Sometimes lost in the glaring statistics of the high-octane Tiger-Cats offence is their sustained proficiency at the short game.

We do mean short, but in yardage terms only, not in importance.

When the BC Lions come into Hamilton Stadium Friday night (7:30 p.m., Ticats Audio Network, TSN) looking to avoid their first 0-2 start since 2019 to face the Ticats, who are looking for their first winning record after three games since, also, 2019, it’ll be a couple of offensive juggernauts who can make big plays.

But small plays also contribute to those big plays.

Inside football circles, the ability to extend offensive drives with successful conversions of a couple of yards or less on third down—sometimes on second—is never underrated. It often leads to scores, and this appears to be a big-time scoring season so every point counts; it keeps the other offence off the field for at least three more downs; it helps eat time on the clock when you’re going into the wind (like high-scoring, this has been a high-wind start to the season); and it adds logs to the fire of momentum and confidence.

Most teams have become good at it, but arguably the Ticats are the best and have been for a couple of seasons. They’re six-for-six this young season and last season with first, powerful fullback Ante Litre, and later 6-foot-7 quarterback Jake Dolegala, who took over the shorties when Litre was injured, the Ticats were 18-for-20 with Dolegala coming up short only once.

“We have a great scheme,” says the 29-year-old Dolegala, who’s in his fifth CFL season. “The guys up front (offensive linemen) really buy in. I’ve been in some other places in my career and it’s just fall forward and get the yard!’ But the guys up front here know that it’s always one of the biggest plays of that drive, let alone the game. Keeping the offence on the field is critical and in critical situations you’ve got to get it done.”

In the character win over Winnipeg last week, short yardage played a major role.

Most critically, in the second minute of the second quarter on the second set of downs of a drive which started on the Hamilton eight-yard line, Scott Milanovich sent in Dolegala at 3rd-and-1 at the Ticats’ own 30-yard line. Very gutsy, but Milanovich said later that, with some game-situation exceptions, he prefers to go for it on short yardage.

Dolegala powered for two yards on the play, and the drive eventually covered 102 yards, gobbled up nearly eight minutes into the wind, and resulted in Max Mang’s first pro touchdown and a 14-10 Ticat lead, which they never surrendered.

And with Winnipeg threatening a comeback halfway through the third quarter, Dolegala converted twice on third-down short yardage, one at midfield, one at the Winnipeg 30. After a pass interference flag for impeding Kenny Lawler, Dolegala rushed right for a touchdown to complete the 83-yard, seven-minute drive for an 18-point lead. He also extended another drive later in the quarter with a two-yard gain on third down, which kept things alive for a Marc Liegghio field goal.

Bo Levi Mitchell confirms that knowing that Dolegala, and sometimes Litre, will convert short yardage has a positive effect on the offence.

“A lot,” he said after the Cats wrapped up practice for the week on Thursday. “It tells you in first-and-long situations to try to get half of it back. And on second-and-long situations, it’s okay taking something that’s maybe shorter and not trying to force the ball that’s possibly a turnover. Obviously, there are times to force it in a game, if you’re down and whatnot.

“You watch film against a lot of teams, and a lot of guys are taking a five-yard ball and receivers just splitting it, going to put his head down and trying to get to that third-and-two, third-and-one where you have the option to go for it.

“Trust from Scott, trust in the boys to get out there and get it done, trust in Jake. He hits that thing like a bat out of hell. He’s 6-foot-7 and it’s hard to stop the guy for one yard. We have trust in the guys up front, Scott has trust to get out there and make it happen. The word is trust.”

While Dolegala is more widely known these days for his short-yardage prowess, he has a strong arm and is working closely with Milanovich on improving his overall game, particularly accuracy and varying the speed of his passes so that not everyone has to be a bullet.

He grew up in the Ticats’ backyard as a highly touted prospect in Hamburg, just outside of Buffalo. He didn’t watch the CFL as a high-schooler but was well aware of it—and of its quirky rules like the “waggle”—because he’d work out in the off-season with older friends Luke Tasker, who’d gone to the same high school as Dolegala, who played with his younger brother, and Naaman Roosevelt, who’d played for an opposing high school and was in the midst of a six-year career with Saskatchewan, Montréal and Winnipeg.

And what goes around comes around: When Dolegala joined the Ticats last year, Roosevelt was his receivers coach.

