MONTREAL \u2014 A matchup between top teams in the East Division opens a Saturday tripleheader when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats head to Percival Molson Memorial Stadium to face the Montreal Alouettes.<\/p>\n
Hamilton wants to have a short memory on a shortened week after dropping a thrilling Labour Day Classic showdown against the Toronto Argonauts in the final minutes.<\/p>\n
Montreal was on a bye and is looking to snap a four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s three keys to victory for both teams ahead of Saturday\u2019s 1:00 p.m. ET kickoff, which can be watched on TSN and RDS in Canada, and on CFL+ in the U.S. and internationally.<\/p>\n
RELATED HAMILTON TIGER-CATS<\/p>\n 1. SHOW AND GO<\/p>\n It\u2019s important not to make too much out of any one loss, but the Ticats have dropped three straight to see their division lead slip to two points. They had a bye ahead of their Labour Day showdown, so they\u2019ll hope that less time to prepare will allow for a back-to-basics mindset.<\/p>\n 2. THE DEFENCE<\/p>\n The Ticats sat seventh in net yards allowed per game with 382.4 coming into play this week. The pressure was there early against the Argos, but it will be about sustaining it versus the Als. Linebacker Devin Veresuk<\/a> has shown he can be an impact player in the middle of the field, and Destin Talbert<\/a> leads the secondary.<\/p>\n 3. ANSWER THE (GREG) BELL<\/p>\n Hamilton\u2019s run game continues to struggle, ranking eighth in the league in average yards per game after 13 weeks. If Greg Bell<\/a> can find a way to make the Montreal front pay attention to him, it will open up the field even more for quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a> to make big plays.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n MONTREAL ALOUETTES<\/p>\n 1. AUSTIN MACK AND TYSON PHILPOT ARE BACK<\/p>\n It will be like Christmas morning, receiver edition, for Als head coach Jason Maas when his offence trots on the field. Stars Austin Mack and Tyson Philpot<\/a> return from injuries, and it\u2019s a needed boost for an offence that\u2019s averaged 14.8 points over their four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n 2. JAMES MORGAN<\/p>\n Davis Alexander<\/a> appears closer to a return, but it\u2019s James Morgan<\/a>\u2019s pocket for at least another week. With Mack and Philpot joining Tyler Snead<\/a>, Morgan has three legitimate game-changing targets to work with. Now, it\u2019s about finding them with consistency.<\/p>\n 3. VETERAN SECONDARY STEPPING UP<\/p>\n Taking away Mitchell\u2019s options will force the Ticats\u2019 run game to generate more offence. Executing, which is easier said than done, will come down to defensive backs Marc-Antoine Dequoy<\/a>, who returns from injury, Kabion Ento<\/a> and Wesley Sutton<\/a>\u2019s ability to blanket receivers Kenny Lawler<\/a> and Kiondr\u00e9 Smith, and in turn forcing Mitchell to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n NEED TO KNOW:<\/p>\n Hamilton won the first matchup this season, 35-17, back in Week 4.
\u00bb Depth Charts: HAM<\/a>\u00a0| MTL<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Game Notes: Tiger-Cats at Alouettes<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Tickets: Hamilton at Montreal<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Injury Reports: Stay up to date<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Who\u2019s gonna win? Play CFL Pick \u2018Em presented by Old Dutch now!<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s the final meeting between these two teams this season.
\nKickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET, and can be watched on TSN and RDS in Canada, and on CFL+ in the U.S. and internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 A matchup between top teams in the East Division opens a Saturday tripleheader when the Hamilton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-124430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}