Tasker welcomes short week following Hamilton’s loss to B.C. Lions

HAMILTON – Football players traditionally dislike a short week, but this time Luke Tasker relishes it.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday night less than a week after a lopsided 28-3 home loss to the B.C. Lions. Tasker said immediately having another game to prepare for mercifully saves them from dwelling upon the past.

“Sometimes it’s a blessing (to have) a short week because if we have a long week, we’re just kind of getting started right now and you still have that taste in your mouth,” the Ticats veteran receiver said. “Terrible loss and then all of a sudden we get right back to work and coming back at home will probably be a blessing in disguise.”

After kicking off the ’16 regular season with an emphatic 42-20 road win in Toronto, Hamilton (1-1) never got on track versus B.C. (2-0). The Lions led 7-2 at halftime, then outscored the Ticats 21-1 over the final two quarters to take the one-sided victory.

Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, who threw for 318 yards and three touchdowns versus Toronto, was 26-of-39 passing for 248 yards and two interceptions against B.C. The Lions also recorded four sacks and held the Ticats to 297 total offensive yards.

Hamilton’s defence allowed just one yard rushing against Toronto, but B.C. was able to run for 127 yards on the Ticats’ unit.

“That’s some of the most frustrating football we’ve played here as a team we felt,” said Tasker, who had seven catches for 70 yards. “It felt so foreign to us, that was so not the way we think of ourselves as a football team.

“So let’s just cut it off and put it behind us an move forward because we know we’re better than that.”

It’s also a short week for Winnipeg (0-2), which dropped a 36-22 decision in Calgary on Friday. The Bombers have been outscored 55-11 through three quarters in their losses to Montreal (21-14) and the Stampeders.

And Winnipeg’s average time of possession — 25 minutes 39 seconds — is last overall in the CFL.

Fortunately, receiver Weston Dressler will play after missing last week’s game versus Calgary recovering from a head injury. Dressler, who spent eight seasons with Saskatchewan, was one of GM Kyle Walter’s big off-season free-agent signings.

Dressler, who had five 1,000-yard campaigns with the Riders, had three catches for 22 yards in Winnipeg’s season opener against Montreal before being injured.

But Winnipeg’s slow start has some fans calling for head coach Mike O’Shea’s dismissal. O’Shea is 12-26 in his third season with the Bombers and is in the final year of his contract.

“We’ve got to win,” O’Shea told reporters in Winnipeg. “It’s every week, right, since the first game I started here.

“You want to win every game. I don’t think the pressure changes.”

Running back Andrew Harris, another of Winnipeg’s big free-agent signees this off-season, feels the Bombers will be better Thursday night.

“I don’t have a doubt in my mind, I think we are a great team,” he said. “We just haven’t put it all together yet.

“We’re going to be better this week and as the season goes along we’re going to continue to get better. As long as everyone has that attitude, that work ethic and with the way we attack meetings and the way we attack practice and the way we get ready for games, that’s going to make the difference.”

But Kent Austin, Hamilton’s head coach and vice-president of football operations, isn’t concerning himself with the Bombers’ struggles.

“We’ve got our own issues, we’ve got our own things to correct,” he said. “Any football team in this league can beat you if you don’t play well, it doesn’t matter who they are.

“We’re focused on ourselves and making sure we’re well prepared to play, that we make the proper adjustments in the game and our guys are focused on the right things and that’s their own performance.”