John Sokolowski
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have a plan in place for their meeting against Chad Simpson. It is nothing new, just making sure each one knows their assignments.
Despite giving up 233 rushing yards last week, the Ticats are taking solace in the fact that they have enough time to work on improving their run defence which was one of the primary focuses this week in practice.
“It’s a good thing we’re seeing these things now rather than week 15 or week 16. It’s unfortunate that we pretty much lost the game because we couldn’t stop the run, but I would rather see it now instead of later in the season,” middle linebacker Rey Williams said.
| More from Justin Dunk |
|---|
 » Ticats rookie Boudreaux an unknown forceJustin Dunk CFL.ca Columnist |
“The first thing that the coaches preach – Coach Creehan and Coach Cortez – is alignment, assignment. Alignment is the first thing – you cannot do your job unless you get aligned properly.”
The Ticats run defence was on the other end of a bounce-back performance from Jon Cornish last week versus Calgary and what concerned the Hamilton run stoppers was less Cornish’s production and more so the timing.
So let’s take a closer look at what exactly happened in the fourth, and ultimately deciding, quarter.
On the opening play of the fourth a kickoff by Luca Congi, after Chevon Walker put the Black and Gold ahead with a 47-yard scoring run to end the third, is returned by Larry Taylor for 35 yards to the Stamps own 52-yard line, giving the Calgary offence some great field position to start their drive.
The Stampeders opened their march to the end zone with a counter run to the weak side, a perfect call against Hamilton’s defensive line that was slanting the exact opposite way. Guard Dimitri Tsoumpas and fullback Rob Cote led the counter tray to the weak side, kicking out Ticat linebackers Jamall Johnson and Rey Williams to provide a nice crease for running back Jon Cornish. Strong side backer Carlos Thomas was late scrapping across and Calgary’s Canadian back went untouched until he was brought down 28 yards later – a gashing run that set the tone for the Stampeders ground game for the rest of the final quarter.
A pass interference penalty, strong Cornish run up the middle for seven and a misdirection Romby Bryant sweep for a touchdown put the Stamps back on top 24-20.
Hamilton got the ball back after the Stampeders’ major, but quickly went 2-and-out and punted the ball back to Calgary.
Kevin Glenn and the Stamps offence started their second drive of the fourth from their own 48-yard line, once again favourable field position for the offence.
First play of the drive was a completed pass to Nik Lewis. Defensive back Carlos Thomas made the tackle for Hamilton, fell awkwardly, suffered an injury and was on the sidelines for the rest of the game.
Armando Murillo came in to play the boundary half and Dee Webb moved from the secondary down to the strong side linebacker position.
“We threw in a rookie (Murillo) at boundary half – that’s a tough position to throw him in to at that period of the game,” Williams said. “It’s really unfortunate that one person went down and it really hurt us that bad.”
After a reception by Chris Bauman for 16 yards, three straight Calgary rushing plays for 27 yards put the Stamps in the red zone. 
“We just weren’t lined up properly – it wasn’t like they were blowing us off the ball,” Williams said of the leaky run defence in the fourth quarter.
Glenn capped the drive by finding Lewis for an eight-yard scoring catch. A second straight touchdown drive to open the fourth gave Calgary an 11-point lead, 31-20.
Calgary offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson called 11 consecutive run plays, seven to Cornish for 57 yards, as the Stamps held the ball for over five minutes and chewed the clock down under a minute to go before Cornish fumbled the ball away deep in Ticats territory.
“It wasn’t anything that they really did scheme-wise – we just weren’t lined up from the start,” Williams, the Ticats leading tackler, said. “If you’re not aligned properly, you’re already beat.”
Over the final 15 minutes Cornish racked up 113 yards on 11 carries and finished with 170 yards on the ground in the game; capping a career night for the New Westminster, BC native. Not to mention it being the best individual rushing performance league-wide this season.
In preparation to face the Blue Bombers, and impressive rookie back Chad Simpson who has a 6.4 yards per carry average, Creehan has simplified the defensive assignments.
“When they come out with certain personnel sets, everyone has a man to follow – end of story,” Williams said. “If there are three backs in the game we know who is following who. If it’s a base set with two backs or one back we know how to line up now, he’s really simplified it this week so that guys are not playing a formation, but now a certain man.”
“It’s been an emphasis this week, there won’t be any confusion of where anybody has to line up.”
