The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are building a defensive identity.
Hamilton held Ottawa off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, and Kenny Lawler found the endzone twice as the Ticats inched past the Ottawa Redblacks 23-20 on Saturday night.
With the win, Hamilton sits tied with Montreal atop the East Division at 3-2, their first time over .500 since November 2021.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Throw the first one away
Dru Brown is the latest quarterback to make quick work of the Tiger-Cats’ defence out of the gate. He only needed three completions and one 10-yard rush to march 70 yards to give the Redblacks a 7-0 lead on the first drive.
I’ve touched on this before, so I’ll be brief. Football games aren’t won in the first quarter, let alone on the first drive of the game, but spotting your opponents a touchdown is not exactly a recipe for success. Hamilton has to find a way to start on time.
Winning the turnover battle
One of the most refreshing aspects of the 2025 Tiger-Cats is their ability to create turnovers.
When defensive coordinator Brent Monson took over, Hamilton had been one of the worst teams in the league at taking the ball away — save for a few game stint with Chris Jones running the defence.
It has been a completely different story this season. Two more interceptions courtesy of Jamal Peters, and a fumble recovery on special teams awarded the Tiger-Cats three extra possessions.
Coming out on the plus side of the turnover battle is crucial in any game. In an eventual three-point win, it was all the difference.
Turnovers win ball games, and stealing possessions is becoming a strength for this Tiger-Cats team.
Cheat code Kenny
Nobody in the CFL is more locked in than Kenny Lawler right now.
For him, the game is simple. See ball, get ball. Lawler had another monster performance with six receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns.
His most impressive catch of the night was another ridiculous high-point grab in the endzone. Lawler all but laid out backwards to make the catch. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it — it’s the catch of the season.
When Hamilton needed a score most in the fourth quarter, Lawler found a soft spot in the Redblacks’ zone defence and hauled in the eventual game-winning touchdown with less than three minutes on the clock.
He turns 50/50 balls into 75-25 in favour of the receiver. The league never should have let him team up with a deep-threat quarterback like Bo Levi Mitchell.
Response rejected
The Redblacks looked for a response to the aerial attack with deep shots of their own throughout the night, to no avail.
Twice, Dru Brown liked the look he had someone on the outside and tested Jamal Peters on a fade. On both occasions, it was Peters who came up with the ball — the first over Eugene Lewis and the second on an underthrow to Daniel Adeboboye.
The pair of picks all but took 14 points off the board. Fantastic work from Peters and Hamilton’s secondary.
Wooden Jr. becoming a problem
In six CFL games, Isaiah Wooden Jr. has two kickoff return touchdowns, over 600 yards in kickoff returns, 257 in punt return yards, and he’s helped make a fan a millionaire. Not bad.
Wooden Jr. ripped off another momentum-shifting 47-yard return on Saturday. Hamilton had been unable to crack the Redblacks’ defence when Wooden Jr. received the kick. The return set the Cats up in positive territory, and a few plays later, Hamilton was celebrating in the endzone.
Ottawa looked like they had contain held when Wooden Jr. used pure speed and the width of the CFL field to break the return. Though he does not have the accolades of a Marcus Thigpen or a Brandon Banks, his ability to turn nothing into something is reminiscent of the Tiger-Cats return teams of old: speed, vision, and the ability to break tackles.
A dangerous return game is something every team needs if they hope to be competing in November. The Tiger-Cats can feel comfortable with Wooden Jr. receiving kicks.
Live and die by the sword
There are always going to be people on both sides of the fence when it comes to going for it on third down in the red zone.
Tiger-Cats’ head coach Scott Milanovich put himself in the line of fire down four points with less than five minutes to go when he elected not to trot out Marc Liegghio and the field goal unit.
Hamilton came up empty-handed on third down as Bo Levi Mitchell tried to find Brendan O’Leary-Orange at the front of the endzone. Not taking a field goal meant Ottawa had the chance to all but ice the contest with a touchdown.
Personally, I loved the decision.
Milanovich trusted his defence, which had played well in the second half and shut Ottawa down entirely in the fourth quarter. The defence stepped up for their head coach and put the ball back in the hands of Mitchell and the offence with plenty of time on the clock.
In Milanovich’s mind, Hamilton was either going to score and ice it, or get stopped, get the ball back, and have another chance to take the lead.
It’s easy to praise a decision after it goes well or criticize it if it goes south. Despite walking away from the drive empty-handed, Milanovich made a tough call going for it on third down, and it was the right one.
Consistency by committee
On the theme of it being equally easy to praise success or criticize failure, it feels like a cop out to say these Tiger-Cats are the real deal when they poke their heads above the .500 mark for the first time since 2021.
From a football standpoint, however, all of the pieces are there. All three phases of the game complement each other, and this has been magnified in key situations. You can’t point to one reason they’re winning football games. It’s happening by committee.
For every spectacular catch or 500-yard, five-touchdown performance the Cats get on offence, the defence is right there with another two turnovers to assist their counterparts.
Against Toronto, the offence bludgeoned their competition. The defence didn’t need their best game. Against Ottawa and Montreal, it was the defence who allowed the initially struggling offence time to find their rhythm.
Aside from allowing one return touchdown, the Cats haven’t been hurt on special teams. With Wooden Jr. in the fold, it’s looking like they have a bona fide return game.
In all five of their games, they have gotten better as the game has gone on, saving their best football for fourth quarters.
The CFL is a hard league to win in week in and week out. There are surely more losses coming for the Tiger-Cats. Win or lose, the foundation for consistency is there.
Expect another close one
Looking at all of the outside factors, next week is one of the toughest tests the Tiger-Cats will face this season.
Hamilton travels to TD Place in Ottawa for a rematch against the Redblacks next Sunday. Playing a team in back-to-back weeks is already difficult. Both teams get to study all of the ways they had success, all of their mistakes, and exactly how their opposition tried to beat them. Both teams come into the contest with the information fresh in their minds.
Add in the fact that the game will be played in Ottawa against a Redblacks team I believe is better than their 1-4 record indicates, Hamilton is in the perfect spot for a letdown after three consecutive victories.
Whichever way it goes, expect it to be close. Four of the last five games between these two teams have been decided by fewer than seven points, and three of those were decided by three points or less.
Hamilton will need another four-quarter performance to come out on top.
Josh Thomas is the editor of the Spruce Grove Examiner and the Stony Plain Reporter, an active three down football player, and a father to four beautiful girls.
