Ticats just miss seventh win a row as Rourke-Mitchell shootout goes to overtime

Natural leader that he is, Bo Levi took great care to emphasize that while you have to hang onto the ball, especially in overtime, Tim White’s fumble in overtime was not the play that cost the Ticats the game, “It was just the last one to happen.”

But the uber-talented Ticat receiver would have none of that and took it all on his shoulders after Hamilton’s 41-38 overtime loss to the B.C. Lions at Hamilton Stadium Thursday night.  

While he agreed with his quarterback that there were other plays that could have gone the Ticats’ way, he would not excuse his mistake in yet another fabulous piece of entertainment from the CFL’s two Feline Franchises—although ultimately unsatisfying for the sell-out audience of 24,102 on a spectacular day/night which featured the Wall of Honour induction of Miles Gorrell and Shai Rally Day to celebrate hometown Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

But White would not excuse himself. He manned up without prompting.

“Without a doubt there were other plays but I’m a competitor and I absolutely believe that was the one that mattered,” said White who has been tough and reliable as the Ticats were winning six in a row heading into Thursday’s loss.  “In that moment, all I have to do is protect the ball right there and get another play for our offence.”

With the Ticats scrimmaging first in the overtime, necessitated when the Ticats had to settle for a Marc Liegghio field goal on the final play of regulation time, Bo Levi Mitchell—who had caught fire after his offence’s anemic performance in the first half—had bagged one first down then had a pass deflected which White alertly came forward to catch. But he then fought for a first down but Lions safety Cristophe Beaulieu hit him, the ball popped out and ex-Cat DeWayne Hendrix recovered to send the Lions into we’re-going-to-win-it ecstasy. The venerable Sean Whyte guaranteed it with a 19-yard chip shot, his fourth field goal of the game.

White had been one of this riveting game’s glittering stars, with 223 all-purpose yards, 84 on pass receptions, a couple on a run and 137 on kickoff, punt and missed field goal returns, after electrifying returner Isaiah Wooden was knocked out of the game with what appeared to be an arm or shoulder injury. But White was direct in addressing the fumble.

“I tried to fight too much in that situation,” White said. “I just have to protect the ball  and give us another chance at a first down. I feel that is a major situation that I have to be better in. But I’ll continue to fight and give what I can to my brothers and I think that moment is just going to make me better.”

That was the attitude throughout a subdued Ticat locker room as they were certainly unhappy about the loss after it appeared they were on their way to another last-minute victory, but there was also a collective stone-faced confidence that the defeat was not a setback, but rather a growth opportunity.

And from the coaches on down, they refused to make excuses, despite the material being there for it: they had only one practice playing on a short week after a long trip to and from Edmonton, were in their third game in 11 days, and lost the brilliant Wooden after he’d already taken a first-half punt 84 yards to the house. And all-star safety candidate Stavros Katsantonis was put out of the game with an ankle injury too. There were also other injuries.

“The guys fought like hell for four quarters,” said head coach Scott Milanovich. “I’m disappointed we lost. I’m disappointed that we didn’t reward our home crowd for the showing they gave us.

“But I’m not disappointed in the locker room. They played hard, played their guts out. I told them I’ve got to do a better job with the offence in the first half. Each phase of the football team had opportunities to win it. Each phase of this football team, coaches included, have to take ownership in the fact that we didn’t win it and now we’ll come back from this.”

The Ticats had serious difficulty corralling slippery-as-wet-soap Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke who made some outrageous escapes from pressure and threw for 408 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But his one interception, by Ticat defensive end Julian Howsare with under three minutes to play, looked like it might cost his team the game. However, the Ticats had to settle for a field goal off that turnover to lead 35-31 after their drive stalled. 

And the second-half offensive orgy continued in the dying moments after that with Rourke engineering an 81-yard touchdown drive that took only 68 seconds and ended with James Butler snaring a pass for a 38-35 lead. Then Marc Liegghio hit one from 39 yards on the final play to deliver it to overtime.

Butler had another superb game against his former team with 85 powerful running yards and a touchdown and another touchdown on 55 receiving yards, and Rourke found Justin McInnis for 159 receiving yards and Ayden Eberhardt for another 120, plus four other receivers for 20 or more yards.

The Ticats offence had only 61 yards of net offence in the first half, but trailed only 13-7 because of Wooden’s scintillating touchdown, his third return major of the year.

“Offensively, we didn’t do anything,” Milanovich said of the first half. “We came out and went two-and-out. Then we had the big return for a touchdown, so our defence was on the field for a long time. We went-two and-out again. Like I said, I’ve got to do a better job of getting us off to a better start against a team like this.”

The Lions had a bye week which meant they were not only rested, but they had time to innovate and throw in new defensive wrinkles which Hamilton hadn’t seen two weeks ago… when it was B.C. which was the tired team. And the Cats had to play in Edmonton in between but refused to use that as any excuse for several missed chances to win this game.

 Mitchell came out on fire in the second half, with three touchdown passes and 160 passing yards, including Kenny Lawler’s improbable back-shoulder grab that was worth 40 yards and a thousand hours of YouTube hits. It was stylistically reminiscent of Tony Champion’s legendary grab in the 1989 Grey Cup.

