THE CANADIAN PRESS
Als Defensive Coordinator Noel Thorpe thinks the team that “breaks bread” together wins together.
Billy Parker suggests cornbread.
“Stone has cornbread, that’s alright,” says the six-year veteran about linebacker Winston Venable’s culinary specialty.
Parker is no chef. The judgemental “foodie” veteran on D amidst this group turns a football field into Hell’s Kitchen for quarterbacks.
“Oh, best cook’s not me,” confesses Parker with a chuckle. “Some of these guys’ wives and girlfriends are the best. Ky (Hebert) cooks pretty well. Yeah, Ky.”
Must be a Louisiana thing. Offences go “jumbo”? Tthe Als can go gumbo or jambalaya.
More important than the menu, of course, is their weekly “Day 3” post-practise bonding ritual.
“I think it’s big,” admits Parker, who served up interceptions in each of the Als’ back-to-back Grey Cup wins in ‘09-10. “We started the dinners around the time we started our turnaround for the season.”
“Just spending time with one another, being able to talk, hang . . . it means something more than just at the end of the day than everybody going their separate ways. We spend a little time with each other.”
“It means a lot. It’s brought us close together.”
The Turnaround: Six straight wins holding opponents to 17 points or less. That was the stingiest win-streak in Alouettes franchise history. They’ve had stretches where they’ve given up fewer points over a six-game span, but not in victories.
A Turnaround shaken by the regular season finale loss in Steeltown, where the D fell flat from exhaustion in the fourth quarter like cake before it’s baked.
So which defense shows up Sunday in the East Semifinal, the won that held the Lions to just nine points in their first meeting or the one flattened like a crepe in the annual Curse of the Dome game in Vancouver?
“The one that gets us a win, that’s the one that’s going to show up,” says Billy, the 35-year old who led the team in pass knockdowns with nine and was tied for second on the club in tackles for losses with five, tied with his preferred meal-maker Ky “The Angry Bird” Hebert.
“The defense that has played pretty well until into that fourth quarter in Hamilton, that’s the one that needs to show up,” says Parker, who originated the Angry Bird wing-flapping celebration after big defensive plays.
“Kevin Glenn is a seasoned vet, so it’s not like you can confuse him,” says the native of Mechanicsville, Virginia. “Thing is you gotta get to him because he’s as accurate as any quarterback we’re going to face.”
Bear Woods recalls just how accurate. The Als’ Defensive Player of the Year nominee was thrust into his first CFL game in the East-Semi 2011 against Glenn when he was a Ticat. The veteran QB tore up the newbie and his teammates for an OT 52-44 win, outdueling Anthony Calvillo.
“With his experience and his playmaking ability he keeps the team in any game,” says the Als’ tackle leader for 2014, despite having missed the first six games of the season including both head-to-head matchups vs. the Lions.
Glenn has thrown more career interceptions than touchdowns in the postseason, but Woods guards against over-confidence.
“He’s an aggressive guy and he wants the game on his shoulders. He shows that when he plays.”
If cranking up the heat to “broil” makes Glenn uncomfortable in his kitchen, the Als can look to the return of defensive end Gabriel Knapton (Montreal’s Rookie of the Year winner) and tackle Alan-Michael Cash to fuel the pass rush.
Knapton had nine sacks in his CFL debut year. Cash is a masher at nose tackle who can free up Knapton and sack leader John Bowman from any threat of double-team blocks.
“It’s going to be a hard-fought battle,” says Cash, who was a last minute scratch against the Ticats because of a calf injury that flared up during pregame warmup. “Everybody gotta strap it on and get after it.”
“We just got to be physical, run our stunts and we should come out on top,” says Cash who came up with the second highest total of fumble recoveries on the defense this season (three, just one fewer than the co-leaders Jerald Brown and Winston Venable—he of the cornbread).
“It hurt watching my boys out there (losing in Hamilton) and I couldn’t do anything to help them. There’s a lot of frustration I can let out Sunday.”
Sounds like a recipe for victory.
