If you’re a member of Ticat Nation who believes in omens, you’re going to love this one

Saturday afternoon in Regina, the 6-3 Hamilton Tiger-Cats, perched in first place in the CFL East, will square off against the Saskatchewan Roughriders (7-1) who are in first place in the West.

The last time that the Tiger-Cats were in first place and faced the first-place team in the West was Sept. 27, 2019 when they flew into another hostile environment to play the west-leading Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who were ranked atop the then-very-competitive West and had not lost at home.

And the Ticats smoked them.

Dane Evans threw for three touchdowns and 359 yards, Speedy Banks inhaled all eight thrown his way, Simoni Lawrence established the single-game CFL record with 17 defensive tackles which still stands, and the defence allowed three measly points in the second half as the Ticats won 31-13 on the way to the best regular-season record in franchise history.

You can’t fairly compare teams or situations from various eras, but like the 2019 team, the current Ticats are finding ways to win, and when they don’t, which has been seldom, they find ways to make it very close. And they are the first Ticat team since that 2019 season, and just the eighth in franchise history, to win six games in a row—a streak that just ended with last week’s overtime loss at home to the BC Lions, which could have easily gone their way.

Because these are a pair of first place teams, there’s a lot of talk within the CFL’s chattering classes that this could be a Grey Cup preview. We’re just at the halfway point, so there’s a lot of tarmac left on that runway, but there can be no denying that these are currently the top two in the league, with two quarterbacks well into their 30s—one of them almost out of his—playing arguably some of the finest football of their careers.

“I think both Trevor and Bo are playing the best football that they’ve played,” Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich says of his own pivot Bo Levi Mitchell, 35, and the Riders’ Trevor Harris, 39.
“It’s a credit to them, it’s a credit to their off-season work, the way they’ve adapted, all the reps that they’ve got. They’re utilizing those and making good decisions with the football.”

Harris has had a league-record 11 straight games when he’s completed at least 70 per cent of his passes and leads the CFL with a 75 per cent completion rate. He is among the quickest in the league at releasing the pass because of his experience and skill at reading defensive formations and coverage nuances. And he can twist and turn out of trouble, occasionally running himself if needed.

Not to mention that he’s got a very solid line blocking in front of him, especially on the right side where guard Jacob Brammer and veteran tackle Jermarcus Hardrick are both enjoying superb seasons.

And, for his part, Mitchell has delivered 21 touchdown passes, the most in the league and has just three interceptions. That’s less than one percent of his passes ending up in the other team’s possession. If he continues that pace through the season’s second half it would be the second-best TD-to-interception ratio in CFL history, behind only Ricky Ray’s 21 to 2 ratio in 2013. And Mitchell’s ever-improving offensive line has done a good job of protecting him, allowing only nine sacks, tied for the league’s stingiest.

Mitchell leads the league in completions, and Harris ranks third in completions with far fewer attempts. He’s played one fewer game, but he also throws less often because, frankly, he’s got massive running-game support with power back AJ Ouellette.

The experienced quarterbacking duo mastermind entertaining attacks which are among the league’s upper three in almost every important category.

Harris has thrown only four picks and ranks third in completions, with Mitchell atop that category as well. Harris leads the league in passing efficiency rating with Mitchell third, and his 17 completions of over 30 yards are good for second, one more than Mitchell’s 16.

Mitchell masterminds the CFL’s most prolific offence, at 28.8 points per game, Harris’s crew rank second just a couple of points back. The two teams are second (Saskatchewan) and third (Hamilton) in net offence, 1-2 in passing efficiency with the Ticats on top, and are top three in fewest sacks allowed.

The game will feature five of the league’s top nine in receiving yardage. Although Kenny Lawler has been heavily double-teamed the last few games, and has had only 10 receptions in the last three (a couple of them have been all-timers), he did corral 82 really tough receiving yards in last week’s overtime loss to B.C. and ranks second in the CFL with 794 yards. Tim White stands fifth at 590 yards and No. 9 Kiondré Smith has 549 yards. Saskatchewan receivers KeeSean Johnson and blazer Dohnte Meyers are ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.

No wonder this is a battle of first-place teams.

Harris’s lightning quick release is a core feature of the Saskatchewan defence, along with the power running of Ouellette, who seems to have also increased his acceleration this season.

“It mitigates pass rush,” Milanovich said of Harris’s rapid delivery. “You have to be closer to your receivers quickly, you have to make quick decisions. It’s a weapon for sure. His ability to get it out and understand coverage quick and get the ball in his playmakers’ hands quickly negates a lot of pass rushing.”

That’s seconded by Hamilton defensive tackle Casey Sayles.

“He might be a bit older in age but he’s got some slippery moves,” Sayles says. “He does that duck sometimes to get away. He can also run and take off so you have to be cautious of it. But you just have to keep rushing at them. At some point they’re going to open up if we’re rushing well and playing well. It’s just a matter of time; so keep going.”

There’s also the matter of Ouellette, who rushed for 96 yards on 13 carries when the Riders came into Hamilton Stadium for the home opener in mid-June and left with a 28-23 victory, the last time the Ticats lost before embarking on their season-altering six game winning streak. He had 98 yards in last year’s Saskatchewan win in Hamilton.

