CFL.ca
Justin Dunk
Ticats.ca
It was never what it seemed.
Anthony Calvillo had a hard time deciphering the coverage pre-snap on Labour Day. Hamilton’s defensive backfield made it appear that their coverage was something other than what it really was — a mirage of sorts.
“You never want him to know what you’re going to run,” defensive back Ryan Hinds said after a cool and rainy workout at Ivor Wynne. “We want to make him think we are going to run zero and then run zone, the whole idea is to keep him guessing.”
Calvillo was pulled from the game with just over eight minutes to go, when the outcome of the game had long been decided, with the Ticats holding a 44-14 advantage.
The franchise pivot visibly showed his frustration with his team’s lack of offensive production at different points throughout the contest, and for good reason. Montreal failed to score even one offensive touchdown on Labour Day.
“Every week I was telling people that we were two or three plays away from being a great defence,” linebacker Renauld Williams said after the Cats were on the practice field for the first time following Labour Day.
“That Winnipeg game we lost, but really we played well on defence that game, we gave it to them. We were more physical and we out-played them. They hit us with two big plays that really determined the game.”
“Against Montreal we proved that if we can focus for 60 minutes, everybody on the field, we can keep people scoreless.”
In two games so far this season, Calvillo has struggled facing Steeltown’s defence. His completion percentage against Hamilton is 54 per cent compared to 65 in the rest of Montreal’s game this year.
Moreover, Calvillo’s quarterback rating is a mediocre 82.2 versus the Tabbies, but he has scored a 102.9 rating when facing the rest of the league.
“I think he’s the best quarterback in the CFL, he has been for a while,” Williams said. “If you sit back there and he knows what you’re going to do he is going to pick you apart. Now he doesn’t know what we’re going to do. It could be zero, it could be zone, they have a lot to prepare for.”
Facing a team in a back-to-back situation is interesting in any sport, but arguably it is most entertaining to watch football teams do so because of the chess and mind games that go on between players and coaches.
With Hamilton laying a 44-21 beat down on Labour Day, the re-match draws even more interest to see how the Alouettes will respond.
“It’s tough because anytime the team that loses a game relishes that chance to come back and avenge that loss, so they’re going to come in extra fired up. We have to raise our intensity level,” Hinds said.
Montreal has been especially tough at home over the past four seasons, where they have only dropped five games in front of their hometown faithful.
“We blew them out, I’m sure they’re mad,” Williams said. “They’re not going to lay down.”
The Tiger-Cats will be looking to make their impressive, suffocating defensive effort from Labour Day into a regular occurrence, beginning Sunday in Montreal.
