Justin Dunk
Ticats.ca
On Monday afternoon, two of the CFL’s top three scoring offences will be front and centre in the annual Labour Day contest at Ivor Wynne stadium.
Montreal boasts an offence capable of dropping 30-plus points in their sleep, evidenced by the Alouettes league leading 31.6 points per game mark in 2011. Although, Hamilton is not far behind with a tidy average of 27 points per game, good for third best in the league.
Points, however they come, have been the main focus and measuring stick for first year Ticats offensive coordinator Khari Jones.
“I’ve never been real big on stats, they always tell a little part of the story, but they don’t tell the main story, and the main story in this game is putting points on the board,” he said as he prepares his unit for Labour Day.
“Regardless of how many rushing yards, passing yards, completions or even interceptions to a point — the biggest thing is putting points on the board.
“That’s what I preach to the guys.”
Jones has narrowed the focus of his offence down to one tangible, attainable goal – score more points than the opponent.
“I just think about the task at hand and how we get there,” he said. “We don’t worry about needing to throw for 300 yards or rush for 150 yards, we need to put points on the board, however we do it.”
The Cats have been utilizing a balanced attack to reach their goal of out-scoring opponents game in and game out this season.
“During the game I just want to make sure that we’re running, passing, and using play action so that the defence can’t assume what we’re going to do,” Jones said. “I want them to have to think about things and the more they have to think about things, the more they can’t be aggressive and that helps our offence.”
Jones and the Ticat offence managed 34 points in their first meeting with the Als this year , a 34-26 win on July 29, and he feels there are plenty of opportunities for more fireworks come Labour Day.
“They’re better, they’re playing well, but we see opportunities out there,” Jones said. “Every time we look at a defence we try to look at it for the opportunities that present themselves and there are some opportunities available.”
While Jones is looking for his group to put more points on the scoreboard than the league’s number one offence, Tiger-Cat defensive boss Corey Chamblinis preparing to slow down the Montreal offence that has put up impressive numbers all season and seem to be getting better each week.
“They look faster on film compared to the first time we saw them,” Chamblin said.
Heading into the team’s first encounter of the year, Montreal was coming off a short week after losing to Saskatchewan on Sunday July 24, they were forced to travel to Hamilton and play on Friday July 29 – two games in five days. The Als held just one actual practice in preparation for the Tiger-Cats the first go round, much different from the three day practice schedule most teams employ for a regular prep week.
With a longer period between games for both Hamilton and Montreal because of the holiday classic, Chamblin expects the Alouettes to be much more familiar with his defence.
“The first game you could tell they weren’t exactly sure what to expect from us on defence,” he said. “I bet this time they will be more prepared so we have to do a better job of mixing up what we do.”
The Ticats were able to harass quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who is known to have a quick release, in the first match-up, sacking him three times and forcing him out of the pocket on a number of other occasions.
“We were able to get to him early and rattle him,” Chamblin said.
Montreal’s offensive line has only given up nine sacks through eight games on the season, which leads the league. Calvillo is not used to dealing with a lot of bodies in his face, so Chamblin would like to see his unit get after the pivot early and often once again on Monday.
“If we can get to him, and hit him early it will help out our guys on the back end,” he said.
Overall, the defence forced Calvillo to miss fire on more targets than in any other game so far in 2011, he had 22 incompletions in Hamilton’s week five win, and looked frustrated all night long. A trend the Cats will be looking to continue in the Labour Day Classique.
