Justin Dunk
Ticats.ca
It was the hit heard around the league in week one. Tiger-Cats linebacker Jamall Johnson found himself sprinting at Bombers quarterback Buck Pierce untouched, and he finished the play in Steeltown style by putting the hammer down on the oft-injured pivot.
That hit, arguably the best of the 2011 CFL season so far, fired up the Ivor Wynne faithful and injected the defence with energy.
“Whenever I can make a nice play, an exciting play, to get the crowd into it or silence their crowd I’m all for it,” Johnson said, post-practice on Tuesday.
The latter is what number 28 and his mates will be looking to do on Friday when the Ticats enter a sold out Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg.
Defensively, you couldn’t ask for a much better performance from the Ticats during the first meeting with the Blue Bombers. The unit surrendered just a single touchdown in the 24-16 loss — the other Winnipeg score came on an interception which was taken back for a major. Hamilton held Pierce to just 151 passing yards, keeping him off-balance and uncomfortable all game long as the Ticats brought him down five times and were in his face seemingly every play.
“It gives you confidence that you had success with your game plan. Hopefully we can come back and duplicate it,” defensive end Justin Hickman said.
“You get confidence, I think we played well on defence the first time we played them,” Johnson said. “If we can come out and play as well or better then I like our chances against them.”
Pierce was kept at bay in the first meeting, but Winnipeg’s slippery runner Fred Reid found some holes in the Ticats run defence. Reid managed 87 yards along the ground on 16 carries, which works out to 5.4 yards per rush.
“We have to be sound in our gaps,” Hickman said. “The first guy there has to make the tackle, we can’t miss tackles and give him yards after contact.”
“He’s a shifty guy. He’s fast, he’s quick and we just have to believe what we see and attack it, and stop him before he can get going,” Johnson added.
“We have to make him not want to get the ball anymore.”
Reid helped propel his team to victory in week one, which gave the Bombers a leg up in the three game season series with the Tabbies. The Ticats put the week one loss behind them soon after that game was over, but they have talked about it leading up to the rematch with the Bombers.
“You talk about things when it can serve a purpose for you”, Johnson said.
The Ticats must claw out a road win to even up the series and give themselves a chance at winning the tiebreaker.
“It’s big. All that stuff comes into play when you’re making a playoff run,” Johnson said. “We are trying to get this win and even up the series.”
The game takes on even more importance when looking at the East Division standings. Winnipeg is 6-1 in first place, while the Tiger-Cats sit at 4-3 in third. The Ticats do not want the Bombers to get too far out of their reach.
“Right now what we can do is close the gap, Winnipeg is leading us by four points in the standings so if we win this game we close that gap, we become that much closer to being in first place,” Johnson said.
Hamilton has yet to cross the nominal mid-point of the season, in terms of games played, but Friday’s outcome could go a long way in determining the CFL’s East Division.
