It may seem incongruous—considering that these are the two least prolific rushing teams in the league and are also among the top three passing offences—but the Labour Day Classic could swing around the running game.
The Toronto Argonauts have thrown for the second-most yards per game (320) and run for fewer (52.9) in the CFL and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are third in aerial gains (307) and second-last in rushing yards (52.9).
And, as you probably know, those are the only two teams involved in Monday’s 54th renewal of Ontario’s Labour Day Classic.
“I’ve seen the stats, obviously, and what they’re doing through the air,” Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich said Sunday. “But Ryan (Dinwiddie, Argo head coach) isn’t afraid to run the football. So, I don’t think we can get lulled to sleep and think this is just going to be an air show tomorrow. For me it starts with stopping the run. And we’ll have to get some pressure on them and be where we’re supposed to be in the secondary.
“I’m sure that everybody wants to run the ball more than they do. It’s hard in the CFL sometimes. They’re a little bit like we were last year or in the early part of this season. The games that they haven’t won, they’ve gotten behind and then you’ve got to throw it.
“I expect them to mix it up. I’m not expecting them to throw 50 times.”
Nick Arbuckle, the Grey Cup’s Most Outstanding Player, didn’t need 50 tosses to amass 443 passing yards—the most of his career—to beat the B.C. Lions 52-34 last weekend as the Ticats enjoyed a much-needed bye. He went 27-for-34, threw for three touchdowns and didn’t have an interception and the Argos broke a three-game losing streak and climbed back into the playoff picture at 3-8.
Arbuckle ascended to the top of the league with 3,476 passing yards, 419 ahead of second-place Bo Levi Mitchell, who has played one fewer game.
This one has shootout written all over it but that’s the thing about the first Monday in September: what’s written all over something—including the teams’ respective won-loss records is rarely how it reads when the game’s over. Labour Day in Hamilton is never without a dose of the unanticipated, whether it’s on the field or off it. It’s why, despite the occasional dud, “Classic” is not an overreaching descriptive. Nearly half of all Argo-Ticat Labour Days have been decided in the final three minutes.
But even classics can’t start without the basics, so the idea for both teams will be keeping the playbook wide open by planting at least the seed of a running threat to keep the defences honest, and to make the defensive secondary play a little tighter to their men. Eventually that opens up the deep routes.
This is not new; today, this year, or this century. The pass plays off the run, and the run can play off the pass, but usually it’s more the former than the latter, especially in the second half of the season. That half, by the way, unofficially starts on Labour Day weekend even though it’s mathematically inaccurate; the Ticats have already played 10, and the Argos 11, of their 18 scheduled games.
Hamilton, at 6-4, sits in first place in the CFL East and went undefeated in their first four-game tour through their division as part of a six-game winning streak that has since been followed by an overtime loss to B.C. and a loss in Regina on the eve of their bye week.
The Argos, meanwhile, are 3-8, are starting to recover from injuries and are feeling confident after putting up that 50-spot against the Lions.
And, of course, there’s the stand-alone aspect of Labour Day.
The Argos were hoping to win a third straight Classic last September when they came in with the same 6-4 record the Ticats have this year and the home side was struggling at 2-9. But, of course, the Ticats won a wild and woolly affair 31-28 on the longest field goal of Marc Liegghio’s career with under three minutes left. That was part of a season’s sweep of the Argos, a run which has now reached four in a row after the Cats went into BMO Field in early July, unleashed their first 50-point barrage in six years, and beat Toronto 51-38 with Mitchell throwing five touchdown passes, three of them to Kenny Lawler.
The Ticats rushed 22 times in that game for exactly 100 yards—Greg Bell 48 yards, Johnny Augustine 38 and Ante Litre 14—but that was 23 yards more than their average running output of 77 per game. And the Argos? They’re only legging it for 52.9 per.
Which means Monday could be the resistible force vs the moveable object. The Toronto defence has given up more running yards per game than any other CFL team while the Ticats are ranked third last.
But both defences have compensatory assets: the Ticats knock down more passes and make more interceptions than anyone else, have conceded fewer deep completions and limit a large number of long drives to field goals, while the Argos lead the league in forcing fumbles, Andrew Chatfield’s seven sacks are one off the league lead, and linebacker Cam Judge is third in tackles.
Still, this seems to all add up to an offensive game, especially if the weather is good and the wind is lower for the mid-afternoon start (2:30 p.m.) than it usually is for a night game.
“They have a good offence,” says Ticat shutdown corner Jamal Peters, the former Argo who’s back in the lineup, as is safety Stavros Katsantonis, after both were out injured for the loss in Saskatchewan.
“Dinwiddie does a great job calling good plays. Arbuckle is good at getting the ball out and reading defences really well. I know they haven’t been running the ball that well but I know they’re going to come in and try to establish one as best they can.
“We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing; playing fast, playing physical, doing our job.”
