With offensive explosion against Argos behind them, the Ticats are already locking in on next East opponent

This is a measure of how the Ticats want to conduct themselves.

Coming off the franchise’s first 50-point outburst in six years and 12 days, they celebrated for one heady evening, and by today were looking straight out the front window and not in the rearview mirror.

And what they see is their next East Conference opponent—twice—not the arch-rival Toronto Argonauts whom they de-oared 51-38 Friday night in Toronto, behind the masterful pitch-and-catch battery of Bo Levi Mitchell and Kenny Lawler.

And those were only two of the big-time contributors as the Ticats moved to 2-2 on the season. Both wins have been registered against Eastern Conference teams, first-place Montréal and now Toronto, which had been feeling pretty good about themselves coming off a tenacious win over Ottawa but who are now left wondering ‘what happened?’

What happened was a Ticat offence that had a bit of everything and a lot of some things, resembling exactly how they were drawn up on paper and then coached toward, during increasingly strong practice weeks. And a defence which was leaky on the game’s first drive then tightened like a tourniquet. And special teams and kickers who owned their craft, a very confident kick returner who looks ready to join the long, long line of dynamos who had the job before him, an offensive line which did allow two sacks but also dominated for long drives against one of the toughest front sevens in the league, and determined touchdown catches from a pair of Canadians—Tyler Ternowski and Kiondré Smith—which came amid so much violently heavy traffic there should have been a crossing guard on the scene.

“All wins matter,” Smith said after the game. “The ones over the East are just a little heavier.”

And oh how heavy this one was. Start with Lawler, the Ticats’ biggest free agent signing: he had 207 yards in receptions on just six catches, is averaging about just over 120 yards receiving per game (the only one in the league so far over 100 per), had two touchdowns in the first quarter and three overall. Four of his catches were for 30 yards or longer and one was on a pole-vault jump ball which Bo Levi Mitchell put where only Lawler could get it…which he did. They’d been working on that kind of play all week…and even in last week’s win over the Als, although only one of the deep throws connected in that one.

“It’s why he’s the highest paid receiver in the league, right?” said head coach Scott Milanovich, whose offensive game plan was close to impeccable. “We’re glad to have him. You never know for sure if you get the right coverages, you think you have a shot. So we just tried it a couple of times and Kenny made plays.”

Mitchell, who hadn’t had a five-touchdown game as a pro until he did it in Edmonton just shy of a year ago, had five in this one and said he and Milanovich are increasingly understanding each other’s wants, needs and strengths although it’s hard to imagine how it gets better than it has been. Milanovich said it was the best he’d ever seen Mitchell, who went 19-for-24 for 332 yards, the 31^st time in his Hall-of-Fame-bound career that he’s gone over 300, completed a critical 67 per cent of second downs and had a 79 per cent completion rate.

And again, he did not toss an interception.

“The game plan that was put in today, just felt like it was built for us,” Mitchell said. “It allows us to be who we are on the ball, force a team to come down and play us. You leave our guys one-on-one it is going to be a tough night. So what I saw was 89 (Lawler) one-on-one, multiple times. And that’s not a good decision. Kenny had a special night, that’s what he is.

“I just put the ball when the defender’s not looking at you, into a place where your receiver can see it and he can’t. (Lawler) is special at tracking the ball the moment it comes out of my hand.  He understands if it’s going to be short, if it’s going to be long, if it’s going to be high. I think that’s very special, very underrated: receivers being able to track the ball early out of the quarterback’s hand.”

The Ticats’ special teamers had been concerned about their coverage on kickoffs recently—their only real shortcoming—and did yield a 93-yard return for a major in the third quarter by the electric Janarion Grant after he took a lateral from Kevin Brown which completely bamboozled the Ticat coverage.

But Ticat Isaiah Wooden Sr. matched that in impact, if not in yardage, by running an Argo kickoff back 86 yards for a major in the fourth quarter with the Argos still hanging in, down only a dozen points. That put the game out of reach and lifted the Ticats to 50 points for the first time since they won 64-14, also at BMO Field in June of 2019. It was his second kickoff return of the season, after a 105-yarder on opening night in Calgary.

Wooden had 264 yards in punt and kick returns and, aside from the touchdown, his biggest play was one that will likely be overlooked given the gaudy numbers that were all over the field—including some for the Argos—Friday night.

After the Argos had closed to within just a dozen points with Grant’s return touchdown, they tried a balloon kickoff that soared high in the air, and a bit short, and five Argos converged on it. But Wooden leapt into the air and snared it, made two tacklers miss, and got the Ticats some good field position. He got nailed on the catch but hung on to blunt the Argo momentum.

It’s tempting to say that we’re watching a star being born.

“No, a star is here, a star has arrived,” the ultra-confident Wooden countered, explaining that his spiritual faith makes him believe he can make things happen on every single play. “That jumping one was kind of crazy; they told me to bat it out of bounds but I saw them coming down so fast I thought I just had to catch the ball and get what I could get. I knew the big hit was coming, so I might as well catch it.”

Milanovich said that although Wooden was with the team at the end of last year, “as far as I’m concerned he’s a rookie, but he’s earning our trust. He’s earning my trust and his teammates believe in him.”

And they certainly believe in Lawler who in turn believes in what the offence has been constructing, brick by brick, although admittedly it’s still early. Often, over the past decade or more, when we’ve referred to “it’s still early” after four games, it’s been about climbing out of a hole. Not this time, though, as the Ticats rose to .500, and 2-0 in their last two games.

