The Hamilton Tiger-Cats put forth their best performance of the 2024 campaign with a dominant 44-28 victory over the Edmonton Elks on Sunday at Commonwealth Stadium. Below are my thoughts on the game.
Bo knows throwing touchdowns
Bo Levi Mitchell had a slow start on Sunday but, once he found his groove, the Elks had no answer for the 34-year-old quarterback. Mitchell completed 68 percent of his throws for 316 yards, one interception, and a career-high five touchdown passes. The interception came on Hamilton’s second possession to Marcus Lewis off a poor read, but fans would be hard-pressed to find many more complaints about Mitchell’s performance.
From the final three minutes of the second half to the 10-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Mitchell engineered five scoring drives, finding Jevoni Robinson for his first career touchdown, Luther Hakunavanhu, Kiondre Smith, and Tim White twice for major scores. While one of those possessions was aided by a Kobe Jones blocked punt, Mitchell had his way with the Elks’ defence for much of the game and helped Hamilton build up a 41-8 lead in the fourth quarter.
Expecting your quarterback to throw for 300-plus yards and five touchdowns every game is unrealistic but if Mitchell can get anywhere close to that production for the remainder of the season, the Tiger-Cats offence could be a threat in the East Division.
No fly zone
Hamilton’s defence had their best performance of 2024, which was led by their secondary. After allowing McLeod Bethel-Thompson to start the game six-for-six, leading to a pair of field goals, the Ticats held Bethel-Thompson to four completions on 16 attempts the rest of the way. He threw for only 85 yards through three-and-a-half quarters before he was pulled in favour of Tre Ford.
I thought rookie defensive back Robert Panabaker was fantastic on Sunday, registering four defensive tackles, one special teams tackle, a sack, and two pass breakups, which included a thunderous hit over the middle on Elks receiver Arkell Smith. Panabaker stepped into the lineup last week for the injured Stavros Katsantonis and has played extremely well in his absence. It looks like the Ticats may have found a hidden gem with the Western University product, whom they selected in the fifth round of the 2023 CFL Draft.
Jamal Peters was also noticeable at cornerback, picking Bethel-Thompson off late in the first half that resulted in Mitchell’s 66-yard touchdown to Luther Hakunavanhu,which put Hamilton up 21-8 heading into halftime.
Block party
For the second consecutive week, Hamilton’s special teams unit can be credited with creating a game-shifting play as they blocked their second punt in as many weeks. With Hamilton down 8-7 late in the second quarter, Kobe Jones was this week’s benefactor of the block, bursting through Edmonton’s line and getting an arm up. The play allowed D.Q. Thomas to recover deep in Edmonton territory.
Hamilton scored its first major of the game one play later on a 12-yard reception by Jamaican-born converted basketball player Jevoni Robinson and the Tabbies never looked back. The Tiger-Cats’ coverage units also did a nice job containing dangerous return man Javon Leake, without a doubt providing their best performance of the season.
Credit to special teams coordinator Dennis McKnight who has come in and almost immediately changed the fortunes of the unit that struggled mightily under Paul Boudreau.
Sayles is on the case
Casey Sayles turned in another stellar performance on Sunday, registering five defensive tackles and three tackles for loss. The Ohio product was a game wrecker against both the Elks passing and running game and proved why he is one of the most dominant interior defensive linemen in the league.
Now that DeWayne Hendrix is back healthy, I look forward to seeing what kind of chaos the duo can create for the remainder of the season.
Cool running
Had Bo Levi Mitchell not thrown for five touchdowns, I would’ve had a hard time not picking James Butler to be Hamilton’s player of the game after his performance on Sunday.
Butler rushed for 98 yards on 21 carries, averaging 4.7 yards per rush, and caught three passes for 19 yards. The bruising ball-carrier’s game is rarely pretty, but he does all the things a team looks for and expects from its running back and he does them all at a very high level. His longest rush was only 13 yards but his vision and ability to cut back, spin off or drag a defender with him for another extra yard or two is what sets him apart from most of the other backs in the league.
He loves playing in the guts of the game and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, which opened up the passing game for Mitchell. It’s a deadly combination when both your run and pass game are operating at high levels and I would suspect that Butler’s workload will continue to be heavy here over the next couple of weeks.
Canadian airshow
Two Canadian pass-catchers led the way for Hamilton on Sunday as Luther Hakunavanhu finished with two receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown and Kiondre Smith added two receptions for 69 yards and a score thanks to a beautiful 59-yard connection with Mitchell in the third quarter.
Hamilton has struggled to get much production from its Canadian receivers over the last number of years, dating back to when Andy Fantuz donned the black and gold. However, it appears they’ve found some solutions as Hakunavanhu and Smith have combined for eight touchdowns and over 500 yards receiving on the season.
Add in Tyler Ternowski and the injured Brendan O’Leary-Orange, who had four receptions for 62 yards in his one game of action this year, and it appears the Tiger-Cats have layered some nice Canadian depth at the receiver position.
Tre-mania
I write from a Tiger-Cats perspective here on 3DownNation, so most of my thoughts are geared towards their performance, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the performance of Canadian quarterback Tre Ford in his short outing of work.
Ford was unbelievable coming on in relief of McLeod Bethel-Thompson, completing 10-of-15 pass attempts for 121 yards and three touchdowns. His best play came when he scrambled around in the pocket, avoiding several Ticats defenders before finding Javon Leake downfield for a huge gain.
Imagine spending $500,000 on a QB and leaving Tre Ford — an elite athlete who can do this 🤯 — on the bench for six games and three quarters…
The Elks can’t make it make sense.#Edmonton #Elks #CFL pic.twitter.com/7GhE0u5O4p
— Justin Dunk (@JDunk12) July 29, 2024
Ford is one of the special talents in this league and was able to bring the remaining Elks faithful to their feet on several occasions, even with the team down big. Looking online, I’ve seen some criticism that his production came exclusively in garbage time and Hamilton was playing more of a prevent-style defence. While there’s some truth to that, I don’t think it makes Ford’s fourth-quarter performance any less impressive.
Up next
The Tiger-Cats will now turn their attention to the defending Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes, who head into Week 9 off the backs of a 20-16 victory over Saskatchewan.
Hamilton and Montreal will play the first of back-to-back meetings Friday night at Tim Hortons Field before playing the rubber match Saturday, Aug. 10 at Percival Molson Stadium. Montreal took home all three regular season matchups in 2023 and also defeated Hamilton 27-12 in the East Semi-Final en route to their Grey Cup victory.
These are two highly important games for the Tabbies as they try to close the gap in the East Division and, maybe most importantly, prove to themselves and the rest of the league that they can hang with the league’s elite team.
