They’ve played only three games without him, but to Wynton McManis it seems like an eternity since he’s seen his name written on the depth chart.

The Ticats’ middle linebacker, a prize free agency acquisition in the off-season, makes his first official appearance in black and gold Sunday night (7 p.m., TSN, Ticats Audio Network/Y108) when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers come into Hamilton Stadium.

He suffered a bone bruise on his knee which is now recovered, with some extra time afforded by the Ticats’ bye last week, and he cannot hide his elation that he’s healthy enough to play.

“I’m excited right now,” says the two-time All-CFLer, who’s in his eighth season in the league but first in Hamilton after five in Toronto. “I feel full of grace, having got over this thing and getting back on the field to compete and have fun.

“It seems like you miss so much when you’re not playing. It’s only been three games, 15 per cent of the season. It’s exciting to get in there and run around.”

He’s been practicing in recent days but even when the knee recovery didn’t allow him onto the field McManis has been an active part of the team, attending meetings, adding his input to younger players and offering encouragement…all with his trademark toothpick visible between his lips.

“Be where my feet are,” he explains. “I wanted to make sure I was around communicating with everybody, still getting to know my teammates, building that bond, and hope we can make our defence even stronger.”

It can be confusing to casual fans that McManis is listed as Designated American with Canadian Ryan Baker, who’s performed very well substituting for McManis, listed as starting…which by CFL’s very complicated roster rules, he will to open the game.

But, essentially, McManis can then be in for 25 plays; then more if he replaces another American starter on defence.

“He’s done and is doing an amazing job,” McManis said Saturday morning of Baker.

 “A great teammate, and on field he doesn’t make many mistakes. When I step in I’ll just try to continue that and make plays.”

The Ticats will be encountering a Winnipeg group with lots of talent, especially at quarterback with Zach Collaros, a deep receiving corps and one of the game’s best power backs in Brady Oliveira, whose speed and muscle set up so much of what the Bombers do. They’re also traditionally strong in the defensive front seven, but have lost middle linebacker Jovan Santos Knox for the season with an Achilles injury and have made a lineup change at the opposite defensive end from the legendary Willie Jefferson.

“You expect them to come out, play a physical game, expect them to come out and try to establish the run,” McManis said. “That’s something they’ve done a really good job at in years past. They’ve lost a few games now and you know they’re going to be hungry. They’re going to be ready to go. We’ve got to take that up to another level and be able to counter it.”

The Bombers will definitely be storming into town with a lot of motivation. After winning on the road in Calgary to open the season, they are coming off two home losses in a row which they felt they could have won, 23-18 last week to Edmonton and the Ticats’ emotional 37-27 win right in Winnipeg on June 11.

There are also former Ticats in primary roles with the Bombers—Hall of Fame bound quarterback Collaros, and two recent Cats, star wide receiver Tim White and defensive back Jonathan Moxey—and they’ll be looking to avenge the June loss to their recent teammates.

 And while the Cats come off their bye trying to move to 3-1 the Bombers want to avoid the mirror image of that and not fall to 1-3. As a sidebar: Cat head coach Scott Milanovch is 4-1 in the first game after a bye week, and overall since 2018 the Cats are 14-5 off a bye week.

The Bombers will also be fired up to get better starts. They’ve fallen behind early by significant margins, including 24-10 to the Cats, and 17-0 to the Elks last week, and have rallied in the latter portions but living on a razor’s edge for too long can cause sharp cuts.

“We’ve got to figure out how to start fast,” Moxey told the Winnipeg media this week. “Take ownership. Back to Little League football, from the handshake, from the first kickoff, be ready and locked in and take it one play at a time. Don’t look too far ahead.”

Some Bombers, like Moxey, were avoiding the revenge angle but some others, like White hinted at it.

“It should be,” said the four-time Eastern all-star and three time All-CFL receiver who had four consecutive 1000-yard seasons here and is on pace for another one in Manitoba.

“I expect it to be a highly competitive environment. And I’m ready to step out there and get it going. I was there for five years. There should be a lot of memories there.”

White had one of the Bombers turnovers last week, when they fumbled six times and lost half of them, so like all teams, protecting the ball will be a key to their mentality, as will finding a way to get to Bo Levi Mitchell who has been sacked only twice and has evaded numerous near-tackles.

“He’s getting smarter,” Moxey said. “His decision-making, the arm is still there, he’s still got that. He’s just a super smart football player.”

