The Hamilton Tiger-Cats and well-rested Alouettes look to snap their respective losing streaks at the other’s expense on Saturday in Montreal.
The East Division-leading Tiger-Cats (6-5) have dropped three in a row, while the second-place Alouettes (5-6) have lost four straight games.
Montreal, however, enters Saturday’s contest having 16 days off between games. The Alouettes capped a fruitless month in which they were outscored 119-59 with a 26-13 setback to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Aug. 21.
Fourth-string quarterback James Morgan completed just 18 of 33 passes for 198 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in his first career CFL start.
“It’s definitely different when you get more than one day of practice, in terms of game plan, getting the reps, going over the looks, over and over again,” Morgan said. “(I’m) thankful for that, just trying to take advantage of every single day and get ready for this week.
“Whatever hand I’m dealt I’ll take it, I think (the bye) was nice for our team, just getting everybody a little bit of a rest, get everybody healthy, I think everybody is fired up and ready to go.”
Alouettes head coach Jason Maas agreed with Morgan’s assessment.
“We knew the bye was coming at the perfect time for us,” Maas said. “A lot of healthy bodies were going to be back. That’s what we’ve seen at practice. Right now, it’s a healthy group and it’s exciting.
“When you come back, it’s refreshing to see the standings, too. Know that we’re going for first place this game. That’s awesome. I don’t think this group needs a lot of motivation, but it’s nice to see that what has been done has been done. Everything we want to accomplish still is ahead of us.”
Hamilton also is champing at the bit to put forth a better – and more disciplined – performance after dropping a 35-33 decision to provincial rival Toronto on Monday. Bo Levi Mitchell threw for 405 yards and three touchdowns for the Tiger-Cats, with Kenny Lawler reeling in nine catches for 123 yards and two scores.
“There’s signs of maturity, but there’s a lot of signs of immaturity,” Mitchell said, per the Hamilton Spectator. There’s pointing fingers, there’s blaming coaches for a bad play and that’s internal. That’s our job to be better at that.”
Lawler leads the league with a career-high 10 touchdown receptions. He is 32 receiving yards shy of 1,000 on the season.
Hamilton’s last victory in Montreal was Aug. 27, 2021.
-Field Level Media
