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HAMILTON — It didn’t come easy, but the Hamilton Tiger-Cats recorded their first win of the season with a 27-24 victory over their rival Toronto Argonauts on Saturday night at Tim Hortons Field.
An inspired performance from James Butler and clutch plays from the Ticats defence and special teams got the home team over the line but the Argonauts had a say late, coming up just short on the game’s final drive.
Here are CFL.ca’s three key stats from the Tiger-Cats’ win over the Argonauts.
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1 – BLOCKED PUNT
After five consecutive losses to start the season, the Ticats needed to come out firing at home after having Week 6 off. It was clear that Scott Milanovich had his team ready to go from the opening kickoff.
An early two-and-out gave the Argos the ball, but the Ticats special teams unit made sure to get it right back. Ante Litre dashed to get in the way of John Haggerty‘s punt to force an early turnover on downs at Toronto’s nine-yard line.
From there, Butler took it into the end zone to begin an encouraging first half of football in front of the Tigertown faithful.
103 – YARDS FROM JAMES BUTLER
Speaking of Butler, the Ticats running back was once again a spark plug for his team’s offence, getting things moving with chunk plays throughout the contest.
Whether it was on the ground or through the air, Butler made good use of the football. After his first-quarter touchdown, he was instrumental in Hamilton’s first score of the second half, picking up 24 yards en route to Marc Liegghio‘s field goal in what was another impressive performance from the Ticats runner.
10 – DESTIN TALBERT DEFENSIVE PLAYS
No other Ticat had more than Destin Talbert‘s eight defensive tackles on a night where he and his teammates set the tone with a solid defensive showing, especially in the first half.
Talbert’s biggest play of the day was of course his fumble recovery and touchdown score in the second quarter, but he was a consistent force for a defensive unit missing Stavros Katsantonis due to injury, also pitching in with a pass knock down.