Dolegala tore his labrum in his senior year, and all the scholarship interest that he’d generated dissipated, so he transferred to Milford Academy, a high-level prep school which played games against other elite prep sides and also several NCAA junior varsity squads like Army, Navy and several from the Northeast Conference of the Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision.

He re-established his credentials, was followed by college scouts who came to games because of his pro-style size and stayed because of his ability, and he responded with an outstanding season.

He earned a scholarship from Central Connecticut of the Northeast Conference, was a four-year starter, set the school record for career touchdowns and passing yardage and was one of only five quarterbacks in conference history to surpass 8,000 yards during his career.

Undrafted by the NFL, he spent time in Cincinnati, where he made the 53-man roster but didn’t play and Miami, plus two stints each in New England and Green Bay. But the likes of Joe Burrow, Mac Jones, Tua Tagovailoa and Aaron Rodgers were always in front of him. Dolegala says that’s the reality of being an undrafted player, and it didn’t help that some exhibition games—where he’d have had more snaps—were cancelled in two NFL pandemic years.

Dolegala came north to Saskatchewan in 2022 and the next year stepped in to start nine games when Trevor Harris and Mason Fine were hurt and completed 215 of 332 passes.

He went to BC as a free agent, then went to Winnipeg in 2024. After the Bombers released him late last spring, he signed in Hamilton.

“I’m so thankful,” he said. “It’s by far the best spot I’ve ever been. Top-down, they take care of us; the coaching staff is fantastic. I wasn’t sure about playing this close to home, but it’s really nice; my family and girlfriend are close to here. And Scott is the guy when it comes to quarterbacks, he’s taught me a lot. That’s another tremendous positive about being here.”

Dolegala comes from a well-known football family. His grandfather was Al Bemiller, who was a star offensive lineman on Syracuse’s 1959 national championship team, then won two league titles and was an all-star with the early AFL Buffalo Bills, and his father, Greg, played for the University of Buffalo. His mother Tia excelled at track.

Along with Tre Ford, Dolegala has given the Ticats a three-deep quarterbacking room with, of course, Mitchell leading the way. Although he has yet to throw a regular-season pass in black and gold, Dolegala has been a valuable addition and his contributions in practice and in-game short-yardage situations are appreciated in the locker room and football operations offices.

“I think I’ve earned Scott’s trust, and usually even before he’s called the personnel in for short yardage, I’m the first one on the field,” Dolegala says. “We’ve got a great relationship.

“I’m doing pretty well at the short-yardage thing, and if it helps the team, I’ll do anything I can. I’ll run down the field on kickoffs if I have to.”

“Just keep it rolling.”

CATS CLAUSES

Two reigning CFL MOP finalists highlight Feline Bowl

Four CFL quarterbacks threw for over 400 yards last weekend but none of them were the two who will play here Friday night, the same two who were the finalists for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player last year, won by Oakville-raised and Burlington-football-trained quarterback Nathan Rourke, over Bo Levi Mitchell, who was a finalist for the second straight year.

Listen to the Milton Report here.

“I thought he was very deserving of it,” said Mitchell, who leads the league in completion percentage at 84.1%, just ahead of Trevor Harris.

“You always like to get out there and prove yourself against the best, no matter who it is, what position they’re playing. I like to talk myself up, and I tell myself I’m the best player on the field every single time I step out there. I feel like I’m the best player in the league, and it’s just my job. That’s how my thought process is. I’m sure there’s 50-60 other guys who think the same thing.”

Rourke is an escape artist who can buy time with his elusive moves, so his receiving corps can get open. He is difficult for one tackler to bring down on his own; he has a strong arm, and his mobility also meshes with former Ticat running back James Butler’s power for a very effective Run-Pass-Option threat.

“Nathan is an elite player who can obviously throw it,” Scott Milanovich said Thursday morning. “He’s the MOP, he’s a real threat running the ball. The stat we have is 450 (of his 564 rushing yards last season) were after first contact. They have receivers who can play, and obviously we know the running back. They’re a good football team.”

Ticat safety Stavros Katsantonis added, “He’s probably the most athletic quarterback in the league. I know Davis (Montreal starter Davis Alexander) won’t be happy about that one, but he is. He’s one of those guys who’s really hard to bring down. You think you have him sacked, and then somehow, with two guys on him, he escapes out of there and makes a crazy throw.

“And he can also take the football for 70 yards on a read option or switch field. You’ve always got to be aware of that. And he can make just about any throw on the field. There’s a reason he’s the Most Outstanding Player coming out of last year.”

