Self-Assured Tiger-Cats Pick Six—in a Row—With Another Comeback Win

If you must wait out a 73-minute lightning delay—in the other team’s house—you might as well grab a couple of party favours on your way out the door.

So, two more points in the standings for the Ticats—running the total to all 12 points that have been up for grabs since early July—as the Cats won a sixth game in a row for the first time since 2019, this time a 28-24 thriller over the Edmonton Elks on an Alberta Saturday night.

With the kind of impeccable timing which has become a personality trait, the Ticats overcame a vastly improved and hyper-motivated Elks squad. Tim White inhaled Bo Levi Mitchell’s pass with two minutes left to overcome a three-point deficit for the winning touchdown, his second major of the game.

“Once I saw it coming I knew I was going to get in the end zone,” said White, who was once again confident, tough and acrobatic. “It was just a great read by Bo and a great play call, and we had great timing on it. It definitely feels great.

“It was a close game, but being able to grind it out and catch the win definitely feels great.”

The touchdown pass capped another big day for White, and Bo Levi Mitchell—still on pace for the best numbers of his stellar career and moving earlier in the game into ninth place in the CFL’s all-time passing yardage list—and a second consecutive monster performance from receiver Kiondré Smith. He had exactly 138 yards for the second game in a row, scored his third touchdown in two games and has caught 21 passes in the wins at Vancouver and Edmonton.

The Ticats had lots of holes in their repertoire but never let them rip too widely open and the self-faith they’ve been creating was baldly apparent as they began turning the tide, plugging leaks and getting some huge plays in the money moments; not just in the final minutes but throughout the fourth quarter which they dominate more than any other team in the league.

With the score tied 21-21 and Elks starting 2nd and 8 at their own 30 yard-line with a few seconds left in the third quarter, the proximity of lightning forced the players off the field for a CFL-mandated delay that eventually climbed to just over an hour. As the rain fell, the public address system played the usual inclement weather Greatest Hits album: the likes of Live’s ‘Lightning Crashes’, CCR’s ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain?’, Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ and so on.

When play resumed, the Ticats’ defence stiffened before methodically seizing complete control, which culminated in White’s winning grab, preceded by a massively important interception by Stavros Katsantonis. After the go-ahead score, Jamal Peters’ huge tackle stimulated a turnover on downs that clinched the win.

At field level you could sense the rising expectation among the Ticats as they made play after play in the last quarter, with different members of the defence, offence and special teams stepping forward.

There were other candidates—including the aforementioned trio, Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo and all-purpose yardage gobblers Isaiah Wooden and Edmonton’s Javon Leake—but our nomination for the best player in this game was Hamilton’s wide-side defensive halfback Reggie Stubblefield, who four games ago, returned to the lineup after 400 days on the sidelines to play his first game for his new team. The Ticats have won all four, which means that combined with the Als’ long winning streak when he was in Montréal, Stubblefield has started in 13 victories in a row.

Saturday night, he tied for the team lead with six tackles, many of them when he burst forward to the line of scrimmage. One of his takedowns was a key tackle for a loss, while he added a critical pass knockdown and a key sack of Fajardo. It was a superb outing and underscores the incremental improvement in the secondary, although they did uncharacteristically surrender way too many 20-plus-yard receptions to five different Elks receivers.

“First and foremost, I just have to thank the whole organization,” Stubblefield said. “This is kind of what we’re built on: toughness; the belief that no matter what happens, we can come back and also doing it for Ted (Goveia, GM); doing it for my brothers, every guy in the locker room.

“Our defence knows we could have started off better, but when things mattered the most, we figured out how to win again. We’re pleased with the finish, but I know there is more work to do, particularly with myself. I played solid for a bit in the first half, and then mentally I told myself I’ve got to take it up another notch. There are a lot of things I’ve had to battle: the injury and coming into the year not having a training camp or a pre-season, so I just got back into my zone, into my next level, which is tenacious.”

The defence again gave up a touchdown on the opposition’s first drive, set up by the special teams struggling to control Leake on the opening kickoff. By halftime, the Elks, who came in with the league’s least productive offence with just over 300 yards per game, had amassed 277 yards, with Steven Dunbar, Jr., Kurleigh Gittens Jr, and Kaion Julien-Grant finding the gaps and Fajardo finding them.

“We missed tackles early, right across the board,” Stubblefield said. “You’ve got to give credit to Edmonton, a team that was so desperate for a win, for really fighting too. We have to understand that and start faster. In the second half, our mentality changed, and we got to it: you saw that it was a difference out there.

“I have to give credit to Cody for knowing what our defence was in. Cody and I won a Grey Cup together. We talk a lot and we’re proud of each other. Schematically, they had some good plays, they caught us in a couple of man-to-mans with some over routes and crosses, but once it mattered the most, we tightened down and we figured it out.”

Fajardo did not have an incomplete pass until his 18th attempt, his second throw after the teams returned from the weather-related break.

Mitchell and head coach Scott Milanovich both minimized the effect the lightning delay had on either team, outside of perhaps giving the Cats a bit of a mental coaching rest and some time to make a couple of tweaks, but those tweaks, especially on defence, had already been made.

From the outside, it seemed to give the Ticats a physical breather.

“It really didn’t, though,” Stubblefield said. “Right before the delay, we were about to take it up another notch. We definitely were. They were in second-and-long right before that delay … so it was starting to turn, and that’s what you saw after the delay.”