Peters joined the Ticats last year after three seasons in Toronto where he was a teammate and close friend of fellow defensive back DaShaun Amos, one of the Ticats’ marquee free agent signings this year. After Amos signed the two talked about Labour Day in black and gold, after a few years in double blue.
“I told him it’s different,” Peters said. “You know that our fans come in ready. It’s like a different game. I’d say it’s more like a rivalry game than a bowl game because they don’t like us and we don’t like them. That’s just the type of vibe it is.”
While it’s the next game on the schedule—“Our mindset is always to go 1-0 in the next game,” Peters underscored—both the cornerback and the coach agreed that there’s something just a little more involved on Labour Day.
“It’s the fans in the city of Hamilton,” Milanovich said. “That means a lot. It means more than you think until you’re a part of it. So it’s always a rivalry game when we play them.
We feel like there’s an onus on us every single week to perform and win games for our fans. I think the fact that it’s a bigger game probably means a little bit more for our fans.
We fell short last time we were here in front of a nice crowd against B.C. We really want to reward them for turning out for us.”
This has been the hottest ticket in town for several weeks, first selling out all seats with just some standing-only tickets available in the Stipley End Zone up for grabs, but those, too, were snapped up earlier this week.
And, despite both teams’ intentions to run, the air could be filled with footballs.
Although the Argos have put Damonte Coxie, the CFL’s second-leading receiver, on the injury list they’ve got East Division All-CFL receiver Makai Polk back for this game after an extended NFL trial and have seen the emergence of wide receiver Jake Herslow, who was on the practice roster when the two teams last met. He’s scored four touchdowns in his last three games. The Cats will have to take advantage of the Argos’ propensity to give up sacks—they’ve surrendered 28 nearly twice as many as Hamilton—so Arbuckle has less time to find deep receivers. He’s got a strong catching core, with the likes of Canadians David Ungerer, Kevin Mital and Dejan Brissett, even without Coxie and Davaris Daniels, who’s also out.
“I always like that type of matchup,” Peters said. “I like them to throw the ball because it gives me the opportunity to make plays. The whole secondary is excited; the whole team is excited. It’s going to be a great game and one that we’ve got to win.”
CATS CLAUSES: Ticat linebacker Brian Cole II, is fifth in the CFL with 13 special teams tackles … Ticat linebacker Kyler Fisher, making his first start at WILL in the loss to Regina, had a dozen tackles, sixth-most in club history and starts again Monday with Ray Wilborn on the injured list … WR Drew Wolitarsky, returner Isaiah Wooden and valuable backup centre/guard Nate Dumoulin-Duguay are on the injured list while DL TyJuan Garbutt, RB/TE Ante Litre and DB Patrick Burke Jr. are also out … WR Tyler Ternowski joins Jamal Peters, Stavros Katsantonis and long snapper Gordon Whyte in returning to the active lineup … DB Destin Talbert has eight pass knockdowns, one off the league lead and teammate Jonathan Moxey is right behind with seven… Hamilton leads the Labour Day Classic with 37 wins over Toronto against just 15 losses and a tie in the 53 previous games between the two rivals since the Tiger-Cats were officially created in 1950. They’re 8-2 since moving into Hamilton Stadium, although last year’s 31-28 win broke a two-year Argo winning streak on Labour Day … the Ticats are 4-0 against the East this season and play the Argos and Alouettes (in Montreal Saturday) within six days … The Tiger-Cats have activated linebacker Braxton Hill, signed to the practice roster earlier this week, for this game. He spent time with Saskatchewan, and was on the All-Big-Sky Conference team for the University of Montana in 2023 …The Ticats also added to their Canadian receiver depth, signing Shedler Fervius who was with the Alouettes from 2023 until he was released in late June, catching 59 passes for 702 yards and one TD … Bo Levi Mitchell is 7-0 on Labour Day, six of those as a Stampeder … after several different players have had the role DB Branden Dozier has settled in strongly for the Argos at SAM linebacker after the Ticats released him … with Whyte’s return, temporary replacement Simon Chivas was released by the Cats and will long-snap for Toronto on Monday … in his last three games Toronto LB Wynton McManis has 13 tackles, two sacks, an interception, and a forced fumble …Toronto will be without injured safety Derek Slywka, who is having a big-play season, and receivers DaVaris Daniels and Damonte Coxie, the CFL’s second-leading receiver … the Argos lead the CFL with 14 forced fumbles and are third in sacks … The Argos have signed QB Max Duggan, who spent last year in the NFL but didn’t take a regular-season snap in a game. He was runner-up to Caleb Williams for the 2022 Heisman Trophy … valuable Toronto OL Ryan Hunter is back from the six-game injury list… There have already been 32 non-defensive touchdowns this year in the CFL, one more than there was for the entire 2024 season … Hamilton takes the fewest penalties in the league … the Hamilton defence ranks second in the CFL at forcing 2-and-outs, at 26 per cent, while the Argos rank last at 37.9 per cent.
