The Anatomy Of A Play:
As the play begins, you can see that the Ticats are lined up with their typical second-down personnel. Which means that Ticats defensive linemen Stevie Baggs, Justin Hickman and Garrett McIntyre are all on the field at the same time, with McIntyre kicking inside to play defensive tackle. Some members of the media criticized the Ticats for signing Baggs, citing the talent that they already had at defensive end. As you can see, it’s possible and effective to have them all on the field at once.
You can see that Baggs’ hesitation has left McIntyre one-on-one with Toronto’s left guard Cedric Gagne-Marcoux. McIntyre knows that guards are used to having help on either side so his first instinct is to take him outside with a speed move.
By just dropping his shoulder and getting around the body of Gagne-Marcoux, McIntyre makes him stop his feet and instead of sliding to the outside he stops and reaches for McIntyre. Garrett’s quickness allows him to beat his man cleanly and he is free to hit an unsuspecting Lemon from behind, forcing his first fumble.
This look has McIntyre lined up as a defensive end, stacked outside shade or on the outside shoulder of the right tackle. McIntyre’s versatility within the defensive scheme gives Ticats defensive coordinator Greg Marshall a number of options on every series.
The tight end goes out on a pattern and leaves the Argos right tackle Chris Van Zeyl one-on-one with McIntyre on the outside. McIntyre gets into perfect position rigth away, Defensive linemen are taught to get full extension on offensive linemen by getting into their body and keeping their hands off of them, which knocks them slightly off-balance. Now that Garrett has Van Zeyl in this position, he can do whatever he wants with him.
After setting him up, McIntyre executes a perfect rip move, which gets him around the big body of the right tackle and brings his momentum towards the quarterback. Even though McIntyre is on Cleo Lemon’s front side, the quarterback is looking down field and doesn’t see him coming. McIntyre strips Lemon of the ball and records his second sack of the night.
With the Ticats wealth of defensive linemen, it is up to coach Marshall to design schemes that can get them all on the field to take advantage of their talents. Being able to keep guys fresh is a huge advantage, but being able to line up three guys who are able to consistently get pressure on the quarterback is a luxury that could be a big boost to Hamilton’s playoff hopes.
