HAMILTON \u2014 It\u2019s not necessarily as exciting as long downfield completions, but Scott Milanovich is making no apologies for the emergence of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats\u2019 ground game.<\/p>\n
The Ticats (8-5) have cracked the 160-yard rushing plateau in each of their last two games, both wins. Hamilton ran for 234 yards on 28 attempts (8.4-yard average) in its 26-9 road win over the Montreal Alouettes on Sept. 6 before amassing 163 yards on 27 tries (six-yard average) in last week\u2019s 32-21 home victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Hamilton was averaging 72.3 yards rushing per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very encouraging,\u201d Milanovich said. \u201cSomebody told me last week that the game in Montreal was an ugly win and I said, \u2018To me, that\u2019s the best win we\u2019ve had all year.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s playoff football, that\u2019s inclement weather football when you can run the ball, play great defence, cover on special teams and not turn it over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Running back Greg Bell has posted consecutive 100-yard rushing games. He had 20 carries for 156 yards and a TD versus Montreal before recording 137 yards and a touchdown on 22 attempts against Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
The rushing attack has helped reduce Hamilton\u2019s reliance on its passing game as quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell has thrown for a combined 421 yards over the two contests. After leading the CFL in passing for the first half of the season (320.3 yards per game through nine weeks), the Ticats have dropped to third behind B.C. and Toronto (both 320.8), averaging 299.9 yards per game.<\/p>\n
Mitchell was the CFL\u2019s passing leader for the first 11 weeks of the season but is now second (3,883 yards) behind Toronto\u2019s Nick Arbuckle (4,089). Mitchell still remains tops in touchdown passes (26) however the 35-year-old Texan, in his 13th CFL season, doesn\u2019t mind watching the Ticats run the ball effectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome to be able to watch again,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling to be able to run the football when the other team knows you\u2019re going to run it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just have to continue to get better, that\u2019s our biggest thing \u2026 that\u2019s what you\u2019ve got to do to win Grey Cups. Happy and all that but not satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell\u2019s start versus Winnipeg was his 20th straight with Hamilton — his longest such streak since 2018-19 with Calgary. And the two TD strikes gave Mitchell 252 for his CFL career, tying him with Tom Clements for 11th all-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife (Madison) took a picture of me as a kid and sent it to me,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt had a note next to it that said, \u2018Imagine having a throwing session with this guy right now and the questions he\u2019d ask you and you being able to tell him right now you\u2019re living out your dream of playing professional football.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know that little kid would be so happy that we made it and the amount of work to be put in to get here. When you\u2019re on a team in the pros it\u2019s just about being out there with the guys and enjoying it and just loving every second of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell credits Milanovich, offensive line coach Brendan Walsh and quarterback coach Jarryd Baines for their persistence in refining Hamilton\u2019s ground game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou give Scott enough time to do anything and that guy is going to figure it out,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the smartest football minds I\u2019ve ever been around.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalsh and the O-line, they watch so much film, they\u2019re in there all the time. JB gets with the O-line, gets with the running backs. There\u2019s a lot of time spent on task to make sure we look the way we have the last two games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s defence also made a significant contribution to the win over Winnipeg. The offence converted interceptions by Jamal Peters and DaShaun Amos into touchdowns as the Ticats have scored a CFL-high 98 points off turnovers this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe turnover margin is the single-biggest factor in winning and losing and we\u2019ve been pretty good at it,\u201d Milanovich said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t been great offensively the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were early (versus Winnipeg) but I thought we did a great job of protecting the football. Our defence has been opportunistic in giving us the ball all year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton hosts the Edmonton Elks (5-8) on Saturday night. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2025.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAMILTON \u2014 It\u2019s not necessarily as exciting as long downfield completions, but Scott Milanovich is making no apologies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-147613","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\/147613","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=147613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}