Tillman Out as Eskimo GM

The off-field moves continue as we head into the final couple of weeks of CFL action in 2012. First, the Blue Bombers announced the return of Tim Burke (and Joe Mack) for 2013 and now the Edmonton Eskimos, a week before they play the Toronto Argonauts in the East Division Semi-Final, have fired general manager Eric Tillman.

The timing seems a little odd, but this seemed like a move that was going to be made sooner rather than later. After the blunder that was the Ricky Ray trade, the clock was ticking on the Tillman era in Edmonton. He gambled and pretty much lost. The Argos may not have ripped up the league with Ray, and Edmonton did make the playoffs without him, but is their really any doubt who won that deal?

Now the speculation will start up as to where Tillman will land (because with his three Grey Cup rings as a general manager, he will land somewhere). Some say Ottawa and others say Toronto. Dave Naylor squashed the Ottawa part by saying the expansion Ottawa team will not want to look to the past – Tillman was the Renegade GM from 2002-2004 – for their general manager.

The Toronto rumour was slightly squashed by Naylor, but not entirely. he said he spoke to Argo president Chris Rudge and that they haven't had any discussion about hiring Tillman. That doesn't mean that aren't having those discussions right now, just that they hadn't when Naylor talked to Rudge. There are rumours that Jim Barker will not return as Toronto's GM, so Tillman would be an obvious replacement. But if Tillman somehow lands in Toronto, the Ray deal begins to look highly suspicious. I'm not one prone to believing conspiracy theories, but the optics of the Argos hiring Tillman just a year after he gift wrapped Ray to them wouldn't be good.

There is also another team, one near and dear to my heart, that is kind of in the market for a general manager: the Ti-Cats.

Tiger-Cat president Scott Mitchell said in Septmeber that Bob O'Billovich would be leaving his post as VP of Football Operations before the start of the 2014 season. Teh rumours of Obie retiring have come up the last couple of years, but a GM with the the success of Tillman could make the Ti-Cats move up their succession plan. Tillman's track record is impressive, three Grey Cup wins in 14 years as a GM with four different teams. Tillman does make some curious moves – such as trading Ray and, prior to that, trading reigning MOP Kerry Joseph in 2008 – but his Grey Cup rings speak for themselves. While I am not 100 per cent sold on Tillman being the guy to run the Ti-Cats, the team could do a lot worse than him in picking the man to replace Obie.

Wherever Tillman ends up, I don't expect him to be out of work for very long. We'll probably know sooner rather than later where Eric Tillman will cal his football home.

Five Ti-Cats Named in TSN Player Poll

One of the few bright spots in an otherwise miserable season continues to get praise heaped onto him. Chris Williams was named the fastest player and the biggest threat to score in TSN's third annual CFL player poll, released earlier today.

Williams finished with 57 per cent of the vote for fastest player and 68 per cent of the vote for biggest threat to score. Williams' blazing speed help him set a CFL single-season record for return touchdowns and he scored 17 total touchdowns in 2012, which set a single-season Tiger-Cat record.

Chevon Walker, Avon Cobourne, Henry Burris and Dave Stala also made the list. Walker finished second to Williams in the fastest player category and second to Nik Lewis in the toughest to bring down category. Cobourne finished behind Dwight Anderson for biggest trash talker, Burris finished fourth for most accurate passer and Stala finished third in the best hands category.

While this does little to take away the sting of last night's season-ending loss to the Argos, it is a little bit of good news on what is an otherwise painful Friday for Tiger-Cat fans.

Toronto 43, Hamilton 40

So it's over. Thursday's 43-40 loss to the Argos ends the season for the Ti-Cats. It's a disappointing end to a very disappointing season, but if we're being honest, this team really deserve to make the playoffs. I would have cheered them if they did, but being eliminated now let's us all reflect and admit that this team, this 6-12 team, just wasn't good enough. Wherever you want to place the blame – be it on the defense, Burris' turnovers, Cortez's decision-making, all three or something else entirely – the team as a whole just wasn't the team we thought it would be when the season started.

It's hard to look at positives in a game that ended the season. No matter what the team did tonight, they didn't win and that was the only goal for this evening. That said, two players who can walk with their heads held high are Chris Williams and Avon Cobourne. Both guys played their hearts out. Williams had over 100 yards receiving and two touchdowns, including his Tiger-Cat record 16th and 17th touchdowns of the season. Cobourne had 98 yards receiving and one touchdown. The running game wasn't working for the Cats, and it pretty much had to be abandoned the entire second half, but Cobourne found a way to contribute.

There are also a lot of people to kick square in the behind as well, and the list is a familiar one in Tiger-Cat losses: Burris, Cortez and the defense. It's hard to kill a guy who puts up nearly 500 passing yards and tosses four touchdowns, but Burris threw another pick six, his third against the Argos this year and fourth overall, and had another fumble turn into points for the opposition. Those 14 points ended up being a big difference in the game. Like most games this season, when Bad Hank reared his head, the team lost.