Friday, the Ticats looked like the kind of offence they knew was percolating inside of them…for the whole game. An offence which can carry a team, even when it doesn’t have to. Argo head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said that every time his team would mount something encouraging the Ticats would respond immediately. That happened in all three segments—offence, defence and special teams—but it was most evident on offence, particularly in a long, nicely-calculated drive for a touchdown that ate up half the third quarter’s clock before the Argos could get the ball.

“We’ve got playmakers all across the board, man,” Lawler said.  “They can’t double just one of us. I mean, we’ve got a Hall of Fame quarterback. We knew we were going to be a good team and it’s up to us to make it great. So, you know, week by week, that’s what we’re doing.

“I’ve played a lot of games in my career where I had a great game, followed up by just an okay game. It wasn’t my night (last week). Like I said, we’ve got a tremendous amount of talent on this offence and it’s not always going to be me. This game it was a little different, and I’m not going to assume next week is going to be the same thing.”

The Ticats rushed for 100 yards, with Greg Bell carrying 11 times for 48 yards and a touchdown, while adding another 19 on swing passes, and Johnny Augustine pounding for 38 yards on his seven rushes. Short-yardage pivot/tight end/fullback Ante Litre had four rushes for 14 yards.

That’s 22 runs to go with the 20 last week and while this is a passing team—when you’ve got Mitchell you’re definitely going to be a passing team—the run is clearly helping to keep defences guessing.

“Whatever is called we’ll block the best we can,” all-star guard Brandon Revenberg said. “As an offensive line you want to run the ball and you want to get in those gritty games where you control the clock and you run it. But whatever is called, we’re going to block.

The Argos actually opened the scoring on the game’s first drive, marched 65 yards in three minutes for a touchdown and early 7-0 lead but over the next 34 minutes of play managed just another 68 yards of offence. On the first Toronto series after their opening salvo, defensive halfback Dashaun Amos, the former Argo, intercepted Arbuckle, and on the very next play, Mitchell hit Lawler for a 35-yard touchdown and a 7-7 tie. Hamilton never trailed again as they won their fourth straight game over the Argos in two seasons.

“I think it was a three-phase win,” Milanovich said outside a very loudly upbeat Ticats locker room. “I know they had 30-some points and we gave up that opening drive of the game, which wasn’t our defence at its best. But the rest of that half, I thought they played lights out and we were able to get a lead and play with the lead the rest of the game. I think they had two drives in that second quarter starting inside our midfield, and we held them two field goals both times.

“Last  week we had to win a game where the defence was lights out and the offence kind of chipped away. And it’s good to be able to win it both ways.”

But Milanovich, like all coaches, wasn’t fully satisfied and seemed to already have put this one, as mentioned earlier, in the rearview mirror and was looking ahead to what needs to be done in practice this week as a third Eastern opponent in three weeks looms at the end of it.

“Games like tonight don’t come around every week,” Milanovich said. “These are good defences we’re playing. Toronto has a good defence. But every now and then you’re clicking. We need to, I think, perform better than we have, offensively. But, tonight was a good start for that.”

CATS CLAUSES: For the second consecutive week Ticat P Nic Constantinou unleashed a long coffin-corner kick which bounced out of bounds at the opposition one-yard line. He averaged 49.4 yards per punt while the Argos’ John Haggerty averaged 53.4 yards … Marc Liegghio did miss a convert but hit his only field goal to make it 9-for-9 on the year and 24 in a row without a miss over the past two seasons. He also out-distanced former Ticat Lirim Hajrullahu by an average of nearly 15 yards per kickoff but Hajrullahu was 2-for-2 on field goals, both of them from at least 50 yards …  In an extremely classy—and touching—display of camaraderie all of the Argonauts’ coaching and support staff wore double-blue t-shirts emblazoned with Team Ted,  the same slogan the Ticats use on their under-shirts to salute their ill general manager Ted Goveia, who is still handling his day-to-day chores as GM. Goveia was director of Canadian scouting when Scott Milanovich coached the Argos to the 2012 Grey Cup … Tim White had a patient night, drawing some attention away from Kenny Lawler but caught both passes sent his way for 30 key yards on a critical drive … DE Julian Howsare had a sack for the second straight game …Bo Levi Mitchell is now 16-2 in his career against the Argos …  MLB Devin Veresuk had 8 defensive tackles… DB Patrick Burke Jr., and LB Ryan Baker each had two special teams tackles, while single tackles went to Ray Wilborn, who also laid out a hard hit on defence, Branden Dozier, Ante Litre, Trevor Hoyte, Brian Cole II and Kyler Fisher. (Obviously the Ticats had a lot of kickoffs).  Stavros Katsantonis had six defensive tackles …the last time a Ticat receiver topped 200 yards prior to Lawler was Arland Bruce III, who had 277 yards in a loss to Saskatchewan, July 31, 2010 …  LB Cam Judge and DB Mark Milton led the Argos with six defensive tackles … Da’Marcus Johnson and Aaron Casey had the two Toronto sacks … Nick Arbuckle was 27-for-38 for 339 yards, two TDs, and an interception, while rising Argo star Kevin Mital had 104 yards and a TD on eight receptions … WR Damonte Coxie caught five passes for 76 yards and a touchdown …the Argos brought in the world-renowned Burlington Teen tour Band as the half-time entertainment … attendance was 12,701.