Tim White enters the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' bye week on a nice roll.
The fourth-year receiver had six catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns in Hamilton's crucial 31-28 Labour Day win over the Toronto Argonauts on Monday. Bo Levi Mitchell found White on a 57-yard strike to open the scoring, and then the two combined on a 70-yard TD pass that put the Ticats ahead 21-3 later in the first quarter.
It was White's second straight 100-yard performance. He had seven receptions for 134 yards in Hamilton's 26-23 loss in Winnipeg on Aug. 23.
Before that, White had cracked the 100-yard receiving plateau just once this season when he hauled in eight catches for 118 yards and a TD in Hamilton's 24-22 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks on June 30.
The five-foot-10, 185-pound White has 53 catches for 829 yards (third-best in CFL) and six touchdowns (second overall). He's on pace for a third-straight season of 1,200-plus receiving yards and needs three TD grabs to set a career high.
"Tim came up huge early in the game with the two touchdowns," said Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich. "Great routes, great patience.
"He really seems to be hitting his stride these last couple of weeks and certainly we need that."
White doesn't think the bye comes at a bad time for him or the Ticats.
"I think you're going to take anything you can get," he said. "I feel like we're going to get back into meeting rooms, we're going to be excited to be back on the field like we have been all season and just continue to close out the season and let it roll our way."
The Ticats (3-9) desperately needed the win. They clinched the season series with Toronto (6-5) and moved within six points of the third-place Argos in the East Division standings.
A loss would've dropped Hamilton 10 points behind Toronto with six regular-season games to play. Although the Ticats still face an uphill battle, they're at least within striking distance of the Argos.
Hamilton has one more game with Toronto and two versus second-place Ottawa (7-3-1), which also has two more regular-season meetings with the Argos.
Hamilton recorded 465 net offensive yards, including 142 yards rushing, with no turnovers Monday. The defence did allow 439 yards (322 passing, 123 rushing) but recorded a key stop late, registered four sacks and game's lone turnover -- Richard Leonard's interception, which set up White's opening TD.
Hamilton kicker Marc Liegghio hit all three field goals he tried, including the game-winner from 55 yards out with 2:36 remaining. The Ticats' special-teams unit was also solid containing Toronto's Janarion Grant (three punt returns for 16 yards).
Despite participating in a heated rivalry game, Hamilton was penalized just three times for 25 yards. The Ticats entered the weekend leading the CFL in penalties (96, 8.7 per game) and yards (841, 76.5 per game).
Hamilton was also eighth in interceptions thrown (12) and fumbles lost (seven) and last in turnover ratio (minus-10).
Yet on Monday, the Ticats stormed out to their 18-point lead and looked very good doing so. And even after Toronto rallied to take a 28-27 advantage in the fourth, the Ticats didn't panic. Following Liegghio's late field goal, defensive lineman DeWayne Hendrix and cornerback Jamal Peters, both former Argos, had a sack and pass knockdown, respectively, to force Toronto to punt.
Then with 54 seconds remaining, Mitchell found Brendan O'Leary-Orange on a 48-yard completion to the Toronto five-yard line. That allowed Hamilton to run out the clock for its second win this season over the Argos.
Which begs the question: Where has this Ticats team been this season?
"Yes (it's frustrating) but I also know the reasons why and it's turnover margin and penalties and young guys getting their feet wet learning how to play professional football," Milanovich said. "It's not an excuse, it's a reality.
"It has taken us longer to figure it out than obviously we'd hoped."
A fact not lost upon veteran Mitchell, a two-time Grey Cup champion and twice the CFL's outstanding player.
"Scott has talked about it until he's blue in the face ... they (coaches) tell us all the time, it's turnovers, it's penalties, it's special teams battles," he said. "At some point, it's (on) the players.
“So we’ve seen what we can be when we’re playing that way and against good teams. It’s frustrating not to be able to do it all the time but that’s part of having a young team and learning these things."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024.
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press
