VANCOUVER — The BC Lions thought that their game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was over by halftime, as they led by 16 points and held Bo Levi Mitchell scoreless, even grabbing an interception off of him.
But no game is ever out of reach for the Ticats, and Mitchell along with his receivers put on a second half show, taking a late lead and forcing the Lions to kick a field goal to push the game to overtime, where Hamilton would eventually claim the victory.
Here are CFL.ca’s three key stats from the Tiger-Cats’ win over the Lions in Week 17.
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11 – DIFFERENT TICATS RECEIVERS TO RECORD YARDAGE
Once Mitchell found his stride in the second half, he utilized any receiver he saw in his line of vision as 10 different receivers recorded yardage for Hamilton in the win.
Greg Bell, Brendan O’Leary-Orange, Kiondre Smith, Tim White, Tyler Ternowski, Shemar Bridges, Steven Dunbar Jr., James Tuck, Ante Milanovic-Litre, Jevoni Robinson all caught passes from Mitchell, while the 11th receiver was Mitchell himself who caught a pass from Tim White.
Seven receivers recorded at least 24 yards, many getting multiple targets from Mitchell, while White and Smith recorded over 70 yards each in the win.
29 – COMPLETIONS OF MITCHELL’S LAST 30 ATTEMPTS
Mitchell started the game against the Lions 5-of-10 for 26 yards and an interception, scoring no points in the first half as the Lions led by more than two touchdowns.
But by the time Mitchell was entering overtime, he had completed 26 of his last 27 pass attempts for 261 yards and two touchdowns. Of his last 30 attempts, Mitchell completed 29 passes, recording 315 total yards helping lead his team to the comeback win.
100 – PERCENTAGE OF SUCCESSFUL RED ZONE TRIPS FOR HAMILTON
Coming from a double-digit deficit, the Ticats had to make every drive count, and could not afford to leave any points on the field as they started to make progress on closing a 16-point gap.
Hamilton made four red zone trips and successfully scored a touchdown on all four of them, while the Lions were only successful on two red zone trips out of five attempts. The Lions scored just one touchdown in the second half as they were held to just 10 points in that span.
Bell, O’Leary-Orange, Smith and Milanovic-Litre were all responsible for the touchdowns as Hamilton made way downfield, keeping them perfect on the night in position to get to the end zone.