It was over early - way too early.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats scored 35 unanswered first half points and defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 52-26 Thursday night at Investors Group Field.

It wasn't the result 27,279 Blue & Gold faithful were expecting for the home opener especially after a season opening victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina last Saturday.

The free fall started shortly after quarterback Drew Willy left the game with an apparent concussion after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit from Tiger-Cats defensive end Adrian Tracy with 20 seconds left in the first quarter.

On the very next play, Brandon Banks took Liram Hajrullahu's 43-yard punt and scampered 67-yards for a touchdown.

That gave the Tiger-Cats a 17-7 lead and was the first of four straight Hamilton majors.

In the second quarter back-up quarterback Jeff Mathews plowed in from one-yard out.

Emanuel Davis returned Brian Brohm's interception 35-yards for a touchdown.

And Zach Collaros tossed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Bakari Grant.

"It's tough," said Winnipeg receiver Nick Moore when asked of Willy's injury. "You hate to see anyone go down like that. Brohm was the next guy to come in and he stepped up and played pretty well. That's all you can ask for."

Paris Cotton scored on a 13-yard run with 4:25 left in the first quarter which gave Winnipeg a 7-3 lead.

Cameron Marshall added a four-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds left in the first half.

That cut the Tabbies lead to 38-13.

Former Bombers defensive back Brandon Stewart also recorded a pick-six as he returned a Brohm interception 38-yards for a major with 90 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Brohm had the Blue Bombers final touchdown of the night as he ran in from 16-yards out 2:33 into the fourth quarter.

"Two interceptions returned for touchdowns - that's 14 points on me," said Brohm who completed 16-of-28 pass attempts for 146 yards. "This will be a good learning experience. There will be a lot of good stuff on film to learn from. I'm going to come in here with a growth mindset and try to learn from the mistakes I made and work to get better."

Winnipeg's next game is Friday, July 10th at home against the Montreal Alouettes.


photos by Merle Peters