Tiger-Cats look to Clinch First Place in Playoff-Like Matchup with Stampeders

The 2025 CFL season has been one of contrasting streaks—Ticats fans are acutely aware of that—so every team has to be extremely vigilant about their next opponent’s potential to climb right back onto the winning track.

So, case in point, here comes Hamilton vs. Calgary on Saturday (3 p.m., TSN, Ticats Audio Network) the first of two remaining games in the regular season for the Cats, both at home.

It’s the first time the two teams have met each other since the Stamps’ 38-26 victory in the season opener for both clubs, in Calgary, way back on June 7. Yes, four-plus months have zipped by that quickly. It was mobile quarterback Vernon Adams Jr.’s first game for Calgary, he immediately won over his team and the fan base, and the Stamps streaked out to a 5-1 start. The Ticats dropped their first two games, then won six in a row, then lost three in a row and have now won four of their last five, including a dominant and important 47-29 putdown of the Argos last Friday in Toronto.

The Stamps, meanwhile, have lost four in a row to drop to 8-7 and are in a tenacious battle with B.C., Calgary, Winnipeg, and even Edmonton for playoff positioning behind Saskatchewan.

Hamilton’s statement win in Toronto guaranteed there will be a crossover of a Western team into the East semifinal and Calgary does not want to be the team compelled to play in that game and the Ticats do not want to be the team that hosts it.

The Cats of course want to finish first—where they now stand, four points ahead of the 8-7 Montréal Alouettes—which would give them a bye directly into the Eastern Final, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 8 at the home of the conference winner. With a magic number of two points (either points they gather themselves or points lost by the Als), they can lock up the division crown with a win Saturday. Montréal doesn’t play until Monday when Ottawa visits.

The Stamps want to climb into second to earn a home playoff game and may have to win their final three to land there.

Thus, Saturday afternoon presents so many post-season implications that it will have the air of a playoff game, if not the official designation.

“You know it’s going to have a playoff atmosphere,” says veteran Hamilton defensive halfback Reggie Stubblefield.

“And that’s kind of crazy because I would say that a few years ago you would kind of know some teams that were just out of it. But I think the CFL as a whole league has done a tremendous job of every team being competitive. Every team can give you a run for your money this year, and it’s just been so fun to play in those games and interesting to watch the other games and see how things unfold.”

The Stamps’ four-game losing streak began with the Labour Day rematch against Edmonton, a team which has gone 5-3 – and two of those losses were on the final play – since opening the season at 1-6. Then Calgary lost to a pair of second-place teams, B.C. twice and Montréal.

Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson said that B.C. was the better team in a 38-24 win last weekend but that he admired his own squad’s fight to rally from 31-9 to a one-score game. Two late Lion interceptions—Adams’ 13th and 14th of the season, giving him six in the last three games—snuffed the comeback.

“That was something to build on,” Dickenson told Calgary media this week. “But still, we’ve got to play better. We understand that. But I believe in this room and I believe in this team — they know that — and hopefully, we turn the corner, get some wins and get some momentum.”

The Ticats seek to maintain their own momentum, know that stopping Adams and league rushing leader Dedrick Mills are the keys.

Same mantra as always, especially against a run-pass-option quarterback with great time-buying, yardage-gaining wheels of his own; stop the run first; keep the agile quarterback from getting outside; get to Adams quickly to force bad angles and hasty reads; and do not lose track of any of the disparately talented plethora of receivers at Adams’ disposal; Dominique Rhymes, explosive 6-foot-6 rookie Damien Alford, Jalen Philpot, Clark Barnes, Tevin Jones, and surging Erik Brooks.

“They’re good players over there,” says Ticats field cornerback Jonathan Moxey, who spent the first four years of his CFL career in Stampeder red. “They might be in a little drought right now, but when you cut on the tape, you can see the dynamic plays still being made. You can see that they still have potential to be whatever they want to be.

“At the end of the day, we have to take our own approach. Because I feel like whenever we’re playing our best football, we’re the best team in the CFL. So it’s a great challenge going up against my old team and this high-powered offence. V.A. is definitely one of the better quarterbacks in the league.”

The Ticats are unanimous on that one. Head coach Scott Milanovich said that when Adams is on “there’s no one any better.” He was 19-for-28 and rushed for 33 yards in just three carries when the Stamps initiated their rebound season—like the Cats, they finished 2024 in last place—with the convincing June win over the Ticats. And he had the good sense to hand off 17 times to Mills, who ran for three touchdowns among his 94 rushing yards.

