THE CANADIAN PRESS
Ask Orlondo Steinauer just what fresh hell he has unleashed on the CFL in 2015 and he’ll tell you it isn’t fresh at all.
It may be hell, yes. But fresh? No, sir.
“I think nothing’s really changed, to be honest,” the Hamilton Ticats’ defensive coordinator says, just after the team finished up a midweek practice session in preparation for Saturday night’s game against the visiting BC Lions. “I just like to think that we play hard and fast and we’re a year more experienced, at least in our front seven.”
For Steinauer, in his third full season as DC, a cohesive, successful defence is about much more than schemes and execution. It’s about trust and ownership. It’s also about fun.
The Ticats’ defence has been a maelstrom so far this season, dragging opposing offences – particularly quarterbacks – to the depths, time and time again. It’s a blustery mix of blitzes and brutal hits, designed to give the opposition as little time as possible to execute its game plan. That’s not exactly something new in the game of football but it does seem that this year’s Hamilton defence has taken it up a notch or two from its performances over the last couple of seasons.
“Through the first third of the season we’ve done fine and that’s all that it is,” Steinauer says, in the traditional coaching fashion of never resting on laurels. “Just the first third of the season.”
While it might seem that Hamilton’s blitz packages have taken a leap forward in design this year, Steinauer says that is not the case. If it looks like the pressure packs are different and varied from 2014, that’s just your imagination. It’s the benefit of having so many returning starters that is really paying off. Starters who know exactly what Coach O wants.
WATCH: Ticats’ defence opens the scoring vs. Bombers
