Fraser Caldwell
Ticats.ca
Last week, the Tiger-Cats faced a very familiar opponent in veteran quarterback Kevin Glenn, the most well-known of quantities.
Fast-forward to this week and a pivot in Joey Elliot of whom there is precious little footage or experience. Those who have witnessed him in the midst of game action are the exception to the rule.
That’s because the Blue Bomber pivot has only started two CFL contests, both of which came at the conclusion of the 2010 season. A serious knee injury derailed his progression in 2011, and after a closely-fought positional battle with Alex Brink in training camp, he was beaten out for the second slot on the depth chart this season.
But with a 1-5 start to the Bombers’ season prompting a shake-up in the Manitoban capital, Elliot suddenly finds himself heading Winnipeg’s offence.
One Tiger-Cat, at least, can remember the last time that the Bomber pivot started under centre. Defensive lineman Greg Peach was an Eskimo regular in 2010, and lined up opposite Elliot in his CFL debut against Edmonton in Week 18.
“I remember that game. It was the second-to-last game, a must-win game,” recalls Peach of Elliot’s debut. “It went into overtime. He did good and managed the game. It was 13-13 going into overtime, and for his first start, he seemed like a pretty poised quarterback.
“We’re treating him like a veteran starting quarterback and that’s what we’re going to prepare for.”
That preparation is made difficult by Elliot’s limited exposure. The Tiger-Cats’ middle linebacker and defensive leader, Rey Williams believes that his team must be reactionary on Thursday and avoid making assumptions about an unknown opponent.
“You’ve got to be honest. You can’t expect something out of him,” explains Williams. “You’ve just got to play against what you see. I think we have a game on Elliot. He’s more like Kevin (Glenn) in that he doesn’t want to run. He’s not like Buck (Pierce). He’s more of a pocket passer, and you’ve got to keep him in there and compress the pocket and give him some different reads.
“As the game goes on, we’ll see what he’s trying to do. Definitely by the second half, we’ll have a good bead on him.”
Elliot may be a wildcard, but whether he can significantly change the complexion of Winnipeg’s offence remains to be seen.
The Tiger-Cats’ Head Coach George Cortez believes that a sudden quarterbacking change is unlikely to drastically alter the Blue Bombers’ attack.
“It’s hard for anybody to make dramatic changes to their offence in just a couple of days,” explains Cortez. “If they like him doing things that they haven’t been doing and that are part of their offence, it’s not that hard. But to do things that aren’t part of the offence is pretty hard.”
“You have to assume that a very large chunk of what they’re going to do is based on what they’ve been doing.”
Williams agrees that the Blue Bombers’ system will remain largely intact with the insertion of Elliot, but argues that any fresh quarterback comes with his share of adjustments.
“They’ve got to get their timing down. Some quarterbacks like to hold the ball and go deep and others don’t mind checking down,” says the linebacker. “Some can hit that deep out and some can’t.
“We don’t know his strengths and weaknesses just yet, and I’m sure they’ll have to simplify the offence a little bit for him and don’t want to throw too much at him at one time.”
The Tiger-Cats appear to be well equipped to make Elliot’s return to the starter’s role a difficult one. Hamilton’s pass defence has been strong thus far.
The Black and Gold rank third among CFL teams in average passing yards allowed per game (282.5) and net passing yards allowed (1695), and second in opponent’s passing percentage (61.2).
Hamilton’s success against the pass was on full display a week ago, as the team held Calgary’s Kevin Glenn to 141 yards through the air and a measly 53.6 completion percentage.
Williams attributes that strength to his unit’s steady mastery of the defensive systems put in place by Defensive Coordinator Casey Creehan, who has intentionally kept things simple for his defenders.
“We’ve been giving different looks,” explains the Tiger-Cat linebacker. “We’re very vanilla on defence. We’re getting good at the two or three defences that we run. We know and go over all of the looks, and we’re not running a whole lot of stuff on defence.”
The knowledge is in place for the Tiger-Cats’ defenders, but the buzzword has become consistency for Williams and his teammates. The linebacker cringes as he recalls the fourth quarter of a week ago.
“If you look at the film from last week, they couldn’t do anything for three quarters,” says Williams. “They had nothing. Then we had an injury and it all went to hell. There are no excuses.”
The Tiger-Cats’ leading tackler has a simple recipe for success on Thursday night.
“You’ve got to be locked in for four quarters and play 60 minutes of football.”