Actually Winnipeg is the only team Hamilton has trailed during a game in this young season, and that was for only for seven minutes and 22 seconds. They never trailed against BC or in regulation time in the overtime loss to Montréal to open the season. The Ticats seized the game in Winnipeg right after the Bombers took a 10-7 lead and never quite let go.

The Ticats’ defence ranks third in the league in points allowed but have surrendered more yards per game than seven other teams as they’ve bent but most times not broken and do need to tighten up in the fourth quarter.

The Bombers’ defence, while still strong has been susceptible on second downs, allowing offences to convert at a 57 per cent success rate. But they’re good at limiting first down yardage, and are still blessed with sure tackling.

“Coming off a loss against Edmonton and a loss against us they’re going to come out firing and trying everything, being real physical,” said Wheatfall who had a redemptive 102 yards receiving in Winnipeg in his first game against his former team. “Offensively we’re going in there knowing that this is probably going to be the best team version of Winnipeg we’re going to see this season.”

CATS CLAUSES

It’s just the start….but what a start

Bo Levi Mitchell has been every bit as good in this young season as he was the past two years, in each of which he was a finalist for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player Award. He was recognized as a CFL Player of the Week on the weekend before the Cats’ bye week before this Sunday night’s home encounter with Winnipeg.

Mitchell has completed all 12 of his passes in the red zone and in his first three games has completed 84 per cent of his attempts, has tossed for eight touchdowns and has been intercepted just once, although it was a pick-six. He also sprinted 15 yards on his only rush of the season but has also bought time with deft side-steps and short rollouts to avoid sacks.

And while the majority of his completions have been in the short to medium range, heading into this week’s games he had gone deep often enough to rank second behind Toronto’s Chad Kelly in average yards per completion. That forces opposing secondaries to make a coverage choice and often sets up man-to-man mismatches for Mitchell’s deep squad of receivers, with a different top threat emerging every game.

While the eye test has been sufficient to confirm that Mitchell is on top of his game, here are some extra-terrestrial stats to underscore what we’re seeing:

• When he led the Cats to scores (worth 37 points) on seven of their nine offensive drives in the inspirational win at Winnipeg 23 days ago, it was among the top six totals since drive stats have been compiled by the league. And Mitchell followed that up with six touchdown drives in the first nine drives the next week against B.C.

So in a string of 18 Ticat offensive possessions, his offence generated 68 points.

• Mitchell leads the CFL in passing accuracy, with 84 per cent of his throws being caught. His offence topped the CFL with touchdowns on a remarkable 39.4% of all possessions through Week 3.
• The Ticats have scored on 10 drives of 70 yards or longer.  In three games.
• And, perhaps paradoxically, in an opening month during which 400- yard passing games have been almost commonplace, Mitchell has gone over 300 in only the opener, falling just short in the past two, both wins. But in those games he’s had a QB rating—comprising several weighted statistics—-of 158.3, which is considered perfect. He became just the eighth quarterback in CFL history to have back-to-back perfect QB ratings and only the immortal Warren Moon, straddling 1981-82 has done it in three consecutive games. The NFL, which uses the same system, has never had a quarterback have two perfect QB ratings back-to-back.

Classic Car Show, first responders, central to Made In the Hammer Game

This Sunday is the Made in the Hammer Game, which focuses on and celebrates the people, places and stories which contribute to Hamilton’s unique and evolving character.  The game recognizes hometown heroes, including health care workers and first responders and pre-game festivities include the opportunity to get close to emergency vehicles, including a police car, fire truck and ambulance.

And starting at 5 p.m. fans can inspect a lineup of classic and exotic vehicles owned by local car enthusiasts. Hamilton Sports Group minority owner Angelo Paletta, President of TNG Exotics, ‘The Next Generation’ is the supporter of the car show.

Sacks and penalties tell their own stories

It’s a mantra of every coach, including Scott Milanovich and his staff: limit the penalties and the quarterback sacks-against and you increase the chances of good things happening.

Despite playing against three of the league’s strongest defensive lines, the Ticats have surrendered only two sacks this year, tied with Edmonton for fewest in the league. Winnipeg has given up six, the eighth-most. CFL stats reports that drives which include a sack result in touchdowns only  five per cent of the time while sack-free drives had a 39 per cent chance of ending with a major.

