.

The return of Buck Pierce is also something the Ti-Cats should be concerned about. Pierce has played well against Hamilton since signing with the Bombers in 2010 and his return could give the home side a much needed boost.

With Pierce's return and Winnipeg's recent success against the Tabbies, this one has the feel of a game that will be closer than it should be. But all concerns of a trap game aside, if the Ti-Cats play anything close to how they played last week against Edmonton, they should come home with a win. We'll find out if that happens when the game gets underway at 8:00PM on TSN.

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