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Justin Dunk
Receiving Corps Continues To Evolve
One veteran and one rookie will see their first action of 2011 on Saturday against Saskatchewan.
Freshman CFLer Bakari Grant is earmarked to see the 46-man roster for the first time this season. Grant, who made two highlight reel catches in the Tiger-Cats pre-season finale against Montreal in June, could be the spark the offence needs.
Meanwhile, a familiar face returns to the receiver corps after being activated off the injured list. Marquay McDaniel, who missed out on 1,000 receiving yards last season by six, will suit up for his first regular season action of the season.
“I’m just looking to go out and run my routes and when the ball is thrown to me, catch the ball,” McDaniel said.
The last time McDaniel saw Rider green he caught four passes for 67 yards – including a 10-yard scoring major.
“You get comfortable with what certain teams do by watching film,” McDaniel said. “So once you get comfortable with that you just go out and play.”
McDaniel knows exactly what the offence needs to do to produce.
“We just need to be consistent. There’s been drives where we had a drop that ended a drive, a penalty or a busted assignment,” he said. “Everybody needs to do their jobs and keep drives going, keep the defence off the field.”
Stemming The Turnover Tide
In both games against Saskatchewan a year ago Hamilton lost the turnover battle; minus two in game one and minus one in game two. To start the 2011 season, the Ticats have been on the wrong end of that statistic in each of the team’s two losses, minus two in week one versus Winnipeg and minus one last week against Edmonton.
As the old football cliché goes, the winner of the turnover ratio usually determines the winner on the scoreboard.
“The first thing you’ve got to do is take the ball away more. We’ve gotten some takeaways, but we need to take it away more,” head coach Marcel Bellefeuille said.
“The second thing you’ve got to do from the interceptions perception is be good with your reads, get the ball to the right side of the plate and you won’t have those issues.”
The Ticats bench boss is happy to see that his team has rid themselves of any ball-security issues, although he would like to see his speedy, aggressive defence force more mistakes.
“We haven’t had ‘fumblitis’ or anything like that, its been more about interceptions and not enough takeaways.”
Ticats Move Out From Under ‘Pressure’ Cloud
The mental side of football is often overlooked, if not forgotten. A positive frame of mind can go a long way towards being able to bounce back from adversity. Instead of feeling the pressure of being 0-2, Bellefeuille — who made a 30-minute presentation to his team on pressure earlier this week — would like his team to focus on their individual assignments, not factors that they are unable to control.
“I talked about [pressure and how it’s] always there regardless of what you do, in sport and life,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you sell insurance, you’re going to have pressure to meet your quota every week. The important thing I told the players is it’s how you see it, and view it individually.”
“If you focus on consequences and not on doing your job, that’s when you get paralyzed and you can’t play as well as you need to.”
All week long in practice there was a positive energy and an up-beat vibe, traits you might not expect from a team in an early season hole.
“From a team perspective this week I did talk about it being more fun and relieving the pressure,” Bellefeuille said. “As a team we did try and lighten it up a little bit and kind of remove the dark cloud.”
The men in Black and Gold are focused on only what they can control and playing at a level worthy of a win on Saturday.
“I can’t control, as I told the players neither can they, what comes from the outside, but in this building for them to play at their optimal ability, collectively we can set those terms and those tones,” Bellefeuille said. “We can lighten it up a bit and loosen it up a bit.”
Shakespeare Hungry For Some Dari-O’s
Federated Co-Op stores in Saskatchewan are selling breakfast cereal named after Riders franchise quarterback Darian Durant.
Dari-O’s sold out within hours of them being stocked on store shelves in early July, but former Rider turned Ticats defensive end, Stevie Baggs plans on getting his hands on the real Dari-O.
“I hope he brought me a box. If not, I’ll just try to eat some from him on the field,” Baggs joked. “It’s a good deal for him, you can’t say anything bad about a guy like double D, we do some things in the off-season together in the community. He’s a good friend of mine, but tomorrow it won’t be that way.”
Number 55 relishes the chance to go against his former team.
“It’s always fun to play your old team, especially a team like the Riders who gave me a second chance in pro football,” Baggs said. “In 2008, coming in there and then having the chance to start for my first time as a pro in 2009.”
Baggs spent time under former Ticats defensive coordinator, Greg Marshall, who is now the head coach with Saskatchewan.
“His character in the years that I’ve known him has been impeccable,” he said. “I’m not going to try and talk him up into a win, but I do have a lot of love for Coach Marshall.”
Further Investigation
Linebacker Markeith Knowlton on the Riders offence:
“I think they’re a little bit of both, a little pass and a little bit of run. I think they like to go deep as well as run the ball. You never know what you’re going to get so that’s why you have to play sound football. The quarterback is like a running back and they already have a running back, so I just think we need to take care of the run game and the quarterback running.”
Head coach Marcel Bellefeuille on the Riders defence:
“They’re a good defence. I think as coaches we have a different perspective from the media and fans. They’re a better defence then they get credit for. They played against Ricky Ray and Anthony Calvillo back-to-back weeks and you can’t neglect that fact. They have good players there, solid players, players that have been in two Grey Cups and who play well. They are playing in a different system and there’s an adjustment phase, but they’ve also played against two premiere, hall of fame quarterbacks, two weeks in row who’ve been on their game. They have a good defence, don’t let the numbers fool you.”
