O’Leary: Ticats’ RB gets Green light for defining visit to Ottawa

When the Hamilton Tiger-Cats hosted the Ottawa REDBLACKS back in July, Alex Green watched from the sidelines.

The Ticats’ running back was stranded on the six-game injured list, thanks to some issues with bones in his hand. He could only watch what turned out to be a defensive battle that saw Lewis Ward go a perfect 7-7 on field goals, lifting Ottawa to a 21-15 win.

When you’re not in the game, the what-ifs hang over you. Could you have made an impact? Would the Ticats have gotten to the end zone more than the one time they did? Where would the team be with that win? How different might things be now?

Green has had to deal with his share of those questions through what’s been to this point a challenging season. He’s coming off of the six-game list for the second time this year and he’s hoping to provide some answers for his team when they need them the most.

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Alex Green makes his return to the lineup this week against the REDBLACKS (Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca)

“I feel good getting back,” he said on Tuesday, after a long day with the first-team offence.

“Being on the six-game the first time, the first six weeks of the season, then I got off and got a little taste and got put back on and was out three games. I’m ready to get back with the boys and I’m ready to fight.”

When he was on the field, he put his six-foot, 228-pound frame to use. Through six games, he took 90 handoffs and turned them into 467 yards and seven touchdowns. The Ticats were 4-2 in that stretch. Then something related to that hand injury flared up again and he went back to the last place he wanted to be.

“It’s always hard to not be able to do what you love to do,” he said.

“It’s always a learning experience. You always learn something when you’re in that position. You have to look at yourself and find a way to stay strong and find a way to keep the love in your heart.

“(Being injured is) almost like going to a store and wanting something and knowing you can’t get it yet. You gotta keep your mind right, know that it’s coming and when it does, be ready to go.”

Sitting out the last four weeks and missing three games, Green gets back on the field just in time, against that same Ottawa team for a back-to-back series that could determine who hosts the Eastern Final next month.

Ticats coach June Jones named Green the starter after the team’s first practice this week.

“He’s a really good runner. He blocks well he runs well,” Jones said. Green wasn’t coached by Jones at the University of Hawaii when he played there, but he said the offence there was still very similar to what Jones ran. That’s helped him in Hamilton. He’ll push John White IV back into a backup role this week.

“I think he’s comfortable in the runs that we run because he ran them in college, the same plays,” Jones said of Green. “His footwork and everything, his trusting the holes and the reads he has a little better of a feel, probably.

“John did a great job in there and kept getting better.”

Green has scored eight touchdowns in six games so far this season (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

As it gradually cools off in Hamilton, Green admitted he thinks back to those days at Hawaii, where the weather was never a factor. Still, as a running back he knows that October and November can be his bread and butter months.

“I love the Hammer,” he said. “I don’t mind playing in the cold. Being a running back, I kind of embrace it. That’s my time. It’s a good time of the year for running backs. You get a chance to get the ball and pound some defences in the cold.”

Going into this back-to-back and knowing what Ottawa has in William Powell, Jones knows he needs production from his running back and stops from his defence. Powell’s 1,275 yards on the ground are a league-best. He had 15 carries against Hamilton in July, but only managed 47 yards and was kept out of the end zone.

“They ran a lot of things early in the year. We’ve gone back to pre-season looking at what they’re doing in practice against stuff that I’m anticipating they might pull up,” Jones said.

“But we’re not going to change a whole lot for them and they’re not going to change a whole lot for us. You really win by executing what you do.

“We’ve always played the run pretty good. I thought we did last time. This late in the year, you better be able to run the ball and you better be able to stop the run.”