Saturday, August 6, 2005

START BELIEVING, BABY!

Renegades rolling at 4-3 with 28-12 win in Hamilton; now tied for first place in CFL East after recording second straight road win

Renegades receiver Jason Armstead hauled in eight balls for 173 yards and a touchdown in a key 28-12 Ottawa win over Hamilton Saturday. With the victory, the Renegades improve to 4-3 and tied for first place in the CFL East Division.

HAMILTON -- If you weren't believing before, start dreaming now, Ottawa fans. In one of the most pivotal games of this young 2005 campaign, your Renegades are making believers out of everyone.

The Renegades are rolling, folks. Believe it, baby. Saturday night was yet another chapter of this unbelievable journey the football team is taking its passionate fans on with a crucial and decisive 28-12 win at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton to improve to 4-3. For only the second time in franchise history, the Renegades have a winning record; they have recorded two consecutive road wins; have victories in three of the last four games and are now tied for first in the CFL East.

Not only that, Ottawa's win plunges the Tiger-Cats to 0-6 in the division.

"In my mind, this team was already special before this game," said Renegades head coach and general manager Joe Paopao after the game. "I am proud of these men. It is a credit to the guys on the field and we earned everything we've got."

Saturday night in Steeltown, 28,822 spectators went home disappointed. The Renegades, meanwhile, savoured the sensation of a victory that has them tied with the Toronto Argonauts for the most wins in the division.

"We want to keep this going," said Jason Armstead, the Renegades lightning quick receiver, who hauled in a career-high 173 yards, while tying a franchise-record of eight catches, including a 69-yard touchdown in the third period. "We said, 'let's get two in a row and keep on going' and now maybe we'll get on television and let everybody know what this team is made of."

It was a win where the Renegades were just plain better on this night than their opponent - but never more than the second half. Overall, the team had more first downs (21-19), more yards rushing (134-84) and passing (340-227), a higher total offence (441-289) and controlled the time of possession by over a minute.

Ottawa also did not commit a turnover. No turnover on downs, zero fumbles and quarterback Kerry Joseph (20-of-27 for 340 yards passing) had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 3:0.

"We have to keep going and keep believing," said Joseph, who also has seven rushes for 85 yards. "For some reason we put it together in the second half. We didn't change anything. We just kept doing what we do with the game plan we had. We just had to make it work."

If anything, for better or for worse, the Renegades were consistent with their offensive output in the first half.

For the second consecutive week, Ottawa put up only two points in the opening two quarters. And, well - for the second consecutive week, the Renegades emerged flying out of the gates after the break with reckless abandon.

With a decisive, seven-play drive after half-time capped off by a Cory Hathaway touchdown reception from six-yards out.

With a forced fumble on the following Tiger-Cats possession on the Ottawa 41, when Troy Davis was stripped by a starved defence that made plays all night.

With the 69-yard touchdown to Armstead, who caught a Joseph ball along the near sidelines and made two moves - one inside, the other to the edge that untied Renard Cox's shoelaces - for a jaunt into the end zone. In the opening 8 minutes and 48 seconds into the third period, the Renegades, who needed a field goal on the final play of the second quarter to tie the issue at five-apiece, found themselves up 19-5 before fans had returned to their seats from a half-time snack.

"For us, our success has been in the third quarter in the first seven games and we played much better offensively (after the break)," said Paopao. "We were not giving up field position and there is still room for improvement, but we are pleased with the outcome."

And even when Hamilton answered with a touchdown to make the game 19-12 in the third, Joseph would not let the Ti-Cats back on the game. Carrying the team on his shoulders, and the ball tucked under his arm, Joseph took a quarterback draw up the middle for a 10-yard rush and then a 22-yard scramble that had another 15-yards added to it when Wayne Shaw had a classless late hit penalty on the pivot when he was two steps out of bounds.

That opening series of the third quarter was a staple of what people have come to expect from this Ottawa football team after the initial 30 minutes. Four pass plays, including a 31-yard strike to Jason Armstead two snaps before the score. Three handoffs to Ranek. A drive that began on Ottawa's 42 had all the elements missing from the hiccups of the first two quarters.

The turnover, the next big play, came on the on a third-and-short Davis run, where the tailback actually passed the first down marker, but linebacker Rob Grant jarred it and D'Wayne Taylor recovered the football.

On Hamilton's next possession, after a Renegades field goal miss, the Ottawa defence was suffocating to open the fourth quarter.

First, Ray Jacobs stuffed Davis in the backfield, dropping him for a loss of a couple. Then, Anthony Collier delivered a key sack (becoming the sole leader league-wide in the category with eight) that led to Hamilton conceding a safety making the issue 21-12 and a two-score game.

Ottawa's opening drive of the fourth quarter was nearly a mirror image of efficiency as the first series of the third period.

The backfield trio of Ka'Ron Coleman, Cory Hathaway and Ranek, rushed and caught their way inside the Hamilton 30 with hard runs and a pair of screen passes that soared the Renegades offence into scoring position again.

Then, Joseph went to his main man, Yo Murphy, who first made a trademark catch - a tough six-yard catch in traffic; then another. On second-and four, the 34-year-old veteran receiver came soaring across the middle to grab the Joseph toss, give a couple of shakes and waltz into the end zone to put the Renegades up 28-12 a minute before the mid-way point of the final period.

