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Justin Dunk
A passing grade would be given by many pundits for the Black and Gold’s performance on defence against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Fans of the organization had to be pleased with the aggressive play of the unit that allowed just one touchdown and yielded five sacks, but the Tiger-Cats defensive coordinator does not see it the same way.
“I don’t know about passing the first test. The first test was to win the first game and that’s what we did not do,” Corey Chamblin said after the Ticats first day of preparing for the Edmonton Eskimos. “Winnipeg’s defence did some things better so they passed the test, we didn’t, so that’s the way I sum that up.”
Chamblin’s thoughts were echoed by some of his soldiers.
“If the result is an ‘L’ then it’s not really a pass to us,” said defensive tackle Albert Smith who had five tackles and one sack in his first start wearing a Ticats uniform.
Although, veteran defensive back Jason Shivers does believe the young defensive backs gained some valuable game experience.
“On the weak side, Marcell Young did a great job. They tried to go at him late and he came up with an interception. That was huge for his confidence,” Shivers said. “That’s huge as far as a rookie trying to play in this league. Edmonton has a great receiving corps so they can’t get too overzealous, they have to keep focused and that’s what I’m here to tell them.”
Examination number two for the revamped Ticats defence will come against Edmonton, who made quick work of the defending Western Division champion Saskatchewan Rough Riders in a 42-28 win last weekend.
“We have to get better at the details. Tackling is definitely number one. Communication is number two and three, we have to make plays,” Chamblin said. “I don’t think we made enough plays out there.”
Eskimo pivot Ricky Ray found his form of old in week one, lighting up the Green Riders for 294 yards and three scores.
“Ricky Ray, I always say he is the Peyton Manning of the CFL,” Chamblin said. “He’s a smart guy, he makes pinpoint throws and with Ricky we have to play excellent man-to-man coverage so he doesn’t get those throws that he wants.”
After a not so Ray-esque season in 2010 where he threw for more interceptions (16) than touchdowns (11), he still managed to complete almost 76 per cent of his passes in two match ups versus Hamilton a year ago.
A go-to play in the Eskimos first game of 2011 was a backside post route, as Ray would look the safety off to the strong side and then turn and fire to his slot on the weak side – twice the play resulted in Edmonton majors.
“We’re teaching the free safety to read it better,” Chamblin said of the threat of getting skinned on the backside of the field. “With them, as much as people say their offensive line was young, they had some protection where they had some time to go backside.”
“One thing about Ricky Ray is he likes to run the slide protection, get to the other side of the pocket and throw it back across the field,” Shivers said.”
Of course the Ticats M.O. is pressure and lots of it, but the trick will be cracking the Ray-code.
“We want to get the ball out of his hand pretty fast,” Shivers said.
“They’ve always been good at protecting from the cover zeroes and all that,” Chamblin explained. “So you really have to penetrate that wall that they’re building.”
