It had a lot of components but overall, this was a “character” win. Not to mention a big one.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats went right into the eye of the storm—almost literally, given the tornado threats and hail that hit Winnipeg only a day or two earlier—and extracted a 37-27 victory over the potent Blue Bombers Thursday night.
There was lots hanging over their heads but the Cats refused to hang those heads. Instead, they rose to the occasion, ignoring, and prevailing.
The list goes on and on, but by now you get the point.
“We came in with a purpose,” said Ticats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, whose 287 passing yards completely belie how much he had his hand firmly on the rudder of this game. “We got embarrassed in this building last year. You could see it in the entire week of practice, I could see it travelling here, that things were different. Guys were locked in.”
On a night where it drizzled on and off throughout, Mitchell completed 19 of 24 passes, threw three touchdown passes, directed 309 yards of first-half offence; didn’t have and suffered only one 2-and-out. He didn’t throw an interception, was superb on second down, set up a touchdown by running for 16 yards himself, tied for his longest carry in eight years; completed three passes to Keric Wheatfall who was covered tightly but still came down with jump balls, critical to his confidence as he returned to face his former team and after he fumbled in overtime last week.
And he executed Scott Milanovich’s crafty game plan well, including establishing the running game early with numerous handoffs to Larry Rountree III who had a workhorse 23 carries, many of them when Winnipeg expected him to get the ball, and 124 rugged yards his first 100-yard performance since his final game of his college career at Missouri.
Rountree knew he’d be getting the ball a lot because of the game plan but also because of the rain, particularly in the second half.
“But the big thing was getting the Dub (W, as in Win),” Rountree said.
“We knew we had to come in here and get a Dub by any means. Rain or snow, 32,000 fans or not. Obviously we can still do better but the goal was just to get the Dub. I knew when it started to rain it would be to my advantage.”
Mitchell said that he “changed up everything I’ve done for the past 14 or 15 years,” and that included taking his teammates out for an expensive meal. His treat.
He said that “you can’t take that one back,” referring to the overtime loss to Montréal, “But you can’t look in the rearview mirror. Attack the day, attack the play. Do everything you can to to be the best you can be on that day. So, we were the best we could be today. We weren’t perfect and we’ll go out there and fix things. But this is a damn good football team.”
Mitchell complimented Wheatfall, who was crestfallen last week, for making three big catches under pressure in critical moments. And he cited the play of receivers Myron Mitchell, and especially Kiondré Smith who powered one catch into the end zone, and drew a defender out of the end zone opening a path out for another TD, very reminiscent of a similar play in a big win in B.C. last year,
“Honestly it was one of those games where we executed at a high level,” said Smith, who now has 11 catches in two games. “We know we have the talent to do it, so when we throw it up like we did to Wheatfall, we expect him to come down with it. Obviously it was a tough play and he came down with it when we needed him to. I just do my part and do as much as I can.
“Given what happened to Petey and given that four of our receivers used to be here (in Winnipeg), there was something a little personal to it, so we had to take care of business for them as well as for the rest of us.”
Peters had returned from hospital by the time the Ticats had sprinted off the field in buoyant triumph. On the Bombers’ first possession of the game he had made a hard tackle which cartwheeled former McMaster star Tommy Nield at the Ticat 11-yard line. While he was down, his teammates formed a semicircle and didn’t leave him. Despite being heavy-hearted they forced two Collaros incompletions and Winnipeg had to settle for a field goal.
“It was a scary moment,” Peters said afterward, “but thankfully God kept me good and I’m fine. So glad we got the win.”
The offensive line, fully aware that they had their hands full, said they were responding to the coach’s challenge for more consistent blocking and they came through as the Ticats had 171 yards running overall, were perfect on short yardage and allowed only one sack.
“We felt good and we had to come out and do what the coach told us and we came out with the Dub,” said Ticats offensive tackle Trevor Reid.
“It’s always hard when a brother goes down but you play for Petey…you can’t lose it. It feels like a character win.”
Mitchell says Winnipeg has “a crazy D-line, crazy, crazy defence in general” because of their ferocity up front and skill in the linebacking tier and considers them one of the toughest teams to prepare for. But his linemen kept him clean, Rountree kept Winnipeg honest and Mitchell conducted it all like a maestro with a baton. He said it might have been the first time he’s ever played against legendary defensive end Willie Jefferson without Jefferson batting down a ball.
In fact it was a virtuoso night for two pivots headed to the Hall of Fame, without having to pass Go. Zach Collaros went 28-for-35, 421 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But he was also sacked twice by Julian Howsare, and was picked off on an athletic end zone interception by All-CFL Ticat safety Stavros Katsantonis that was originally ruled an incompletion but was overturned. Those were among the five or six plays which Milanovich says usually alter the game’s result and this time the Cats were the team that made them.
Another came with two minutes remaining, the Bombers having just closed the gap to 34-27 and the crowd sensing a miracle comeback from an 18-point deficit. But Milanovich sent in Tre Ford at quarterback, momentarily confusing the defence and Ford sprinted far left for 22 important yards. That eventually resulted in Marc Liegghio’s third field goal of the night after forcing Winnipeg to spend a timeout, and effectively put the game out of reach.
“Tre’s got some athletic ability,” Milanovich said of his gutsy call. “Obviously, he’s got a skill set that we’re going to utilize in that situation based on the defences that we were expecting to see.
