Kyle Myers
Ticats.ca
There’s an old football cliché that says offence wins games, while defence wins championships.
If that’s the case, then it would appear that the Tiger-Cats are trending towards the latter.
The Ticats defence stood tall in a convincing 33–19 victory against their arch rival Argonauts last Friday, continuing an upwards trajectory which has been slowly building as the season’s gone on. After a rash of injury decimated much of the secondary early in the season, Hamilton has been able to stay (relatively) healthy on D of late, and the results?
Well, they speak for themselves.
“Fielding the same group is important, especially down this stretch run,” said defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer. “It’s definitely important for this young team, especially on defence, to be able to establish some sort of continuity.”
Though nothing is set in stone, the Ticats appear ready to field the same personnel on defence this week in the team’s rematch against the Argonauts, a fact which elicited enthusiastic replies from Steinauer and Head Coach Kent Austin.
“Every team wants continuity, especially when you’re making adjustments. We make adjustments in our secondary like we do in our passing game, and you need guys to communicate to do that,” Head Coach Kent Austin said after practice Thursday.
During a third quarter when the Ticats offence struggled to find traction against the Argonauts, the defence dug in their heels and stole the momentum back, leading to a fourth quarter when Henry Burris’ touchdown to Bakari Grant sealed the victory.
“I thought the defence played great,” said Austin. “They were aggressive, they hit, and they covered well against a really good football team. I was really proud of their effort.”
The Ticats posted five sacks on the night – their second-highest total of the 2013 season – and Steinauer believes that his team’s hard work getting to the quarterback is finally paying off in the stat column, even if it’s already been paying off on the field.
“If you look at us since the game against Edmonton and you chart the hits on the quarterback, we’re up there with the top teams in the league,” said Steinauer. “Now if you look at the sack tally, no we’re not, but last year in Toronto we were last or second last in sacks in the CFL. I don’t think raw sack numbers are indicative of whether or not you can win a Grey Cup.”
Defensive end Brandon Boudreaux – who tallied his fifth sack in as many games on Friday – believes that the comradery building between the D-line and a well-called game by the coaching staff are responsible for the defence’s success in Toronto.
“The comradery building up front is important. We got great four man pressure, especially up the middle with Brian Bulcke, Torrey Davis and Hasan Hazime,” he said. “The coaches allowed us to be one-on-one with the guards on the outside and we were able to win those battles a lot of the time. When we blitzed, we were able to get home… the scheme worked in our favour.”
“I say I’m making plays,” he continued, “but it comes down to the coaches calling the right plays to put us in the right position to do so.”
