Fraser Caldwell
Ticats.ca
Satisfied with offensive preparations
With his team’s traditional walkthrough behind them, Tiger-Cat Head Coach George Cortez spoke positively of his players’ preparation for tomorrow’s week four contest.
“We’ve had pretty good practices overall,” said Cortez. “I think that there’s a certain amount of focus that comes from playing against a team that has been perceived as and has been the best team in the East over the past few years. I think that gets your attention.”
The insertion of Greg Peach will “bring excitement”
Defensive end Greg Peach – who spent three seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos before arriving in Hamilton as a free agent in February – may finally see a return to live action on Saturday.
The veteran lineman has been kept from the field due to a persistent upper body injury thus far this season. While Cortez would not guarantee that Peach would receive playing time against Montreal, he indicated that the lineman would inject some energy into the lineup if he did in fact find his way onto the field.
“He’s a veteran player who’s done some good things and he brings some energy,” said the Ticat coach. “He’s very excited about playing, because he’s been beyond bored to tears with not practicing and playing. So I think he’ll bring some excitement to the defence.”
Lulls are a part of any game
Mid-game struggles have emerged as a topic of conversation for the Tiger-Cats through three weeks of the CFL season.
Hamilton has been impressive in the first and fourth quarters of their opening trio of games, particularly in a winning effort against the Argonauts a week ago.
But stagnant play has dogged the team in the crucial second phase of games, and made the task of securing a victory more difficult than it might otherwise have been. Cortez acknowledged on Friday that such lulls are concerning, but argued that the pattern has more to do with the natural peaks and valleys of a game.
“That’s sometimes how the game goes,” said the coach. “I’m sure that today Saskatchewan is worried about the lull they had in the fourth quarter yesterday. It’s the flow of the game sometimes.”
“Sometimes there are specific reasons for it, but I don’t know that this early in the year you could pinpoint anything that is a reason for that. That goes for any team, not just us.”
Disrupting Montreal’s “quality” offence is a priority
A potent offence has been a trademark of the Alouettes for at least a decade by this time.
Anthony Calvillo’s credentials need no repeating, and Montreal has successfully surrounded their invaluable passer with an offensive cast worthy of his toss year-in and year-out.
This season is no exception to that rule, and Cortez put his focus squarely on that group on Friday. With the talent of Montreal’s attackers being unquestioned, the task facing the Tiger-Cats is to disrupt and ultimately outscore them.
“Their offence is very good. It’s been very good for a long time and it’s still very good,” the coach emphasized. “They’ve got quality receivers, a quality quarterback, a quality running back and they do a good job of protecting the quarterback. That makes them good on offence, and if you plan on beating them you better score some points.”
“You disrupt everybody’s offence the same way: you disrupt the quarterback. You don’t necessarily have to have a high number of sacks, you just have to make him get out of his rhythm, make him move around a little bit and show him one thing and do something else. But that’s the case with all of the quarterbacks.”
These are not the Alouettes of last season
It doesn’t take long to bring the last meeting of the Tiger-Cats and Alouettes to mind.
The occasion was an Eastern Division semifinal, and the product turned out to be one of the most exciting football games that the CFL would witness last season.
The concept of defence was treated as an entirely foreign idea, and the two teams traded explosive scoring drives before the Tiger-Cats dealt the final body blow in overtime. The 10-count was given, the score was 52-44 and the Black and Gold moved on to the divisional title game.
However, George Cortez cautioned onlookers on Friday not to expect a repeat performance of that vintage November Sunday afternoon.
Because as the logos and colour schemes remain the same, the personnel and coaching staffs of the two rivals have changed dramatically between that playoff contest and today. Rather than drawing lessons from Hamilton’s playoff triumph under previous leadership, Cortez indicated that he will spend Saturday studying the new blood at the helm of Montreal’s defence.
“We’re more focused on what their team is doing right now,” said the Ticat coach of his approach to the Alouettes. “There are different coordinators and the personnel are somewhat different. We do look at what people have done in the past, especially when it’s somebody who has been in the league for a long time. (Montreal Defensive Coordinator) Jeff Reinebold hadn’t been in the league for a long time, so the only thing to go on is what’s happening right now.”
“The longer the games go on, the more that you think that you have an understanding, because you have a greater body of work to look at. It’s like when we prepared for Toronto last week. They had played Edmonton one way and Calgary in almost a completely different way. So going into the game, we didn’t really know which style of defence we would see.”
