MONTREAL \u2014 An important East Division matchup between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes closes out Week 8 on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Hamilton enters play in second place with a 3-3 record, four points behind first place Montreal.<\/p>\n
The Alouettes earned a 38-32 win over Calgary last week and are looking to extend their division lead with a victory.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s three keys to victory for each team ahead of Sunday\u2019s 7:00 p.m. ET kickoff, which can be watched on TSN\/RDS in Canada, on CBSSN in the U.S., and on CFL+ internationally.<\/p>\n
RELATED HAMILTON TIGER-CATS<\/p>\n 1. IS TRE FORD THE ANSWER?<\/p>\n Quarterback Tre Ford<\/a> took advantage of his opportunity under centre in Week 7, throwing for 218 yards and rushing for an additional 109 to lead the Ticats to a win over the rival Toronto Argonauts. He\u2019ll get another chance to prove the pocket should be his going forward. To find more success, he\u2019ll need to use his arm and legs again against an Als\u2019 defence allowing 395.7 yards of net offence.<\/p>\n 2. PHYSICAL UP FRONT<\/p>\n When the Ticats defensive front gets their hands on Alouettes\u2019 running back Travis Theis, they have to find a way to keep him from adding extra yards after contact. As a unit, they\u2019re allowing a very respectable 89.5 rushing yards against per game, but Theis is playing with confidence and the defence has to match the energy.<\/p>\n 3. AS MANY OPTIONS AS POSSIBLE<\/p>\n When Ford drops back, he\u2019ll need all of his receivers to be fighting to get open. While Kenny Lawler<\/a> and Kiondr\u00e9 Smith are the clear leaders of the receiving corps, head coach Scott Milanovich needs Kurleigh Gittens Jr.<\/a> and Keric Wheatfall<\/a> to perform like they did last week when they combined for 109 yards.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n MONTREAL ALOUETTES<\/p>\n 1. QB CONTAIN<\/p>\n Ford is going to attempt to run and it\u2019s up to the Alouettes defence to be ready to stop him. The play of defensive linemen Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund<\/a> and Kylan Guidry will be critical in keeping Ford in the pocket and forcing the ball into the air.<\/p>\n 2. RECEIVERS NOT NAMED TYLER SNEAD AND TYSON PHILPOT<\/p>\n Montreal relies more on their top receivers than any other team, as Tyson Philpot<\/a> and Tyler Snead<\/a> sit first and second in targets with 64 and 58, respectively. With the Ticats\u2019 secondary putting much of their focus on shutting down those two, someone else may be required to step up. Alexander Hollins<\/a> should be the next look in quarterback Davis Alexander<\/a>\u2019s reads.<\/p>\n 3. PATIENCE<\/p>\n Hamilton ranks second in fewest big plays allowed, defined as completions of more than 30 yards and runs of more than 20, so the Als\u2019 offence may need to string lengthy drives together to score. Fortunately for head coach Jason Maas, Alexander is more than capable. Alexander has thrown a Canadian Football League record 336 pass attempts without throwing an interception <\/a>and consistently finds way to move his team down the field.<\/p>\n NEED TO KNOW:<\/p>\n Montreal has a chance to secure the season series after a season-opening win in Hamilton. The two teams will meet once more down the stretch when the Ticats host the Als in Week 16.
\u00bb Depth Charts: HAM<\/a> | 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
\nDavis Alexander<\/a> has thrown for over 300 yards in every game this season.
\nAlouettes linebacker Tyrice Beverette will be suiting up for his 100th CFL game.
\nTre Ford<\/a> is 0-2 against Montreal through his career. In his last start against the Als in 2025, he threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns.
\nKenny Lawler<\/a> will look to add to his streak of 77 consecutive games with a catch \u2014 the longest among active CFL players.
\nKickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET kickoff, and can be watched on TSN\/RDS in Canada, on CBSSN in the U.S., and on CFL+ internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 An important East Division matchup between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes closes out Week 8…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-825646","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\/825646","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=825646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}