Sunday night’s game matches the two teams which lead the league in keeping a lid on their penalties, each averaging just 4.7 per game. In the limited sample size so far, drives in which the defence is called for at least one penalty result in the CFL’s collectively dynamic offences scoring TDs at a phenomenal rate of 57 per cent, up over 50 per cent from last year. That rate will surely decline over time but, given the breadth and depth of offences this season, the drop-off might not be too significant.  The current 71 per cent completion rate by CFL QBs is the highest in league history and 30 per cent of all offensive drives have reached the Red Zone, up 43 per cent from the average over the previous five seasons.

Notes and Quotes:

Here’s former Ticat and current Bomber head coach Mike O’Shea speaking to the Winnipeg Sun on Bo Levi Mitchell’s  brilliant start to the season: “It’s uncanny. He can throw blind passes and get completions to guys that you just don’t think he could even see there,” O’Shea said. “His vision is pretty exceptional.” … Ticat QB Jake Dolegala  pushed into the end zone in each of Hamilton’s 3 games to lead the team with 3 rushing touchdowns … in his 2024 rookie season in Winnipeg, Ticat WR Keric Wheatfall replaced an injured Kenny Lawler and became a mainstay before coming to Hamilton in the off-season where he’s Lawler’s teammate: We hang out outside of football and Kenny is a big mentor. You know, he’s a leader. He’s my roommate for away games. So any questions I have, he answers right away. We just have a real good relationship.” …. Ticats punter Mitch McCarthy tops the CFL in net punt average at 41 yards … the Bombers (No 1.) and Ticats  (No. 2) are the best punt coverage teams in the CFL. The Cats have given up only 37 punt return yards while Winnipeg has the league’s longest overall punt average, and has surrendered only 82 return yards … Winnipeg special teams are ranked No. 1 overall, with Hamilton 4^th… since the “modern CFL” unified in 1961, the Bombers lead the regular-season series with 70 wins, while the Cats have won 61 times. Winnipeg has won 6 of the last 10, but Hamilton prevailed 37-27 in Manitoba on June 11 …  Winnipeg and Hamilton have been the CFL’s most disciplined teams, averaging just 4.7 per game. The Ticats’ offence has taken just one penalty, four fewer than No. 2 Winnipeg …shutdown CB Jamal Peters and Wynton McManis are the two Ticats additions to this week’s lineup while OG Patrick Neufeld returns to a Winnipeg offensive line as the only Canadian among four American starters. Micah Mazzccua makes his first CFL start at OT … The Ticats’ average starting position for an offensive drive has been their own 38.7 yard line, fourth most-favourable in the league while the Bombers rank eighth, at 33.1, nearly six yards per possession farther from the opposing goal line than Hamilton’s … all of the Ticats’ points this year have derived from offence (touchdowns and field goals); they don’t have any from the defence or special teams but the offence has converted turnovers into 16 points. Winnipeg has yet to score a point resulting from turnovers … the Cats’ offence ranks a deceptive 7^th overall  at 380 yards per game but into their bye week they led the league with 13 TDs, while the Bombers had only 8 offensive TDs … despite some rough patches, through their respective first three games Sunday’s combatants are near the top in fewest points allowed. Hamilton is second at 28 per game while Winnipeg is third at 29.3 … the Cats have made 6 sacks, one off the league lead heading into this week, while the Bombers are right behind at 5, including 3 by DT Jake Ceresna in the opener against Calgary … QB Zach Collaros has only one 30-plus-yard completion but has a 71.9 per cent completion rate. He entered the week with 20,169 career passing yards as a Bomber, just 6 back of Khari Jones  for 2^nd on the franchise list … Brady Oliveira ranked 3^rd in the CFL with 74 yards per game with the Cats’  Larry Rountree III next at 69.7 … Bomber WR Trey Vaval has two returns over 30 yards … opposing offences are averaging 6.6 yards per first down against Winnipeg, lowest in the league while Hamilton surrenders 7.4 yards … the Bomber defence’s 7.12 yards surrendered for all scrimmage plays is second lowest in the league while Hamilton is ranked only 8^th at 7.63 yards against per play …  Punt and kick returners are rebounding: while there was only one return for a TD in the first three weeks of the season (ex-Cat Tyreik McAllister), there were three last weekend when the Ticats were on a bye: Kalil Pimpleton, Janarion Grant and McAllister, with his second.