After just 20 total points in the first half, the two teams combined for 56 in the second half, plus the game-winning three in OT. In their two games over the past couple of weeks the prolific Cats and Lions have scored a whopping 149 points between them. 

Wasn’t someone opining recently that the CFL games aren’t entertaining enough? Puh-leeze.

With the loss, Hamilton slipped to 6-3 as they just missed becoming only the fourth Ticat team to reach seven straight wins during a regular season. They’ll have to try to start another streak  Saturday night in Regina before they enter a bye heading into the Labour Day Classic.  

The Lions, meanwhile, inched up to 4-5, and have playoffs in mind: either as a third-place western team or as a crossover to the eastern post-season. And they deserve credit for coming into a seriously revved-up Hamilton Stadium and staring down the home side.

This game was partly a case of you do it to them, they do it to you.

As BC Lions fans felt their team had the game in Vancouver locked up two weeks ago when they had taken a late 10-point lead on Hamilton, so Ticat Nation might have assumed that Howsare’s interception late in the game in Hamilton  should have led to a win by their side.

Wrong, in both cases.

“We’ve got to, you know, find a way to get more points there,” Mitchell said of reaping only a field goal from Howsare’s stadium-erupting interception, his third big late-game play in as many games. A touchdown would likely have put the game away, but who knows with the way these two offences were churning up yards and points.

“It’s the CFL, so  there was still a lot of time left,” Howsare said, accurately, of his interception. “We couldn’t finish this one but at the end of the day you learn from the mistakes and the losses and you get better.”

Defensive back Dashaun Amos, who had two excellent knockdowns to prevent an even higher Rourke yardage total, credited the BC quarterback for buying time with his legs and escaping intense pressure time after time.

“There’s a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth right now,” he said, “we expect to win every game. And that’s our standard. So not pulling that one out, it just didn’t feel right for us, you know? And again, I think we had a lot of different chances to win the football game.”

Amos said that Mitchell told the team after the game that they weren’t going to let the narrow loss “discount what we just did. We’re not discouraged. We’re not going to hold our heads down. We just expect to win.”

Later Mitchell expanded on his post-game message to the team.

“We just trust in what we do,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think there’s any panic from this team. And I think the most impressive part is we came in at halftime and the defence is confident, the offence is over there saying we know we’re going to get it. Scott comes over … and starts making new plays. And you see what happens. We scored two touchdowns in the first two drives and continue to move the football.

“It’s a chess match. You might think at some point you have them or they have us, but you’ve got to make the moves to win the game. 

“Just understand that the resiliency doesn’t go away. On five days rest, we face a good team off a bye and you just took them to the final whistle. They gave us every single punch they had in the beginning. Right? So we did a great job of responding to that.”  

It doesn’t get any easier, though, as the Ticats head west for the third time in four weekends to play the Roughriders, who own the CFL’s best record, and will be well-rested after their bye week. And the Ticats will have to get a better jump: because their sluggish start caught up to them in this one.

“You know, you took a punch. Get back up and let’s go for something bigger, right?” Mitchell said of the trip to meet the powerful Riders. “I’m excited about it.”

CATS CLAUSES: Bo Levi Mitchell went 23-for-33 with three touchdowns, no interceptions and 305 passing yards, his fourth straight 300-plus-yard game … Kenny Lawler caught four passes for 82 yards including the brilliant back-shoulder 40-yarder … Shemar Bridges also made an outstanding back-shoulder-catch and had 32 yards … Kiondré Smith was once again tough in traffic with 5 catches, and his fourth touchdown in three games … TE Jevoni Robinson had a 22-yard touchdown reception … a key factor in the game was the Ticats losing safety Stavros Katsantonis to injury. And Marc Liegghio was knocked out of the game for a while before returning, so punter Nik Constantinou had to kick a convert. Reggie Stubblefield was also hurt but came back to play …  Scott Milanovich said the injuries were part of football and pointed to Ottawa being without a large number of players when the Ticats beat them early in the six-game winning streak … Ticat sacks went to Phillip Ossai, who also suffered an injury, and Julian Howsare who had that late-game interception … Kyler Fisher had two special teams tackles …LB Ray Wilborn led the Cats with six tackles … the Ticats didn’t take a single penalty in the game while B.C.’s eight cost them some possible points … not only did the Ticats’ winning streak come to an end, so did two of the six longest consecutive field goal streaks in CFL history when Liegghio missed after 33 straight (he missed two in the game and made three) and Sean Whyte missed to end his streak at 32. He was good on his other 4 including the winner … as well as Justin McInnis’ and Ayden Eberhardt’s 100-plus nights, former Ticat James Butler had 55 receiving yards for the Lions who also got critical receptions from Keon Hatcher (31 total yards), Stanley Berryhill III (23) and Jevon Cottoy (31) … backup QB Jeremiah Masoli had his second short-yardage touchdown for the Lions against his former Ticat team … BC had 514 yards in net offence to Hamilton’s 366 … Patrice Rene had the sole Lions sack.