MONTREAL — The Hamilton Tiger-Cats grinded out a divisional win on a rainy afternoon in Montreal on Saturday. On the heels of a balanced attack on offence and a stout defence, the Ticats move to 7-5 on the season and gained some breathing room between themselves and the Als in the standings.

Bo Levi Mitchell started the game with a bang, launching a 48-yard bomb to Kenny Lawler, making it seem like the Ticats offence wouldn’t shy away from the wet weather and be willing to sling the ball all game. However, it was an extremely balanced attack – 28 rushes and 28 pass attempts – that helped Hamilton wear down the Alouettes and head home with the 26-9 win.

CFL.ca brings you three key stats from the Tiger-Cats win over the Alouettes.

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234 — HAMILTON’S TOTAL RUSHING YARDS

On the legs of a career day from Greg Bell and some surprise contributions (more on that later), the Ticats wore out a stout Alouettes defence with a consistent ground attack. Although it didn’t start well with Bell fumbling near the goal line on Hamilton’s first offensive drive, head coach and offensive coordinator Scott Milanovich stuck with the run game.

Bell was really the engine for the Black and Gold offence on Saturday, churning out a career-high 156 rushing yards and putting things out of reach with a late touchdown plunge.

167 — TOTAL YARDS ALLOWED

 

Alouettes QB James Morgan finished the day with 138 passing yards, with the majority coming late in the fourth quarter when the Alouettes were chasing the game. The Ticats defence did not allow him to get much going through the air all day, and the Als even gave newcomer Cameron Dukes a drive to try and get a spark.

Running back Travis Theis had a decent day with 70 yards on nine carries (7.8 average), but ultimately the Alouettes could not sustain anything offensively against the Tiger-Cats staunch defence. Helping close things out for the Tabbies were defensive back Jamal Peters, with his fourth interception on the season, and defensive end Julian Howsare, with two sacks in the fourth quarter, one of which included knocking the ball loose and putting it back in the hands of their offence.

1 — BO LEVI MITCHELL RUSHING TOUCHDOWN

We mentioned earlier that the ground game was key for the Ticats on this day, but early on it was the quarterback who put the Tiger-Cats in front with a 14-yard touchdown scamper.

For Mitchell, this marked his first rushing touchdown in over a decade, with his last coming on August 15, 2015 while he was still a member of the Calgary Stampeders.