Mitchell completed 30 of his 42 passes for 350 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions. It took him only 52 seconds after Isaiah Wooden’s opening 75-yard kickoff return to find Smith for a 24-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead. In his last five games, he’s thrown for 14 touchdowns with just two interceptions. He also rolled, spun and darted to keep plays going and allow his receivers to revert to scramble-play mode.

“He’s doing a great job of moving in the pocket, not taking sacks, making great decisions with the football, making the big plays when they’re there,” Milanovich said of his quarterback. “He’s playing the best football I’ve seen him play, and he needs to keep it up.

“We need to run the ball better than we did tonight. But we won the turnover battle. And as long as we do that, we’ve got a shot.

“We were aggressive (in the second half). We knew we had to lock them down. We weren’t playing our greatest, really, in the second half offensively. But then, when Stav got that pick, it kind of jump-started us for enough plays to win.”

Mitchell, who passed Doug Flutie into ninth place on the all-time yardage list during the second quarter, said just missing a long completion to Lawler that hit Edmonton cornerback Tyrell Ford in the head “would haunt me for a little bit,” but he agreed that each game the team is adding to its already-high confidence level.

“Man, just resiliency, continuing to believe, build the belief in the locker room no matter what happens, where we are in the game, up, down, or whatever,” he said. “There’s a lightning delay trying to take away the momentum. But we’re finding a way to win, and it’s different people, different groups, every time. When it matters, we’re playing complementary football. Stav’s plays, driving down there, scoring the touchdown. Good cover on the special teams side and then the defence finishing the game.

“I was happy with myself, taking care of the football, making sure I’m not putting it in their hands.

“And the O-line, the way they played; the running game wasn’t there early, but, you know, we kept at it.”

The Ticats’ compressed summer schedule continues with a short turnaround to play the B.C. Lions at Hamilton Stadium in the Wall of Honour Game Thursday night. Then they complete this four-game turn through the West in Regina nine days later.

With the win, the 6-2 Ticats moved two points up on second-place Montréal in the CFL East, and are now eight full points ahead of Ottawa and Toronto. They beat the Alouettes, Argos and Redblacks (twice) in sweeping the East over the first four games of this torrid streak and have won two late heart-stoppers in a row in the West, rallying behind Mitchell to edge the Lions in Vancouver with 16 seconds left last Sunday, and dissecting the Elks on a textbook late drive Saturday. And, of course, the Lions will be seeking retribution for that this Thursday.

With two road wins in seven days on their two longest trips of the season, the Ticats have also steadily climbed into the second-best record in the entire league, just one game behind Saskatchewan’s 7-1. It makes the trip to Regina even more meaningful as they try to avenge a loss to the Riders in the Cats’ home opener, the last time the Cats tasted defeat….anywhere.

“As a team, I feel like we just kind of keep our composure throughout the whole process,” said White. “Late in the games we just say, ‘We’ll finish!’ But there’s a lot of things we want to get better at….and we’ll do that.”

CATS CLAUSES: Ticats’ Isaiah Wooden, the league leader in all-purpose yards added 208 more, on 5 punt returns for 69 yards, one of them for 35 yards, 5 kickoff returns for 129 yards and a 10-yard reception off a Bo Levi Mitchell shovel pass … his Elks counterpart Javon Leake compiled 192 yards off punt and kickoff returns and 29 yards rushing from scrimmage … Kiondré Smith had 138 yards on seven catches including a 50-yarder, plus a TD … Tim White caught all seven balls thrown his way for 78 yards and his two majors … RB Greg Bell caught 4 passes for 36 yards and rushed 13 times for 55 yards and a TD … WR Keaton Bruggeling had 3 catches for 19 tough yards … Kenny Lawler had four receptions in traffic for 28 yards … Reggie Stubblefield and LB Devin Veresuk led the Ticats with six defensive tackles, while Stavros Katsantonis and Jamal Peters had five apiece … Brian Cole and Trevor Hoyte each had two special teams tackles … Hoyte had to replace long-snapper Gordon Whyte after he was injured, one of five Canadian Ticats who were injured and removed: Whyte, Bruggeling, Veresuk, Tyler Ternowski and Patrick Burke Jr. … the Ticats did catch a couple of breaks: late in the game Elks WR Kaion Julien-Grant had a ball bounce through his hands at the goal line; and late in the first half Elks short-yardage QB Cole Snyder appeared to plunge in to give them a 21-14 lead, but the Command Centre replays showed that LB Ray Wilborn had brought him down just short of the goal line. On the ensuing 3rd down DB DaShaun Amos stopped Snyder cold with muscular help from Peters … the Ticats have won their last six games in Edmonton … Edmonton QB Cody Fajardo lost for just the second time in eight career starts against the Ticats but had a solid game, going 20-for-25 for 257 yards, mostly in the first half, and one TD and one pick … Elks RB Justin Rankin rushed for 69 yards and caught seven passes for 64 yards … Kurleigh Gittens Jr. had five receptions for 61 yards and former Ticat Steven Dunbar Jr., had four catches for 62 yards … DB Kondell Jackson had the Elks’ only sack … LB Joel Dublanko, replacing injured Edmonton star Nick Anderson led the vigorous Edmonton defence with nine tackles, most in the game … with 10 minutes to go Edmonton punter Cody Grace alertly recovered his own short kick which took a weird bounce away from Wooden and back to the Australian kicker. That led to the go-ahead 24-21 field goal—Edmonton’s last points