“I thought it was a three-phase win. Defensively we gave up some yards but we did a great job of limiting Brady. And we lost Petey but we had some guys come in for us. Special teams covered well and Legs was 3-for-3 and I thought we played really well on offence.
“We needed every play we could get tonight.”
Some plays which made a difference in a close game go overlooked in the long run, including a sure tackle by middle linebacker Ryan Baker to prevent a late first down and eat some clock, a pass knockdown by Destin Talbert, a successful challenge by Milanovich and dogged pursuits by defensive end Phil Ossai, SAM linebacker Reggie Stubblefield and WILL linebacker Braxton Hill who returned from the injury list.
Liegghio hit from 53 yards at the end of the first half to put the Cats up 24-10, and had a 46-yarder with under five minutes to go, as well as the clincher from 23 out in the final minute. It was a smooth operation with Gordon Whyte snapping and punter Mitch McCarthy on the holds. And remember, it was raining. The slippery ball was tricky to hike and to catch.
“It’s gratifying that the coaches put that trust in me,” Liegghio said. “And the guys all have your back, they’re already coming for me even before I finish the kick, because they know it’s good.
“It was great for the team as a whole to come into a hostile environment like this and come out with a win. All three phases. Petey’s injury was a scary moment and I think it hit everyone differently and luckily everything turned out well.
“We all said, ‘This one’s for Petey.’”
After two Thursday night games to open the season the Ticats return to a more familiar schedule with a Friday night home game against B.C. then begin their first bye week of the season. Then they won’t have another one until after Labour Day.
CATS CLAUSES
Mang’s milestone goes uncelebrated
First-year Ticat tight end Max Mang, the 6-foot-6 native of Germany and the Cats’ second-round pick in the 2025 Global draft,
caught a short pass from Bo Levi Mitchell and scored a four-yard touchdown to give Hamilton a 14-10 lead halfway through the second quarter.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It was a great play call, with a great setup and I was just glad the coaches trusted me with it.
“But I had a celebration planned and I completely forgot to celebrate. I was a bit baffled.”
Maybe because he didn’t have much experience at it. This was his first TD as a pro, equaling the total (one) he had in his five-year college career at Syracuse where he was used almost exclusively as a blocking tight end.
Smith has better numbers than most CFL fans and media realize
Kiondré Smith, who caught five more passes Thursday night and scored twice, drew high praise from his head coach this week for his dedication to being great, is in his fifth CFL season since making the Ticats as a rookie in 2022. But he didn’t become a regular receiver until his second year.
Among the top seven Canadian receivers in those four years (not counting last week when some teams didn’t play) he’s the only one to play all 72 regular season games. And Smith is one of only three Canucks to amass 3000 receiving yards in that span behind BC’s Justin McInnis and Winnipeg’s Nic Demski.
But if you subtract his rookie season year when he had spot duty on offence and was really more of a special-teamer, and consider just the last three years—again not counting this one—Smith has more receptions than ANY Canadian receiver and is third in yards and second in targets.
Three of the six other outstanding Canadian receivers started their CFL careers before him—McInnis, Demski and current Ticat teammate Kurleigh Gittens Jr.—and three others, Saskatchewan’s Sam Emilius, and the Philpot twins, Jalen in Calgary and Tyson in Montréal, were all part of that excellent 2022 Canadian receivers draft. Among that talented group, over the last three years Smith leads in receptions, yardage, targets and games played. And he’s substantially increased his number of receptions each of his seasons.
NUTS AND BOLTS: Bo Levi Mitchell moved by Kevin Glenn into 7th place in Ticats’ career passing yardage … among the 8 Cats who caught Mitchell’s passes, Myron Mitchell stepped up to grab all five thrown his way, usually in traffic, for 50 yards; Keric Wheatfall had 102 yards on 3 receptions; Kiondré Smith harvested 92 tough yards and those two majors; and Kenny Lawler had 2 catches for 17 yards … MLB Ryan Baker was ubiquiitous with 7 defensive tackles and Braxton Hill, playing right beside him, had 8 and another on special teams, Reggie Stubblefield had 5 tackles as the linebacking corps combined for 20 tackles, a key to the win … Destin Talbert and Greg Junior were credited with pass knockdowns … Hamilton’s largest lead was 31-13, in the first minute of the fourth quarter … the Ticats had 171 rushing yards to just 49 for Winnipeg … the Cats converted successfully on a strong 13 of their 22 second downs and had 455 yards total offence, 4 yards fewer than Winnipeg as the two teams combined for 914 yards …. Bombers’ Brady Oliveira, who ate up Calgary for 113 yards rushing last week ran fewer times (8) for fewer yards (32) than he did catching passes (6 receptions for 51 yards) … Bomber Tommy Nield, the former Mac star led all receivers with 7 catches and 111 yards and former Ticat star Tim White caught 4 for 79. Ontaria Wilson had 6 receptions, mostly later in the game, for 87 yards and Nic Demski snared 4 for 79 yards … Sergio Castillo made two field goals but had one bounce off the upright for a dead ball to leave Winnipeg scoreless from a 42-yard drive midway through the second quarter. He dinged two off the uprights in pre-game warmups …the Ticats enjoyed a ball-possession advantage of 6:16 and there was only one turnover, Stavros Katsantonis’s key upon-review pick for the Ticats … the two teams meet again July 5 in Hamilton … it was Hamilton’s first win in Winnipeg since 2019 and the visiting teams have now won the first 4 CFL games of the season.