“Vernon is a great quarterback,” says Ticats safety Stavros Katsantonis who had three interceptions last week, to move into a tie for the league lead with six. “He can run, he can throw. They’ve got a great running back over there. Great O-line. A lot of receivers. They have a good offence.

“For us it’s just about doing what we do well and that’s to stick to the fundamentals, stick to our technique, play physical, play fast and take away the ball.”

The Calgary defence is the second-stingiest in the league, giving up just under 25 points per game, three fewer than the Ticats average but both bend-but-don’t-break defences surrender a lot of yards. Calgary is the second-worst in the league, giving up a whopping 382.9 yards per game, right behind Hamilton’s 374. But both units compensate with big plays. Calgary has four defensive TDs, Hamilton has three; Calgary leads the league with 31 tackles for loss behind linebacker Derrick Moncrief’s nine strips, three more than anyone else in the CFL. Hamilton is fourth with 27; Stamps linebacker Jacob Roberts is fourth in the league in defensive tackles and defensive end Clarence Hicks has nine sacks, six of them in the last six games; Ticats defensive lineman Julian Howsare has 11 sacks after notching four last week and the other defensive end Philip Ossai has seven, three of them last week.

The Stamps’ defence, though, has lost two more starters to injury for this game in former Cat defensive end Lorenzo Mauldin IV and all-star defensive back Damon Webb. They were already without veteran linebacker Adam Bighill and talented defensive end Folarin Orimalode.

The Ticats’ depth chart also changes a bit for this week with defensive tackle Miles Fox sidelined and Mario Kendricks, who has five sacks, stepping in for his second season start. Starting linebacker and prolific tackler Kyler Fisher is also out so Braxton Hill starts, backed up by Brian Cole II. And special teams gets a boost with the return of Daniel Bell, who moved from linebacker to fullback this year but has been injured since late June.

The Ticats are in control of their own destiny but found out in Winnipeg what can happen when they don’t arrive ready to play from the first kickoff. Calgary is thirsty for a momentum-turning win—“beware the desperate team,” Milanovich stressed this week—and the Cats learned a lesson from Winnipeg which they forcefully applied by exploding from the gates in the home-game-guaranteeing win in Toronto last week.

Stubblefield agreed that, despite its humbling effect this late in the season, the Winnipeg game was also a helpful wakeup call.

“It goes back to what we’re preaching on defence, too,” he said. “Just because you think you know, you don’t know. Those teams are working over there too. They’re scheming over there too. So we have to be prepared for our bullets and everything that can come our way.

“We know Calgary has had some inconsistencies lately, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not still the same team that got off to one of the best starts in the CFL. So, we understand what we’re up against.

“You have to credit them. They are who they are. They have a tremendous roster, tremendous talent. And what a great turnaround in one year. But it’s about us in this game. It’s about the guys in the locker room, the coaching staff and just all coming together, playing together and focusing on being 1-0 this week.”

CATS CLAUSES: Bo Levi Mitchell has 300 passing yards in 7 of his last 11 starts and is 108 yards behind Matt Dunigan for 8th on the CFL’s all-time career passing list … Mitchell, who threw 4 TDs against Toronto, was the CFL’s Honour Roll offensive player of the week, while DE Julian Howsare, who played 65 defensive snaps and had four sacks, was the defensive honouree. The Ticats also took the offensive line of the week award with Liam Dobson, Brandon Revenberg and Quinton Barrow recording the top PFF (Pro Football Focus) grades … WR Kenny Lawler has a CFL-leading 47 targets of 20-plus yards in depth with 23 catches, also tops in the league. He has four games with multiple touchdowns in his first Ticat season … Greg Bell has rushed for 500 yards on a busy 82 carries the past five games and is 87 yards short of his first 1,000-yard season … Kiondré Smith has 19 catches for 252 yards in the past 3 games to reach 1,000 yards for the first time … if Tim White, who’s totalled only 31 yards on four receptions the past two games, can get 157 yards over the next two, he’ll be just the second (Darren Flutie) Ticats receiver to put up four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons … Calgary has won the last four head-to-head meetings and eight of the last 15, dating back to 2017 … Vernon Adams Jr. needs 318 passing yards to reach 20,000 for his career … with his next field goal, Stamps K René Paredes will move into sole possession of fifth place on the CFL all-time list and has played 244 games in a row … rookie Calgary TE/QB Quincy Vaughn, who has five short-yardage-QB touchdowns, started his high school career at Hamilton’s Sir Allan MacNab and is the younger brother of former Cats DE Justin Vaughn … Stamps WR Dominique Rhymes has an active streak of 69 games with at least one pass reception.