That will be then, but this is now, so Bo Levi Mitchell will put aside savouring some of the big numbers until after he’s hung up his cleats.
But it deserves mention that despite not having his best game, by any means—he threw two interceptions and his offence didn’t get a touchdown until the final quarter—in the 33-16 loss to Montréal last Friday,
Mitchell did complete 29 passes for 240 yards and now leads the CFL in passing at 2497 yards. His offence is also ranked No. 1 in the league.
He is still on pace to have the most single-season yardage of his career and he also overtook former Ticat head coach Kent Austin for 12th place in CFL career passing at 36,069 yards. Next up is No. 11 Tom Clements at 39,041.
“Individual stuff, you can focus on that on your own when you retire,” Mitchell said today as his team finished its final full practice for Saturday night’s rematch in Montréal,
“ I think it’s cool we’re on track to have a very good offence statistically but at the end of day we’re 2-an- 6 and offensively we feel we can play better football in order to win more games.
“It’s something I’ll look at later on in life but right now, I’ll keep trying to progress myself and take more steps.”
Asked what he wants to see from his starting quarterback against the Als’ league-leading defence this weekend, head coach Scott Milanovich said, “He’s got to protect the football, first and foremost. We can’t have two interceptions.
“I want him to be great on second down and keep the sticks moving because this is a team that’s going to force you to do that. You ‘ve gotta string some second-down conversions together and, just like everybody, make great decisions and be great with the ball.
“You have to make good decisions and not put the ball in harm’s way, when the situation and the coverage doesn’t dictate that. There are times when we have to be uber-aggressive and maybe try to force them into tight windows. When we’re in the flow of the game and it’ a tight game, especially in the first almost-three quarters, turnovers make a difference. A turnover gave us the lead with the pick six (Kenneth George Jr.) It goes both ways but that’s a game when you’ve got to play mistake-free football.”
The Alouettes’ defence plays deceptively and aggressively and tackles extremely well. One of the linchpins of their success is that they don’t concede the momentum-turning long-distance plays very often. They’ve given up only seven of what the CFL defines as big plays: runs over 20 yards and completions over 30. The Als have surrendered just four of the former and three of the latter. So an average of not even one “big play” per game. It forces the offence to be good for a longer stretch to earn its points.
‘I think they do what they’re good at,” Mitchell said. “You saw last week, that’s who that defence is. They have a lot of good players, they can move them around, trying not to give up anything deep.
“I tried to push the ball downfield when I was pressing a little bit and I can see why they haven’t given up very many: their eyes are deep ; they’re looking forward. You have to be smart and try to catch them one-on-one, not two-on-one and when a guy’s not staring at you down the field. I have to take care of the football.”
Mitchell was encouraged that his team didn’t have a single two-and-out series “which was a huge one for me….for the first part of the year we had way too many two-and-outs.”
He added that the offence need to sustain those drives after a first down or two, but when the advance most past the 50-yard line “you can feel the momentum as a quarterback sometimes when you’ve completed four or five passes in a drive and you’re trying to press for a certain route you feel comfortable with. You pre-determined it and try to put the ball in there and that’s when some of the dangerous ones happen. So do not put the ball in harm’s way when I’m scrambling.”
You can find more from Milanovich and Mitchell on Ticats Today.
