Argos vs. Ticats always means something: Friday it’s about second place in the East and staying on a roll

They’re a quarter of the way into a month-long stretch against their own division and the Ticats are undefeated.

True, they’re still on the negative side of the overall ledger with opening losses on the road to western teams Calgary and Saskatchewan, but last week’s well-earned 35-17 victory over the favoured Montréal Alouettes, and their vicious front seven was a classic four-point-swinger in the Eastern Derby, which continues in Toronto against the Argos Friday night (Ticats Audio Network, 6:30 p.m.), at home to Ottawa, Saturday, July 12, and then in Ottawa, July 20.

Those are all important games and could easily shape the final standings in the East, but of course there’s something a little more relevant about playing the Argos, even in Toronto.

Both teams are coming off strong wins powered by defence, special teams and the heavily sought-after complementary football. The Ticats scored two defensive touchdowns against Montréal, the Argos had special teams and defensive touchdowns in beating Ottawa 29-16, and won their first game of the season.

So the Ticats, Argos and Redblacks all have one win as they try to track down the 3-1 Alouettes.

“You get a chance to play a team in the East it’s a chance to leap-frog someone, just knock somebody else down a peg on the leaderboard,” said Ticat quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell whose game management was mostly pinpoint against Montréal as he reached 100 career wins as a starter in the fewest games in CFL history.

“So obviously you want to go out and get two points, any way, but a win against an East team, there’s more value to it. Absolutely, it’s important. 0-and-one, and 0-and-two, I don’t think a lot of people had us winning that game last week, so I think we set a precedent of who we can be when we play good football.”

Montréal’s 226 yards of offence—with just 38 of those off the rush—were the fewest a Ticat defence has surrendered since the final game of the 2023 regular season, also against the Als. The Ticats had been vulnerable to teams that run the ball with authority, but showed secure tackling and defensive line stoutness against Montréal, and will now face an Argos team that ranks last in running, despite the presence of veteran power back Kevin Brown.

But even without injured quarterback Chad Kelly, they’re definitely a serious threat in the passing game, behind pivot Nick Arbuckle, the ninth-year CFLer who is the reigning Grey Cup MVP.

And he’s got a chorus of outstanding hands to target in DaVaris Daniels, Damonte Coxie—whom many regard as the best possession receiver in the league—and Canadians David Ungerer III, the former Ticat, Dejon Brissett, and sophomore Kevin Mital, who has caught 19 of the 20 balls thrown his way.

“He lit it up pretty well (60 yards, more than half after the catch) last week,” Ticat boundary cornerback Jamal Peters said of Mital. “He’s a physically big guy and you can tell he cut down on weight from last year. He looks more explosive. He reminds me of (Blue Bomber) Nic Demski.”

Peters made a great play for one of the Ticats’ two interceptions against Montréal and was integral to a defence which tackled with far more confidence and moved to the ball much more quickly than they had in the opening two games.

He spent his first three CFL seasons with the Argos before signing with Hamilton last year and always seems to be on the right side in the oldest sustained franchise rivalry in all of pro football. His Cats swept the three-game regular-season series against the Argos last year, after Hamilton had dominated with six straight wins over the Argos heading into 2024. This is not his first Blue Rodeo, and he says his Argo association “is past tense now,” but “I still always have a chip on my shoulder when I play them.”

With that chip, he reflects the fan base that is now his. A large contingent of Ticat supporters is expected to congregate at BMO Field, and the Ticats are encouraging them to get together with fellow fans and team staff for a pre-game at Fox and John’s Restaurant in Liberty Village, just across the GO tracks from Toronto’s home field.

Once inside the stadium they will see some of the most dynamic receivers in the CFL, two of the punters in the league and a pair of defences on the ascendancy.

“They switch people, they lose people, but it seems like they’re still able to hold the core values of what their defence is and what they can do,” Mitchell says of the Argonauts. “I think a lot of that does come from (head coach Ryan) Dinwiddie as well.”

The Argos will be without linebacker Wynton McManis, one of the best players in the league, but they have a stingy, angry front seven, and their secondary is aggressive, although they can be probed with the deep ball.

“They try to keep you in front of them, and they do a great job of keeping their eyes on you,” Mitchell said.