"In the second half, we settled down and started to see what we can accomplish when we play well," said Paopao.

Hamilton then, with 7:07 left, gambled on 3rd and 5 at its 45 and a Brady incompletion gave the Renegades the ball at the Ti-Cats 45.

"This whole team's goal, from the head coach, to the guys upstairs, to everyone in this (locker) room, has been looking at the Grey Cup since day one," said Armstead. "The sky is the limit for this team right now. We have to work our craft and stay focused on the plan."

The first break of the game went the Ti-Cats' way following Hamilton's opening series and Ottawa had a bounce go in its favour after the Renegades' opening series.

Tiger-Cats punter Jamie Boreham mishandled a snap and nearly was sacked, but still managed to get off a solid blast. Following the Renegades first offensive set, Ottawa recovered a fumble on the return and took over on the Hamilton 22-yard line.

Fireworks on special teams and the game was less than four minutes old.

The Renegades got a rouge out of the turnover and led 1-0 with 10:36 remaining in the first quarter.

Ensuing possessions were two-and-outs before the Tiger-Cats went on the first real march of the game. Hamilton started on its own 45-yard-line and went on a seven play drive, culminating with a 34-yard Boreham field goal to give the Ti-Cats a 3-1 edge with 2:54 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Renegades attempted to reply.

Renegades quarterback Kerry Joseph was 20-of-27 for 340 yards passing and three touchdowns in the Ottawa win Saturday at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

Kerry Joseph gutted a rushing first down after Ottawa began on its own 35 and the Renegades had their largest offensive play at the time when a play-action end-around fake screen pass to Josh Ranek counted for 24 yards to get into Hamilton territory.

A Tiger-Cats penalty put Ottawa on the opposition's 35 in the final minute of the first quarter, but a minimal Ranek gain followed up by a sack put the Renegades out of field goal range and the opening snap of the second quarter began with a Pat Fleming punt with Ottawa down 3-1.

The low-scoring continued when Fleming, the third-year Kanata native, recorded his first point of the evening on a 47-yard rouge (off a punt).

After avoiding a bad situation on a botched snap earlier, Boreham could not avoid Korey Banks who smacked the sophomore leading to a three-yard punt on Hamilton's next possession.

Ottawa took over at exactly mid-field and did not get positive yardage. With 10:34 left in the second quarter, Fleming angled the ball out at the Hamilton 25.

Hamilton took the ball to the Ottawa 44 (moving the chains once on a third-and-short gamble) before Brady went deep, only to be picked off by Korey Banks - who continues to be the CFL's interception leader with seven.

The Renegades took over on their own 12 with six minutes left in the half with the score still 3-2 before Fleming conceded a safety to make the issue 5-2 with 5:01 remaining before the break.

Collier, two days after being named the Rogers-CFL lineman of the month, busted through for his seventh sack of the season when he tossed Brady to the turf. On the next play, near mayhem broke loose. A 2nd and 18 play for an incompletion was overshadowed by no short of four flags being tossed all over the field during a skirmish in front of the Hamilton bench. When the dust settled, the Renegades were assessed with a roughing the passer penalty and two roughing infractions (one per team) led to ejections for Ottawa defensive tackle Jerome Haywood and Hamilton centre Marwan Hage.

On 2nd and 3, referees ruled what appeared to be an Ottawa interception for Bo Rogers incomplete and a yard shy of mid-field, the Tiger-Cats came on to punt.

The Renegades took over on their own 25 with 2:28 left in the second quarter but penalties set the team back to 1st and 25. The Renegades managed 18 yards of offence on the series, but with 99 seconds left before the half, Fleming came on to punt.

Hugh Smith got nary a return on the runback, getting tossed to the turf on an open field tackle by Gilles Lezi. On the next play, Taylor jammed Davis for a loss of three before Brady threw the next ball out of bounds under pressure with 56 seconds left and Armstead took the punt 22-yards to the Ottawa 52 with 44 ticks on the clock.

On third and two, Joseph plunged for a first-down to convert by an inch at the Hamilton 47. On 2nd and 10, Joseph fired a laser to a wide-open Armstead on the far side of the field for a 31-yard strike. On the last play of the period, Irvin drilled a 23-yard field goal to tie the issue at five-apiece

After Ottawa's two-touchdown explosion out of the half-time speech, the Tiger-Cats did retaliate with a score of their own. Deep in Renegades territory, Brady was flushed out of the pocket on 2nd and goal from the 10, rolled right and a moment before he would have stepped on the white chalk, tossed to an open Julian Radlein in the end zone to cut the lead to 19-12 with under four minutes left in the third period.

While the joy of victory was enjoyable in the Renegades room, the team still looked down the short road of a tight week of preparation. The team hosts Saskatchewan on Thursday, Aug. 11 and after a travel day Sunday have two full days of practice before Wednesday's walk-through on the eve of the game.

"There is a lot of football left. We have to stay humble and focused," said Joseph. "We can't be full of ourselves with two wins on the road, back-to-back."

Paopao agreed.

"We only have four days to get ready for Saskatchewan," he said. "We have so much more football ahead of us and there is room for improvement. We move on, we learn from the win and keep going."