Cortez also deserves to be raked over the coals as well. His decision to let the clock run down to two seconds before icing the kicker – a lot of good that did – was the cheery on top of his inedible sundae. It was the latest, and final, rookie mistake he made as a head coach. The team lost more than its fair share of games because of coaching mistakes Cortez made, so it is fitting that the final one would literally end their season.

And of course, we end with the defense. I like to consider myself a patient man, and I even like to consider myself a reasonable man even if I let my fandom take over me on more occasions than I'd like to admit, but this final display from a defense that allowed an astounding 576 points was the straw that broke this camels back. To put that number in perspective, it is the most points given up by a team since the Argos gave up a whopping 627 points in 2008 (the Ti-Cats gave up 598 points that season as well). Nothing about the defense worked this season. Nothing. Aside from a couple of decent outings, they simply could not be relied upon. But the worst part of all is that they gave up 36 points (43 total, but seven came off a Burris interception) to the Argos B, C, and D teams. But based on how the unit played all season, it was unreasonable to expect a repeat performance of last week.

So it is fitting that the three culprits behind most of the Tiger-Cat losses this season – untimely and costly Burris turnovers, baffling decisions by Cortez and a horrendous defense – would be the three main reasons behind this final loss.

So now we go into an off-season without a championship celebration in Hamilton. We head into the off-season trying to figure out where it all went wrong. But that is for later; for now, we simply close the book on the 2012 Tiger-Cat season.

Tim Burke To Remain Bombers Head Coach

News out of Winnipeg today is that Tim Burke has had the interim tag removed from his name and will be the head coach of the Blue Bombers next year. Burke took over the job in August following the firing of Paul LaPolice. Winnipeg, who made the Grey Cup last season, was officially eliminated from playoff contention last week.

Burke was a finalist for the Hamilton head coaching job last winter and word is that if George Cortez had not agreed to come to Hamilton, Burke would have been the man to lead the Tiger-Cats this season. Instead, Cortez was hired and Burke remained in Winnipeg as the defensive coordinator until taking over as head coach at mid-season.

There was a slight hope in me that Burke would not be retained by the Bombers and would find his way to Hamilton as the team's defensive coordinator. But the Bombers have played better with Burke and it comes as no surprise that he will be given a chance to shape the team in the way he wants.

So where does that leave Hamilton? A lot of Hamilton's defensive deficiencies have been blamed on first-year coordinator Casey Creehan, but the defense has recently played very well – not coincidentally, players like Bo Smith and Markeith Knowlton have started to get healthy – and that bodes well for Creehan. In a statement I probably wouldn't have made back in the summer, I think Creehan will be back as Hamilton's defensive coordinator next season.

Preview: Tiger-Cats at Argonauts

6-11

8-9

And so it has come to this. With the final week of the CFL season here, the Ti-Cats are in a win or else situation in regards to their playoff hopes. Win and the team will still have a chance; lose and the season is over. But just a win tonight won't suffice; the Ti-Cats also need the Calgary Stampeders (quarterbacked by some guy named Kevin Glenn) to beat the Eskimos on Friday night. So if Hamilton leaves Toronto tonight with a 'W', they live for at least another 24 hours.

The Tabbies catch a bit of a break playing an Argo team with nothing to play for. Toronto knows they'll be hosting the East Division Semi-Final on Remembrance Day and a win or a lose will not change that. In fact, these two teams would meet again for that game if everything falls the Ti-Cats way. The Argos are choosing to rest a number of their starters, including quarterback Ricky Ray, running back Chad Kackert and former Tiger-Cat receiver Maurice Mann. Jarious Jackson will get the start, but will only play about one quarter before giving way to Trevor Harris and Zach Collaros. This will basically be a glorified exhibition game for the Argos. But the Ti-Cats can't get too cocky knowing they will be playing a lot of backups. Those guys are looking to prove to the coaching staff that they have a future in Toronto and will be playing hard.

Last week's emotional final game at Ivor Wynne Stadium ended with a Hamilton win, and a rather convincing one at that. The offense did enough in the early part of the game, but it was the defense that set the tone. The object of much scrutiny throughout the season, the Tiger-Cat defense has stepped their game up considerably the last two weeks. They held Winnipeg's offense in check for almost the entire game last Saturday and even managed to find the end zone themselves. Another defensive performance like the ones we've seen the last two weeks will probably be enough to let the Ti-Cats live one more day.

Expect a large contingent of Tiger-Cat fans to make their way to the Rogers Centre SkyDome for tonight's game. Ti-Cat fans always travel well to Toronto, so this could end up being a de facto home game for the Black & Gold. The game gets underway at 7:30PM.