Ticats Win In Ottawa Makes Three In Four Weeks

HAMILTON — The Ticats bounced back from last week’s loss with a statement 16-12 win in Ottawa. The victory marked the Ticats’ third of the season and their second consecutive over Montreal.

The return of starting quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was mixed. The former two-time Grey Cup champion completed 23 of 40 passes (57.5%) for 353 yards (8.8 YPA), two touchdowns and five interceptions.

Though the five picks will be a topic of conversation, it’s worth nothing that Mitchell’s high-risk/high-reward style of play also yielded large chunks of yardage for Hamilton. 353 passing yards off of 23 completions left Mitchell with an impressive 15.3 yards-per-completion average.

Kai Locksley led the Ticats’ receiving corps with 91 receiving yards picked up off of two receptions. 75 of those yards came off of a screen pass that saw Locksley streak all of the way down the field to give Hamilton a 15-9 lead on the final play of the third quarter.

Defensively, the Ticats held Ottawa to their lowest point total of the season (12: tied with their total from 6/10/23 @ Montreal).

Their ability to get to the quarterback was the difference-maker as Defensive Coordinator Mark Washington’s squad sacked Dustin Crum seven times (twice by Malik Carney and Tre’ Crawford and once by Casey Sayles, Stavros Katsantonis and Mohamed Diallo).

It was a rough outing for Crum who completed 13 of 22 passes (59.1%) for 158 yards (7.2 YPA), zero touchdowns and one interception.

There’d be no “crum-back” this time, as an incomplete pass at the Hamilton four-yard-line in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter sealed the win for the Ticats.

With three wins over the last four weeks, the Ticats will head into Saturday’s home game vs. the Alouettes with a lot of momentum as they try to reach 0.500 for the first time this season.