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Rick Zamperin: How have the Ticats suddenly become toothless?

Tiger-Cats quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has engineered just three touchdown drives in Hamilton's last three games, all losses. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch

Thank goodness the Hamilton Tiger-Cats reside in the CFL’s East Division.

The suddenly toothless Tabbies are now 2-4 on the season after a lifeless 21-15 loss against the East-leading Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday.

Toothless, at least on offence and special teams.

Hamilton’s defence held up its end of the bargain against Trevor Harris and the Redblacks, holding them to zero touchdowns. But rookie kicker Lewis Ward tied an Ottawa record with seven field goals, enough to propel the Redblacks to a 4-2 record.

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The Cats’ record is worse than all five teams in the West Division and they are ranked seventh in the nine-team Canadian Football League. If the CFL ever went to a one division format, we’d likely see a West vs. West Grey Cup every season because the western teams have dominated play over the last number of years.

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Jeremiah Masoli threw for more than 300 yards again (352 to be exact) but he managed only one touchdown toss with one minute 46 seconds to play and took two sacks at the end of the game that snuffed out any chance of a Hamilton win.

The Ticats offence is in a fog right now. The big-play ability we saw from this team in the last half of 2017 has evaporated, their run game is in tatters and Masoli is not engineering enough touchdown drives. If you’re keeping track, Masoli has engineered only three TD drives in Hamilton’s last three games — all losses.

Despite having game breakers Brandon Banks and Chris Williams, the team is staying with Frankie Williams on punt and kick returns, and kicker Lirim Hajrullahu just played his worst game of the season.

On deck for the Cats is the 1-5 Montreal Alouettes.

Hamilton can’t lose to the sad-sack team they just traded Johnny Manziel to, can they?

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