Ticats.ca
Justin Dunk
Pressure.
The word has seen a lot of ink since defensive coordinator Corey Chamblin was hired back in January. Pressure is a big piece to the engine that drives the new look black and gold defence. The surge to create pressure, within the new defensive scheme on Canada Day, will be led by the Ticats tandem of defensive ends, Stevie Baggs and Justin Hickman.
“As long as I’m putting pressure on them, then they better put pressure on someone else, but it’s good to have two book ends like them,” Chamblin said after Ticats practice on Tuesday. “Our whole deal is pressure.”
The target of the Ticats arsenal of pressure packages is the man who will be wearing number four when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers take the field on Friday night, Buck Pierce.
A veteran CFL pivot with seven years of experience, Pierce has been hit and knocked out of 10 of the last 27 regular season contests he has suited up for, including three of his five starts in 2010, but the Ticats defence plans to treat him like any other quarterback.
“Every week the goal is to hit the quarterback,” Hickman said. “We’re going out there to get to the quarterback, that’s the defensive linemen’s job, that’s what we love to do is hit QBs.”
However, Pierce does present a unique challenge with his mobility at the quarterback position – he has averaged almost eight yards per rush throughout his career to date.
“You have to be more aware when you’re rushing out of the pass rush lane. We can’t give him a lane to escape or he’ll kill us,” Hickman said. “Everybody needs to make sure they stay in their lanes and we have four points of pressure, with the ends coming up the field and the tackles doing their thing inside.”
Chamblin is working hard in practice and meetings this week to keep his defence alert of the opposing quarterback’s penchant to take off out of the pocket.
“The only thing you can do is just keep the guys aware when they get in their drops, the linebackers keep their eyes on the box, and if they see him going to run they better attack,” he said. “If it seems like you get stuck in coverage, get your eyes on the quarterback. We have to be conscious of what he is doing all the time.”
“We can’t draw up any special defences for him because they have too many other weapons.”
Chamblin knows very well that even a couple big licks on the signal-caller early in the football game will not change his approach for the remainder of the contest.
“Buck’s been doing it so long and he’s so tough that if big hits changed him he wouldn’t run in the first place,” he said. “He’s just a hard-nosed guy.”
The first year Ticats defensive boss predicts the Bombers will have a few called running plays for Pierce in the script on Friday.
“I think they’ll have one, two plays in there for Buck to use his legs. He may get some yards here and there on us, but they can’t make a living on quarterback draws,” he said. “They don’t want to expose him because the big hits come that way.”
Even with the threat of Pierce taking off in an instant the Tiger-Cats pass rush will not slow down or be more cautious in their attempts to apply pressure.
“Oh no, we’re going to turn ‘em loose,” Chamblin said. “We have pressure within the scheme, everything is about right now, get to the quarterback.”
Pressure will be the name of the Ticats defensive game, with even more importance against a healthy Pierce on July 1.
