HAMILTON \u2014 As they await clarity on Bo Levi Mitchell\u2019s injury, the harsh reality facing Hamilton defensive back Reggie Stubblefield and the Tiger-Cats is that their season will continue, with or without their star quarterback.<\/p>\n
Mitchell, 36, suffered an apparent leg injury Sunday night while being sacked by Winnipeg\u2019s Jake Ceresna in the third quarter of Hamilton\u2019s 14-13 home loss to the Blue Bombers. Injury details weren\u2019t divulged, but Ceresna came down hard on Mitchell\u2019s left leg, which was stabilized by medical personnel before Mitchell left the field in an ambulance.<\/p>\n
In 2003 \u2014 Mitchell\u2019s first season with Hamilton \u2014 he required surgery to repair a lower-leg fracture and made just six starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very tough, very emotional because that\u2019s QB1, that\u2019s the leader,\u201d Stubblefield said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a long season, you just have to go back to work, figure things out and stick to things that give us winning football.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t keep your head down. You\u2019ve just really got to do what we said we came here to do no matter the situation and look forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg starter Zach Collaros, 37, also left the game. He suffered an upper-body injury after being sacked by Stubblefield in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Canadian rookie Taylor Elgersma completed 11-of-15 passes for 86 yards and a TD in his first action of the season. The \u201924 Hec Crighton Trophy winner at Laurier engineered a 12-play, 54-yard drive that set up Sergio Castillo\u2019s game-winning 23-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining after Major Williams\u2019 interception.<\/p>\n
Brad Oliveira ran seven straight times for 40 yards before Castillo\u2019s boot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t see anything,\u201d Stubblefield said of Collaros\u2019s injury. \u201cI know I sacked him from his blind side, which is a very vulnerable situation for the quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to celebrate with my teammates and the next drive we hear he\u2019s out of the game. Prayers to Zach, hopefully he\u2019s OK and back on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell was enjoying a stellar \u201926 season. He entered Sunday\u2019s game having completed 68-of-81 passes (CFL-best 84 per cent) for 879 yards with eight TDs and one interception.<\/p>\n
And over his previous two starts, Mitchell was 34-of-42 passing (80.9 per cent) for 572 yards with eight TDs and no interceptions. He\u2019d also earned a perfect efficiency rating of 158.3 in each game, becoming just the eighth quarterback (with at least 15 pass attempts) to do so and first since Toronto\u2019s Ricky Ray in 2013.<\/p>\n
Mitchell staked Hamilton to a 13-4 lead Sunday, completing 18-of-29 passes for 228 yards and a touchdown before the injury. Twice, though, the Ticats had to settle for first-half field goals following 10-play marches.<\/p>\n
That loomed large as Hamilton\u2019s offence sputtered without Mitchell as backups Tre Ford (three-of-seven passing, 12 yards, interception) and Jake Dolegala (0-for-two) both struggled. The Ticats (2-2) visit the defending Grey Cup-champion Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-1) on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a quarterback, you never hope anybody gets hurt, but you want to go out there and play,\u201d said Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich. \u201cIf Bo is out, that will be an opportunity for one of those guys to go and prove they\u2019re a starting quarterback in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell took to social media Monday to thank his teammates, Ticats fans and his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will do everything I can to be back on that field with y\u2019all ASAP,\u201d Mitchell wrote. \u201cWe have something special in Hamilton, and this doesn\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford opened \u201925 as Edmonton\u2019s starter before giving way to veteran Cody Fajardo. The Niagara Falls, Ont., native, who signed with Hamilton this off-season, said if he gets the starting nod, he won\u2019t be trying to pick up where Mitchell left off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t go and just compare myself to Bo and how he\u2019s been playing,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u2019m more frustrated with a couple of mistakes I made just on plays like the interception.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to eliminate those mental mistakes and get everybody on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should Mitchell miss significant time, Stubblefield said Hamilton\u2019s defence can\u2019t try putting the team on its shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a defence we steadily want to progress every single game,\u201d he said. \u201cIn some situations we\u2019ve got to pick each other up, but it\u2019s never about just one phase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean you want to be great in all phases and maybe one phase, like our offence, has been carrying the load this season. Defence will pick it up, but we\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Milanovich didn\u2019t discuss Mitchell\u2019s injury after the game. Instead, he spoke about injuries as an inevitable part of football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just told them this is football, and these things happen, and we\u2019re all competitors,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully (Mitchell) will be back, but if he\u2019s not, then we\u2019re going to have to pick up the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAMILTON \u2014 As they await clarity on Bo Levi Mitchell\u2019s injury, the harsh reality facing Hamilton defensive back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-784619","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\/784619","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=784619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}