Fraser Caldwell
Ticats.ca
If the Black and Gold have any regrets about their last meeting with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, they certainly didn’t have to wait long to get another shot. After losing their season-opener at the hands of the Roughriders on June 29, the Ticats will look to even the score when they visit Mosaic Stadium on Saturday.
After reeling off consecutive victories to right the proverbial ship, the Hamilton outfit is feeling decidedly more tiger-like.
Rookie cornerback Matt Bucknor suited up for his CFL debut in the Tiger-Cats’ season-opening loss to the Riders in June.
Since that inauspicious start, the Hamilton native has taken a firm hold on the field corner position and become a regular member of the team’s defensive grouping.
Bucknor believes that he is a vastly improved player today from the untested defender who matched wits with Roughrider receivers a month ago.
“Every day when I come into practice and even games, the goal is to keep getting better,” said the rookie cornerback. “I feel like I’ve been getting better, and I’m not going to get complacent.”
Bucknor is not alone in his improvement. The Tiger-Cats’ entire defensive corps has notably battened down the hatches since allowing Saskatchewan to accumulate 500 net yards of offence and 43 points in their first meeting. The Black and Gold’s resolute holds in the fourth quarters of their wins against the Argonauts and Alouettes demonstrated the unit’s ability to stifle offences when it matters most.
The rookie cornerback acknowledges that his squad has grown by leaps and bounds since its debut effort in June.
“The defence has improved a lot since game one and since the preseason,” says Bucknor. “We’ve made a lot of strides, and the communication is a lot better. That’s the one thing that we really want to continue working on is the communication. And of course, we want to work on executing better.”
The ability of the Ticats defenders to execute with textbook precision will be paramount on Saturday if they are to contain the Roughriders’ familiar offensive weapons. Slotbacks Weston Dressler and Chris Getzlaf in particular – who sit fourth and fifth respectively on the CFL’s passing yardage chart – warrant the closest possible attention.
The tandem combined to devastating effect in the two teams’ June encounter, with Dressler turning in a dominant performance en route to 13 catches for 180 yards and three touchdowns.
Tiger-Cats Head Coach George Cortez is well aware of the threat that Saskatchewan’s fifth-year slotback will pose to his team on Saturday.
“He’s a good player. He’s got great quickness, he changes directions really well and he puts a lot of stress on you,” said Cortez of Dressler. “[Saskatchewan does] some nice things with him and with Getzlaf. Between the two of them, they have almost 65 or 70 percent of the receiving yardage for the team.”
Such talents cannot be held at bay entirely. But Cortez believes that his team can successfully contain the damage that Dressler and Getzlaf will do through consistent and responsible defending.
“You just have to be patient in your coverage and do what you’re supposed to do,” said Cortez. “They’re going to catch some balls, just like the guys that we played last week were going to catch some balls. We just have to minimize it the best that we can and get off the field when we have the opportunities.”
Defensive halfback Carlos Thomas is confident that he and his teammates have both the ability and the knowledge to corral the Roughriders skilled slotbacks. He reiterated the need for communication that has been a constant focus of the Ticats backfield this season.
“We’ve just got to communicate,” said Thomas. “We can cover these guys. They’re good players, don’t get me wrong. But we can cover them. We’re a lot better, and we’re doing the little things now that we weren’t before.”
The second-year Tiger-Cat will likely find himself in an unusual position as he goes about the business of halting Saskatchewan’s offence on Saturday. That’s because Thomas has been tapped to replace veteran Markeith Knowlton – who is battling injury – in the linebacking corps.
While he has rarely played at linebacker, Thomas does have experience at Knowlton’s strong side, having spent his college career at the strong safety position. More importantly, Thomas believes that his athleticism and physical approach lend him versatility and can translate well to the position.
“I feel like I’m one of the best athletes in the league. They could put me anywhere, because I’ll be comfortable anywhere,” said Thomas. “[Linebacking is] similar, and it’s just about being physical. Linebacker is a mentality.”
Filling the shoes of one of the CFL’s most consistent tacklers is both a great honour and a steep responsibility. Thomas is thankful for the compliment of selection, and believes that it represents an endorsement from the Tiger-Cat coaching staff.
“It means that they have confidence in me, knowing that they can line me up anywhere that they want to and I can get the job done,” says Thomas of his positional shift.
The Tiger-Cats’ defenders know that enjoying the efficiency that they crave will be difficult in the hostile environs of Mosaic Stadium.
But they also know that this is just the kind of test that this team needs to pass if it wants to realize its potential and challenge for a Grey Cup come November.
