Tiger-Cats deliver team game, build momentum from defence-driven first win

When you play complementary football … you’re going to get compliments.

So take a bow, Hamilton Tiger-Cats; you deserved this one. Top to bottom. You needed it too.

There were enough positives in the Ticats’ three-phase 35-17 home win over the previously undefeated Montreal Alouettes Friday night that it’s hard to decide exactly where to open with the kudos.

But we’ll stay on brand: it was Hometown Heroes night and among the many black and gold highlights was the play of Windsor-born rookie Devin Veresuk, whose CFL team as a youth was the Ticats, Welland’s Johnny Augustine, who grew up in the Cats’ catchment area, and Hamilton born-and-raised Tyler Ternowski.

Additionally, in a town that relishes tough defence like it’s one of the four food groups, the Cats defence absolutely set the tone—in the key of B-sharp—with two defensive touchdowns and the kind of secure and confident tackling which had been only theoretical in the two losses to open the season. But after a week of hard, innovative drills concentrating on finishing tackles, all three layers of the defence responded by morphing into human Velcro. There was a swagger to them that seemed natural and unforced, and it was contagious across the rest of the team.

“Coming off a win any time, no matter what, feels great, but first win of the season, that’s a momentum starter,” said Ternowski, who made two pivotal plays, snaring an 11-yard catch-and-run from Nik Constantinou on a daring fake-punt in the third quarter, and crushing Montréal returner James Letcher Jr. at the seven-yard line late in the fourth quarter after a soaring Constantinou punt. On the very next play, veteran defensive end Julian Howsare recovered Als’ quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson’s fumble for a touchdown to put the game wholly out of reach at 32-17.

“So now the ball’s just rolling,” Ternowski continued. “The locker room knows what it feels like to win now and we’re just going to hold on to that.

“A great punt by Nik, the best punter in the league. It’s easy to cover when the ball is hanging five seconds in the air like that. That’s why I was so hyped after the tackle. I knew that was the nail right there.

“That was a great team win. Our defence balled out, the offence made plays when we needed to make them, and special teams made our plays. Obviously, we have stuff to fix but I think we played well in all three phases.

“And Devin makes his first pick-six. That was a momentum switcher.”

That would be Veresuk and like so many things in the reality show that is live pro sports, you could not make this up. Two days earlier he’d been named as the starting middle linebacker, after the club released veteran Kyle Wilson. It was just his third pro game, coming a mere two months, almost to the day, after the Ticats selected him second overall with a surprise pick in the Canadian Draft.

All he did was earn the game ball with eight defensive tackles, a special teams tackle, an assist on a sack, and drop back to cover the middle on many plays which nullified Bethel-Thompson’s first option. And, of course, the signature moment of grabbing a deflected pass and speeding 36 yards into the end zone which extended a slim 11-7 Ticat lead to 18-7 late in the third quarter.

“The ball just happened to magically appear in my hands and thank God I didn’t drop it,” Veresuk said. “I heard one of my teammates say ‘get out of there’, so I just turned around, saw green grass and then started going.”

He’s big and has running-back acceleration and wasn’t going to stop until he crossed the goal line for his first pick-six since he was a Windsor Lancer and put one up against Queen’s.

That ignited the audience of 20,911 but not nearly as explosively as it did the Ticat bench.

“You see stuff like that and you want to be better for that,” Augustine said. “Immediately on offence guys were talking, ‘We’ve got to step up now too.’ You love to see that. And on special teams, too, towards the end and Tyler with that huge tackle to put us in great, great position.”

The veteran Augustine came over from Winnipeg as a free agent  and pointed out that this “wasn’t my first rodeo,” but like Veresuk, it was his first starting assignment for the Ticats.

He carried the ball 15 times for 49 yards, not a high average, but he broke one for 18 yards and made tough possession ground against an Alouettes’ front, which regularly used one more rusher than the Ticats had blockers. And he added 63 yards from three pass receptions for a total of 112 yards from scrimmage, which helped sustain a couple of drives that ate up a lot of important clock time; another improvement in the Ticat repertoire this game.

Augustine had spent the off-season working with a speed-specific trainer and the results have been obvious.

“I hate to say it, I’m still young (31) but those are the things that are going to help me to continue to play longer,” he said. “I’m not going to have 600 pounds on my back ever again. Those days are over. It’s about mobility, pliability and speed training. So I believe those are the things that are prolonging my career and not taking a step back.

“Our game plan was great this week on how we wanted to execute. And I believe the O-line does a great job. Those guys up front make me have faith and I just trusted them.”

Despite the heavy slugging, the Ticats committed to run the ball—they also got successful short swing passes to American running back Treshaun Ward—and the offensive line reacted with by far with their most cohesive and successful work of the season after some communication problems in the two  earlier games.

They blocked well and aggressively against what is probably the most complicated front seven in the CFL. There were a couple of long drives when they were required, which was part of the complementary football that is the team’s—every team’s really—Holy Grail.

