In the jubilant afterglow, Miles Fox summarized the rainy Saturday afternoon quickly, and flawlessly.
“We lost some games we shouldn’t have lost and we had to come out here and set a tone, and I feel like we did that,” said the Tiger-Cats’ defensive tackle, who set his own tone to pace the Ticats’ 26-9 statement win over the Alouettes right in Molson Percival Stadium, tightening their grip on first place in the CFL East and hurling the quarterback-challenged Als to their fifth straight loss.
“We were missing Casey Sayles on the defensive line and knew we had to make up for that. And I’m proud of it. I thought the coaches gave us a great game plan and we ourselves knew we had to play better after three straight losses.”
The 7-5 Ticats did exactly what they had to do, surviving a very short week (they lost that heart-breaker only five days earlier on Labour Day) against an Als team which had more than two weeks rest and preparation, and had been bolstered by a large handful of important players back from injury. None, though, played quarterback and the Ticats—again doing what they had to do—were merciless in their attack on fourth-string Als pivot James Morgan as they continually out-muscled the Montréal line.
The win pulled the Ticats four-points clear of the 5-7 Als, and gave them the season’s series, the deciding factor if a tie-breaker for position in the standings is required. They also moved six points ahead of the Argonauts and Redblacks, both at 4-8. They play Ottawa and Toronto once apiece in their final six games of play.
The Ticats dominated both trenches, rushing for a season-high 234 yards, the first time this season their much-maligned running game had even gone over 100. The offensive line, playing with something-to-prove anger, was almost poetic in its cohesiveness as they cleared hole after hole for running back Greg Bell who had the best game of his career with 156 yards, and another 34 yards in receptions.
And in something as rare as a pothole-free block on Barton Street, the Ticats ran for far more yards than they passed (191), which wasn’t quite a mathematical necessity but close to it when steady rain began just before game time and the sun didn’t poke through the gloom until they were mobbing each other at the final whistle.
The main takeaway from this game— and one which should have legs given the important dates still remaining in the final third of the season—was the Ticats’ relentlessness. This was a mental attribute as well as a physical one and underscored why this team is road warriors, with only Saskatchewan’s 5-1 record away from home being better than Hamilton’s 5-2.
Despite their short week they grew more energized, not fatigued, as the game wore on and they did not let any setbacks mushroom into anything beyond temporary blips: not when their first three offensive drives, covering 153 total yards, resulted in just three points; not when the first of those drives ended with former Ticat Ciante Evans stripping Bell of the ball at the Alouettes’ one-yard line; not when premier returner James Letcher Jr. had early successes to keep Montréal’s hopes up; not when Bo Levi Mitchell had the wet ball slip as he threw an interception on the second drive; not when they held the ball for seven more minutes than the home team did in the opening half, and had outgained the Als’ 293 yards to 98 but still led only 13-9 at the intermission.
Each time they shrugged it off, picked up their lunch buckets and reported back to work, a good sign as the stretch run for the playoffs, and first place, gears up and shifts into overdrive. As Milanovich pointedly asked—demanded might be a better verb—his players to do this week they executed not only the big plays, and there were many, but the bulk of the rest of them too.
That consistency, especially in the vicious few yards on either side of the line of scrimmage, was important and encouraging. Regularity, as the players are so prone to mention, is one of the things that is in their control on every play, and for the most part they controlled it. The tackling and blocking at all tiers was so definitive and superior to just five days earlier it didn’t seem like this was occurring during the same week.
And, it’s important to remember what was at stake and what the difference between a win and a loss meant, besides the end of a three-game losing streak and, the Cats’ hope, the start of another winning string.
This was the battle for first place, and the Ticats now stand alone, the only team in the East with a winning record.
“We dealt with a lot of adversity coming into the week and we lost the last three games,” said Fox, who forced a late game-clinching interception, disrupting Morgan’s delivery just as he was throwing, and was one of five Ticats in the Front Six with at least four tackles.
“Up front, especially, we knew we had to play better. We needed to make plays when they came to us and I feel like we thrive when the pressure’s on us.
“I felt like we were firing on all cylinders. Offence, defence, special teams.”
The Ticats saw most of, if not all of, what they needed to see in this game including rhythmic determined work from the offensive line which withstood and punished a Montréal defence which has far more talent than their declining statistics indicated.
“It definitely wasn’t a pretty game, it was a gritty game,” left offensive guard Brandon Revenberg said, “but the boys all came together and we got it done. We put some points up and ran the ball. The weather, and that game, called for a little more ground-and-pound and we were happy to oblige.
“Greg was just great, he hit the holes and he fell forward for yards… even Bo with his rushing touchdown.”
That would be Mitchell’s 14-yard scamper to the left side which fractured a 6-6 tie in the second quarter, which was not only his first touchdown in the last 10 years, but lifted him to 1,010 career rushing yards.
“The slowest quarterback to 1,000 yards in history,” he quipped about his pivotal score after he read the man-to-man defence and saw space open to his left. “It only took 13 seasons.
“I was looking to pass and giving the opportunity to the receivers, but I didn’t have leverage on the ball when I went to throw it and I saw that open B gap.
“Offensively, we haven’t had the greatest rushing game so in a game like that when it’s raining and the ball’s slick, you’re going to pass when you can but you have to be able to run the football. It lights up the O-line too, it lights up the team, speeds up the game. When you can run the ball like that it gives you that domination feeling which is what we needed.
“We did a lot of good things. The defence stepping up the way they did. Constant turnovers, constant pressure. It felt like all phases of the defence were on, the special teams responding when they had to against a really good returner and good special teams unit.”
