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EDMONTON — This script the supporters of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats already know by heart.
Casey Printers giveth, and Casey Printers taketh away. Jesse Lumsden shows a bit of his speed and power, and then finishes the game on the sidelines, hurt once more.
Still, the Ticats hang in, keep it close, hold a lead in the fourth quarter, seem on the verge of a victory that might get them back into the playoff hunt in the abysmal depths of the Canadian Football League's Eastern Conference.
And then…they lose — in this case, 38-33 to the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium.
Edmonton Eskimos' Calvin McCarty scores the winning touchdown in front of Hamilton Tiger-Cats' Chris Thompson during the second half in Edmonton on Saturday. (Dan Riedlhuber/Reuters)
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There were at least a few novel twists and turns Saturday night — Printers ran for over one hundred yards for the first time during his rocky Tiger-Cat career, and he also personally gifted the Edmonton Eskimos with 14 points, courtesy of two long interception returns for touchdowns by Jason Goss.
And Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray, a questionable starter who perhaps should have taken the day off, had a rough outing of his own, throwing four picks, including one that was run back for a touchdown, and one that was nearly so.
But the final act was absolutely by the Hamilton book in 2008 — a year in which they've managed to be competitive in the final quarter six times, only to lose all six games.
In their first outing under new head coach Marcel Bellefeuille, the 'Cats had hung tough while trailing nearly the entire second half, thanks in large part to a spirited game from the defence, which was minus middle linebacker Zeke Moreno, who was sent to Winnipeg in a bizarre, mid-week trade. (Cornelius Anderson took Moreno's place, and played a solid game.)
In the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Hamilton recovered a fumble by Eskimos' wide receiver Kamau Peterson, and then Printers made the kind of big time play that was his trademark during his first CFL stint with the B.C. Lions, scrambling away from pressure and hitting Scott Mitchell on a catch and run that covered 31 yards, setting up Nick Setta for a 23-yard field goal that put the Tiger-Cats up 33-31 with 2:06 left to play.
And then, in the non-surprise ending, the cool, calm Ray (23-35-355) took over, recovering from a sack to hit a wide open Kelly Campbell with a 35-yard pass over the middle that put the Esks in position to kick a winning field goal, and then handing the ball to Calvin McCarty on a draw play, who broke through the Hamilton line and rambled 21 yards into the endzone to put the game away.
With the victory, Edmonton moved to 7-4 on the season, in second place in the West behind Saskatchewan. The Tiger-Cats fell to 2-9, dropping two points behind the third place Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and remaining four behind the Toronto Argonauts, who currently hold the second and almost certainly final playoff spot in the division.