Toronto’s sophomore American safety Derek Slywka is coming off a unicorn game against Ottawa in which he became the first player in CFL history to score a touchdown of at least 100 yards on both defence (a fumble recovery) and special teams (missed field goal). It was only the fifth time ever that a CFL player had more than one 100-yard play in a single game. One of those was Ticat great Earl Winfield, who returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns of 100 yards on Labour Day, 1988. That was of course against the Argos, so maybe there’s a little karma in that.

The Cats need to continue the commitment to the run, which they used 20 times against the Als, and they’ll have tailback Greg Bell in the lineup after he missed last week. His replacement, Johnny Augustine, had an outstanding all-purpose game blocking, carrying the ball and swinging out for passes so the Cats have lots of backfield depth in this one.

But they’ll again be without free agent acquisition Drew Wolitarksy, who was ready to play his first game as a Ticat, but incurred a slight injury Wednesday and will have to wait. Tyler Ternowski, who made two brilliant plays on special teams last week, will fill the role with Brendan O’Leary-Orange returning from injury too.

“It’s a good thing we’ve got depth at Canadian receiver,” said head coach Scott Milanovich.

The Argonauts are strong up front, paced by first-year CFL defensive end Andrew Chatfield Jr., whose five sacks leads the CFL. The Argos as a unit also top the league with a dozen pivot takedowns. And their linebacking corps, anchored by veteran Cam Judge and Isaac Darkangelo, works in tandem with the front four to present a firm challenge to the Ticats’ blockers, who showed marked improvement last week.

For the most part, the Ticat offence has been exemplary at hanging onto the ball, with only one lost fumble and one interception, the fewest in the league in both categories. The Argos have thrown six interceptions which could carve a nice dovetail joint for the Cats, who rank second in the league with five picks.

Hamilton’s defence, markedly more aggressive, will be looking to continue its improvement.

“We weren’t consistent defensively early, in the first couple games,” says Ticat defensive coordinator Brent Monson.

“And we’ve found more consistency. That’s when plays happen; when you’re just doing your job, focusing on that play. And it just worked out in our favor against Montréal.

“Toronto is a good football team. I always respect what they do offensively. They’re well-rounded. They run the ball well. They can throw the ball deep. They run the perimeter screen game well, they move the pocket like anything. They do it all and they do it all very well.

“It’s not overly complicated, but they’re sound in what they do. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re locked in on every play and make sure that we don’t give up the big ones and make sure we physically take it to them.”

It was a physical game last week and it’ll be a physical game next week against Ottawa but it is likely to be extra physical in Toronto this week because history has a way of working its way from the memory onto the playing field.

CATS CLAUSES: Ticat WR Tim White’s nine catches last week were his most since he inhaled 11 in August of 2022 … Ticat PK Marc Liegghio has the CFL’s current longest successful field goal streak: 23 straight dating back to last year, including 8-for-8 this year … Bo Levi Mitchell needs just 90 passing yards to reach 40,000 for his career and needs 624 more yards this year to move into the all-time top 10. He also carries a 12-for-12 completion streak from last week into this game … the Argos’ Nick Arbuckle (1110 yards) and the Ticats’ Mitchell (887 in one less game) are ranked 1-2 in the league in passing yardage. Arbuckle leads the league with nine completions of 30 or more yards and was 5-for-6 last week against Ottawa in passes over 20 yards … The Ticats are 143-106-2 all time against the Argos but an even .500 (62-62-1) in Toronto … Scott Milanovich is 3-0 as a head coach against his old team, the Argos … Argos WR Damonte Coxie has the league’s highest yards-per-catch rate at 20.6 while the Ticats’ Kenny Lawler leads in reception-yards-per-game with 92 … Friday’s two Australian punters, Hamilton’s Nik Constantinou (49.4 yards) and Toronto’s John Haggerty (49.1) are challenging for the league lead in average punting yardage, about a yard behind the top two, Cody Grace of the Elks and Carl Meyer of the Lions … No other teams go to the pass more often than Hamilton (73 per cent) and Toronto (72 per cent) … the Ticats will have faced two backup quarterbacks in a row in McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Nick Arbuckle but that’s not unusual this year as 15 different quarterbacks have made starts and No. 1 pivots have been available for only 61 per cent of the offensive plays … all 16 games this season have been won by the team leading after the third quarter … exactly half of the most recent 24 Toronto-Hamilton games have been decided in the final three minutes.

The team’s Depth Chart for Saturday’s game can be found below.