The Ticats controlled the Als’ special teams, among the best in the league, in the latter stages of the game which kept Montréal away from any gratuitous field position. And the bulk of their 146 passing yards came after the issue was all but decided. The Als only had 22 passing yards in the first half.
Mitchell didn’t throw a touchdown pass for just the second time this season but his head coach praised his control and his overall stewardship of the offence.
“I’ll never be a game manager but there are times when you need to manage the game,” Mitchell said. “You’ve got to win ugly sometimes. It’s funny because with the weather you’re making a decision on throws after the snap, on how the ball feels, if you can get a grip on it. So, there were some throws I wanted to make that didn’t feel great on the grip, so I just moved down the progression and when the opportunity was there just taking shots.”
One of those shots—the only Cat completion over 30 yards—came on the first play, a 48-yard bomb to Kenny Lawler which put the marquee receiver at 1,016 yards for the season, (he eventually got to 1,047) the most he’s ever logged. He has 10 touchdowns, four more than he’s ever had in his stellar career.
Then, of course, there was Bell, who carried the ball 20 times for that career-high 156 yards and a touchdown, had a handful of carries over 10 yards, had his longest (28 yards) run of the season and caught five passes. He not only ran well, he ran intelligently, Mitchell said; breaking outside when the blocking directed him that way and pounding hard, and going vertical, when he recognized he was forced into the middle.
Bell conceded that his fumble that blunted the Ticats’ opening drive was a personal motivation for the rest of the game.
“Most definitely,” he said. “I knew I had to make up for that. And I did and we got the victory. My offensive line was great today. All these guys were doing great, opening up holes for all of us.
“It’s a big victory. It’s one versus two on the East side, so we knew we had to come get a win.”
Which is how Milanovich saw it as well. And he was happy that the ground game was not only good, but so prevailing.
“I’m proud of the guys,” he said. “Five days, we play a good football team and we respond. And hopefully this will get us re-started. It feels great. I get a lot of questions about why we don’t run it more. And the reason is because we’re good at the pass game and we go with whatever’s working at the time. Obviously, with the weather early in the game and the run working, it was the right way to go.
“It was what we needed to get back on track. This is a huge game, obviously. We were one game ahead of them. We needed to have it. But more importantly, we needed to get some confidence back and some momentum back, for the final six games of the season. So, the locker room is electric. I think we did what we had hoped to do. Offence, defence, special teams.”
With their second in a three-game-in-12-day stretch now in the books, the Ticats have to turn their attention to Friday night’s home encounter against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the first of two times they’ll meet the perennial Grey Cup contenders over the next three games. It’s also the first of back-to-back home games (Edmonton) as the Cats have four of their final six at Hamilton Stadium where they need to re-establish home-field advantage after two consecutive last-second losses on their own turf.
Fox, who played about 10 or 15 more snaps than he normally does because it was just he and Mario Kendricks at defensive tackle instead of the normal three-man rotation with Sayles, is among the large palette of Ticats with a Blue Bomber background.
“We just want to keep the ball rolling Friday against them,” Fox said. “Keep playing complementary football and the home wins are going to come.
“Winnipeg is a tough team; they pride themselves on being tough and physical and not having a lot of penalties. And a lot of guys on our team know them. We’ll be fired up for it.”
CATS CLAUSES: This was the first Hamilton victory in Montréal since Aug. 27, 2021 … Bo Levi Mitchell was 19-for-28 and 191 yards with one interception and, of course, ran for a touchdown … LB Kyler Fisher had nine defensive tackles, giving him 27 since he became the starting WILL three games ago …. DE Philip Ossai had 6 defensive tackles while Julian Howsare was also brilliant at DE with a pass knockdown and two sacks and now leads the Cats with six sacks … CB Jamal Peters had the Ticat interception and fumbles were recovered by Miles Fox and DaShaun Amos … Marc Liegghio was 4-for-4 and now has hit 11 field goals in a row since missing his first two of the season against B.C. … Tim White was one of seven Ticats to register rushing yards, taking a fly-sweep 42 yards. He caught four passes for 26 yards … Kenny Lawler caught four passes for 79 yards. A penalty he took in the third quarter for offensive pass interference, one of just three flags against the Cats, was more complicated and important than it looked: it prevented a possible game-changing interception … the Ticats were 11-for-23 on second-down conversions for 47.8 per cent, while the Als were at 38.1 per cent and much lower than that in the first half … in the first half the Ticats rushed for 150 yards as part of the 293 net offensive yards, while the Als had only 98 yards first-half offence … the Als honoured legendary Team Canada and Canadiens’ hockey goalie Ken Dryden, who died Friday, with a moment of standing silence before the game … attendance was 20,612 … the Ticats drove Als QB James Morgan from the game to be replaced by Cameron Dukes halfway through the fourth quarter but he returned. Overall Morgan was 17-for-28 for 138 yards and an interception. The Ticats outgained the Als in total yards 419-220 but 75 of those Montréal yards came in the final four minutes when the Ticats were in a prevent defence with a two-score lead … the Als are now 1-7 without starter Davis Alexander at quarterback. The two others QBs on the depth chart above the hard-throwing Morgan, McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Caleb Evans, are with Davis on the six-game injury list … the Alouettes visit the CFL-leading Saskatchewan Roughriders next weekend Travis Theis … led the Als with 70 rushing yards, while former Ticat Sean Thomas-Erlington had 25 … Austin Mack’s 45 receiving yards topped the Als, with Tyson Philpot next at 34 … former Ticat Tyrice Beverette had the Als’ only sack and CB Lorenzo Burns had an interception, fumble recovery and a pass knock-down.