“Definitely,” said 6-foot-5 right tackle Quinton Barrow. “We just leaned on them and tried to impose our will when we needed it. I feel like we did what we had to do. We have great leaders on our team and they led us to that win.”

Their synchronized choreography provided the protection for Bo Levi Mitchell’s 100^th win as a starting quarterback, just the 11^th time a CFL pivot has reached the century mark.

“I mean, it’s special,” Mitchell said of the landmark. “It’s awesome to be a part of history. You see some of those names and it’s amazing to be there (with them).

“I’ve played the game a long time but that’s not the reason I still play. It’s just for moments like that right there; being in the locker room and getting to see (Veresuk) grab his first game ball.”

Mitchell started slowly but found his gait and while he finished below 300 yards passing (25-for-31, 247 yards) for the first time in his last five starts, he managed the game well. He took what the defence gave him, which in the first quarter was only Tim White, did not throw an interception, bought a little time on his own with a couple of roll-outs and threw touchdown passes to White and Kenny Lawler. The Als were concentrating on Lawler, which freed up White and, later in the game, Shemar Bridges. Nine different Ticats caught at least one pass.

Mitchell has a lot of weapons at his disposal and praised his teammates for their selflessness, citing White, who caught nine passes for 78 yards, as an example.

“Tim had 20 yards last week,” Mitchell said. “When’s the last time he had 20 yards in a game? He didn’t ever come to me and say ‘I need the ball more.’ That you’ve got to give him more chances. Nothing like that. But you saw tonight he has the ball early, and gets a touchdown and it gives us that spark. You’ve got to be smart.”

The offence and special teams delivered the kind of work that meshes fluidly with a defence which was the game’s North Star.

Admittedly, the Alouettes were without their injured starting quarterback Davis Alexander who missed his first game, ever, at any level of football. And the Als clearly pined for his running capabilities. But although he’s strictly a pocket passer Bethel-Thompson has a winning record against the Ticats, delivers the ball very quickly, did run three times for 19 yards, most of any Al, and has a plethora of talent to catch the ball. But the Ticats made him uncomfortable up front, got good pursuit at linebacker and the secondary, to a man, played like glue.

Thus the Alouettes, who had outgained their opposition by about 100 yards per game going undefeated through their first three, were outgained themselves by nearly 100 yards in this one (309-226).

And the Ticats held the league’s highest scoring team to just three field goals through the first 55 minutes.

“Hopefully this game is a springboard for us,” said Milanovich who made some bold and successful coaching decisions and deserves credit for a creative game plan. “That’s a great team that we just beat. And we need to build on this next week against Toronto.”

The Ticats travel to the Big Smoke to face the winless Argos Friday night. Toronto will be without starting quarterback Chad Kelly for a couple more weeks. The Cats have momentum, have been practicing crisply, and have re-engaged their fans, many of whom will likely make the trip down the turnpike.

“Everything that we can stack, we should use it as motivation,” White said of the appointment in Toronto. “I felt like the team was relaxed coming into this game, that we knew what we wanted to do and we executed. We should go into Toronto and put the best work we can on the football field and I think it’ll continue.”

CATS CLAUSES: Ticat DE Julian Howsare joined Devin Veresuk with a defensive touchdown when he recovered McLeod Bethel-Thompson’s fumble late in the game … Hamilton out-sacked Montréal 2-1,  Howsare and DL Mario Kendricks getting the Ticat sacks and safety Marc-Antoine Dequoy for the Als … Cat LB Brian Cole Jr. had three special teams tackles and a defensive tackle … TE Jevoni Robinson had two big catches for 35 yards but also had a fumble as the Ticats were marching towards a score … Kenny Lawler caught only four passes in eight targets for 27 yards but two of those catches were key second-down conversions … overlooked in all the other positives was CB Jonathan Moxey’s excellent coverage in the first quarter when the Als often came his way … Moxey, Jamal Peters, Stavros Katsantonis and Destin Talbert all had pass knockdowns, Peters also made an interception and DB Dashaun Amos had a couple of hearty hits … WR Tyler Ternowski credited special teams assistant James Tuck and coordinator Dennis McKnight with creating the play which led to Ternowski’s pass reception from Nik Constantinou on the pivotal fake punt play … Tony Gabriel was the Ticats Alumnus of Distinction … McLeod Bethel-Thompson was 24-for-41 for 203 yards with two picks and a touchdown pass to Tyson Philpot … Ticat K Marc Liegghio made his 22^nd and 23^rd consecutive successful field goals and Jose Maltos was 3-for-3 for the Als … Montréal had led at the end of all 12 quarters they’d played coming into the game but didn’t lead after any quarter Friday night … the Ticats are now 15-3 in their last 18 games coming off a bye, including 1-0 this year and 3-0 in 2024.