{"id":71167,"date":"2025-08-15T08:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/71167\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T08:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:30:12","slug":"riders-look-to-lock-down-duo-of-bo-levi-mitchell-and-kenny-lawler-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/71167\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders look to lock down duo of Bo Levi Mitchell and Kenny Lawler"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats aren\u2019t only bringing a dynamic duo to Mosaic Stadium, but it\u2019s a pair of players who have had some of their biggest games against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/a><\/p>\n

Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell has long been a thorn in the side of the green and white, playing for the rival Calgary Stampeders from 2012-22.<\/p>\n

In his career, Mitchell has thrown for 41,879 yards, 237 touchdowns and 120 interceptions.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Riders head coach Corey Mace<\/a>, who was playing defensive line for the Stamps when Mitchell first came into the league, was the recipient of his first-ever CFL touchdown pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think looking back, we all saw what he had and I\u2019m not shocked at the career that he has had. He\u2019s a special talent and does a lot of really good stuff and he has been able to do it for a long time,\u201d Mace said. \u201cNothing but respect for old Bo.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Mitchell is throwing to Kenny Lawler, who was a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a few seasons. He had 177 yards and three touchdowns for the Bombers in the 2024 CFL West Final.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Riders beat the Ti-Cats 28-23 back in Week 2,<\/a> but Mitchell connected with Lawler eight times for 162 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou knew from the get-go they were eventually going to start lighting it up,\u201d said defensive back Marcus Sayles<\/a>, who was a teammate of Lawler\u2019s in Winnipeg in 2019. \u201cThey have been balling pretty much their whole careers and it\u2019s not something to sleep on. It was bound for them to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us moving forward, we have to mess up his reads and get Kenny off his spot a little bit and get Bo off his spot a little bit. At the end of the day, they are both going to make their plays and they maybe are both hall of famers but at the same time, we\u2019re a good defence and when we lock in, we\u2019re on our stuff too.\u201d<\/p>\n

With other teams focusing on taking away Lawler from Mitchell in the passing game, the veteran pivot has included Tim White and Kiondre Smith a lot in the attack. Smith had 14 catches in a win over the B.C. Lions for the Ti-Cats.<\/p>\n

So with Hamilton able to spread the ball around, it can cause some issues for the defence.<\/p>\n

But linebacker C.J. Reavis said they are prepared for it because of all the wide receiver and slotback talent the defence practices against daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we get work with it every day so when the game comes, it\u2019s not any different for us,\u201d Reavis said.<\/p>\n

And Reavis is hoping to get his hands around the football a little bit more this season with only a single interception so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being called for the blitz but as of recently, I have been wanting that ball a little bit more. Bo, if you want to throw it to me, come get me please,\u201d Reavis said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Kickoff for the game against Hamilton<\/a> on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium is set for 1 p.m. The Green Zone pregame show begins at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hamilton Tiger-Cats aren\u2019t only bringing a dynamic duo to Mosaic Stadium, but it\u2019s a pair of players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-71167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71167","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=71167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}