“He’s resilient, a tough guy to get down,” Sayles said of Ouellette whom he knows well because their lockers were right beside each other when they were teammates at Ohio University, “He’s a strong guy; I think at one point last year (Riders’ coach Corey) Mace had to tell him to stop squatting 600 pounds.”

The Saskatchewan running game is one of the differences between these two productive offences and often puts the Riders in short second-down situations. They run for 40 more yards per game than Hamilton does, although Hamilton has been handing off to Greg Bell often enough to have a cumulative effect in the fourth quarter when they’ve been more effective overland. It also helps set up Hamilton’s play-action offence and a variety of looks they can mount off it.

The Ticats offence will have to deal with a stout Riders’ defence which ranks third in limiting opposing offences, first in stopping the run, and second in sacks with 22, nine more than Hamilton. But they also give up more passing yardage than any defence in the league except Edmonton’s, which is odd given that they’ve got cornerback Rolan Milligan Jr., the CFL’s reigning defensive player of the year.

Hamilton’s own secondary has taken a hit this week with the injury absence of shutdown corner Jamal Peters who was hurt against B.C. And Safety Stavros Katsantonis, who’s having an all-star-type season, is a game-time decision. That Ticat pair is tied for second among the CFL interception leaders.

With Peters out, and Katsantonis’s status uncertain until Saturday afternoon, it becomes even more imperative that the Ticats’ defensive line get to Harris quickly and compel him to throw where and when he’d prefer not to.

Weak side linebacker Ray Wilborn, the team’s tackling leader, is also out for this game, as is kick returner Isaiah Wooden, the league’s runaway leader in all-purpose yards. He’d already scored an 86-yard punt return touchdown when he was injured against B.C., and has carried three returns to the house this season; a year in which there have been nearly 29 non-defensive touchdowns, league wide. A large percentage of games have been punctuated by a kick return for a major.

Fleet and compact-tough defensive back Quavian White will return kicks and serve as a backup in the secondary. He was impressive in training with his aggressiveness and outgoing self-belief. He has the confidence of a sprinter, which is no accident because he was a state-level 100 and 200 metre runner in high school in South Carolina.

Kyler Fisher, the rookie who has quietly assembled a very impressive start to his pro career with seven special teams tackles and five defensive tackles at linebacker the past four games, moves up a notch to take Wilborn’s spot at weak-side linebacker.

At weak side cornerback, 6-foot-2 Zamari Walton and his long wingspan fills in for Peters. He was among the best defensive backs at training camp and has continued to impress on the practice roster with some excellent moments in one-on-one coverage against the No. 1 offensive unit. He’s played big-time college ball at Mississippi and Georgia Tech so the enormity of stepping in for a star like Peters, and the loud insanity of the rabid Saskatchewan fans, are not going to be beyond his coping skills.

Sayles and Milanovich both emphasized this week that injuries are part of the game, that all teams—including the Riders who have three top receivers on the sidelines—go through a stretch like the Ticats are in now with a lot of key injuries, including several Canadian special teamers who remain on the injury lists.

All during the practice week the players have seemed to relish the challenge of overcoming their teammates’ injuries and rising to the demands of the potentially distracting din of cacophonous Mosaic Stadium, the shrine of the prairies.

It’s an indication that they’ve earned their way into a mid-season battle of two first place teams. Maybe even a Grey Cup preview.

CATS CLAUSES: Ticat WR Tim White leads the CFL in receptions with 50 and is second in targets … Kenny Lawler has caught passes in 62 games in a row, third longest current streak in the CFL … LB Brian Cole III has 13 special teams tackles, one off the league lead … Ticat punter Nik Constantinou leads the league in net punting yardage and also in the under-rated stat of punts inside the 10-yard line. He has 7 of them, and also kicked his first CFL convert after PK Marc Liegghio was temporarily injured last weekend … Ticat WR Kiondré Smith has four TDs in the last three games, including one in each of them … CFL head statistician Steve Daniel answered a query from Ticats Audio Network’s play-by-play man Rick Zamperin, and confirmed the Ticats had zero penalties last week although a systems glitch recorded it as one. (The one flag thrown vs Hamilton was declined.) The last time a CFL team had zero accepted penalties in a game was Calgary last October and the time before that was 2013. The last time the Ticats had just one penalty in a game was 1986 … DE Julian Howsare made the week 10 CFL Honour Roll as top DL over the weekend games … the Riders have won the last three against Hamilton and six of the last nine … Saskatchewan’s defence allowed just six points in last week’s win over Montreal. The last time they allowed fewer than six was in 2013, when they won the Grey Cup … the Ticats will have to be wary of Rider returner Drae McCray who has a punt return of over 20 yards in each of the last three games … DE Shane Ray has four sacks, all in the last four games … Marc Mueller, the Roughriders Offensive Coordinator, is Ron Lancaster’s grandson and as a youngster spent all his summers around the Ticats practices when the Little General was coach … Riders’ WR Tommy Nield, who spent four seasons in Toronto, was a star for the McMaster Marauders … former Ticat Marquay McDaniel, the Riders’ receiving coach, also coached Nield at Mac … the Ticats had Saskatchewan head coach Corey Mace’s CFL rights but he never played here, as he was dealt to Toronto for Arland Bruce III in 2020.