Because the Men’s World Cup has taken over their home stadium, the Lions are playing their first five games of the season away from Vancouver. Last week, in a narrow loss at Saskatchewan, Rourke didn’t have a touchdown pass but threw for 330 yards without an interception and ran for 59 yards and a touchdown. In five seasons, plus this year’s one game, Rourke has rushed for 28 touchdowns and thrown 63 touchdown passes.

Roster Changes include Zamari Walton coming in at corner

Ticat middle linebacker Wynton McManis remains on the one-game injured list for the third straight game. And with a bye after Friday’s match, he has another full week to recover, which head coach Scott Milanovich said is right on the projected trajectory for his return.

Two defensive backs will make their regular-season debuts for the Ticats: Zamari Walton, the 6-foot-3 cornerback, will start at boundary cornerback after Jamall Peters was injured last week in Winnipeg. Walton, who played at Georgia Tech and Mississippi, played two games last year. Kaleb Hayes comes off the practice roster as backup corner to Walton and field-side starter Devodric Bynum.

On the other side of the field, the Lions will be injury-depleted in the receiving corps, missing Seven McGee, who had over 1,700 yards in punt and kickoff returns last year, Stanley Berryhill and Jevon Cottoy, with Keon Hatcher a game-time decision.

But the Lions still have Montréal native Justin McInnis, who caught eight passes for 129 yards last week, had 14 touchdowns over the previous two seasons and led the entire CFL in receiving yards in 2024.

What to watch for on Lions’ defence

Here’s Scott Milanovich on the BC defence, anchored by defensive player of the year Mathieu Betts, veteran defensive back TJ Lee III and middle linebacker Darnell Sankey, and coordinated by York University grad Mike Benevides, who’s coached in the CFL since 2000:

“Bennie has been around so long. He has the ability to go to any coverage that has ever been designed, and he will. So, it’s a game you go into with a plan of how we think they’ll play us, and if they don’t, then I’m telling the players to just be ready, and we’ll adjust.

“(Betts) is obviously a great player. They move him around; he had a big sack last week inside on the guard as a three-technique. We’ll have to keep an eye on him.”

Ticat offence makes a point…many points

According to the CFL stats department, the Ticats scored a touchdown (4) or field goal (3) on 7 of their 9 offensive possessions last week against Winnipeg, meaning 77 percent of their possessions resulted in points. In the detailed analytics era (beginning in 2006) comprising 2,910 games, only five teams have posted higher scoring rates, led by Winnipeg’s 90 percent in their 10 drives of the 2023 Banjo Bowl win over Saskatchewan.

The Ticats also had a 102-yard scoring drive in Winnipeg, one of three 100-yard-plus drives the CFL has already seen in just six games so far this season. Saskatchewan completed an uncommon 109-yard scoring drive, the maximum possible length, last week and on opening weekend, Calgary went 104 yards for a score.

NOTES AND QUOTES

Ticat WR Kenny Lawler forced two pass interference calls, which led to TDs in Winnipeg last week and had 2 catches for 17 yards, extending the CFL’s longest active streak to 73 games with at least one catch … Ticat QB Bo Levi Mitchell‘s next win will tie him with Ricky Ray (112) for 6th on the all-time CFL list. He is 13-8 all-time against BC and leads the CFL in passing accuracy at 84.1% … not only are the two MOP finalists from last year, Mitchell and Nathan Rourke, in this game, so are the two finalists for Defensive Player of the Year, both defensive ends: BC’s Mathieu Betts, who won, and Hamilton’s Julian Howsare, who had 2 sacks last week… Ticat receiver Myron Mitchell has been cited several times by Scott Milanovich for stepping into the lineup as Shemar Bridges is on the 6-game injury list. He caught five passes last week and two the week before, and he can also drop back with Isaiah Wooden if the Cats go with two returners. “At the end of the day, I’m a receiver that can return,” he says.

“I love the receiver position, but I also can get back and return punts and field kickoff returns. So, that’s just extra value.” … dating back to inter-divisional play starting in 1961, the Lions have won 59 times over the Cats, while Hamilton has won 49, and there are three ties … The last three seasons the series has been split with a game apiece, and there have been two overtimes … Rourke has now had four straight games with over 300 yards passing … BC kicker Sean Whyte leads all CFL kickers in successful career field goal percentage at 89% while Hamilton’s Marc Liegghio is second at 87.7%, and both have made all their attempts this season.

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