THEY’VE KICKED IT UP A NOTCH
Special teams setting blistering pace for return TDs
Call it the return of the returner.
It’s an exciting time for the
CFL, unless you’re a special teams coach on the wrong end of yet another kick-return touchdown.
The 2019 season is just 35 games old and already there have been 18 kick-return majors: a league-record nine on kickoffs, six on punt returns and three on missed field goals.
The record for an 81-game season is 22, set in 2004. During the CFL’s American expansion phase, the 117-game season of 1995 featured 24 kick-return TDs, the all-time high for the league.
Even so, there was a return TD every 4.9 games that year. This season, the league is averaging a return major every 1.9 games. The previous total high after 35 games was 12 in 1999.
Why the early surge this season? Most observers point first to the returners rather than rules, officiating standards or blocking schemes.
“I think there’s just a lot of good, strong, speedy returners in the league now,” said Edmonton’s special teams co-ordinator A.J. Gass. “When you look at it, it’s pretty apparent some of these guys are just ultra fast. They’re getting the edge and they’re gone. It’s a special year for sure.”
It’s a point echoed by Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea and Calgary special teams co-ordinator Mark Kilam.
“It’s never one thing on special teams when there are so many moving parts,” said Kilam, “but I think the first thing you’ve got to do is you have to credit the returners. There’s a lot of good returners in the CFL and when you watch those touchdown plays, there are unblocked players at the (point of attack) on several of them and (the returners are) winning those battles. First and foremost, you have to credit those guys. I would always start there: good returners making plays, making schemes better, making blocks better.”
There is no denying the strength of the return corps, but with few exceptions it’s a veteran group. The only CFL rookies to lug back a kick for a score this year are Winnipeg ’s Lucky Whitehead and Janarion Grant and Ottawa’s DeVonte Dedmon, who have combined for five.
Nine of the return TDs, half the league total, were scored by players with between three and seven years of experience in the league: Brandon Banks, Brandon Rutley, Chris Rainey, Marcus Thigpen, Loucheiz Purifoy, Ryan Lankford and Terry Williams. Four have come from second-year men Shakeir Ryan, Frankie Williams and Will Likely.
So there must be other things at play. What about rule changes?
“They’re always changing the rules to make the return game more exciting,” said Kilam. “You can go back to (2014) when they said you couldn’t punt out of bounds and I think it was (2016) when ... guards and tackles couldn’t leave the (line of scrimmage) until the ball is punted.
“They’re always trying to tweak it. But it is one of the best parts of the CFL. It’s my favourite part. The rules and the field and the game is set up for exciting plays in the return game.”
Keeping the cover team on the line of scrimmage until the ball is punted creates a ton of separation between the cover unit and the returner and that certainly contributes to longer returns.
But what about officiating? “I still see plenty of flags flying on plays,” he said.
Whatever the case, the result has been a parade to the end zone and no team has more return
TDs than Hamilton’s five.
“There is something in the mix and I don’t know what it is, but the more the merrier, man,” said Hamilton’s Frankie Williams, who has a pair. “Because that’s great competition. It’s exciting. It’s adversity. And I embrace it. I love it. We all do.”
There is nothing more jarring than a return TD, which used to be the exception, not the rule. In Edmonton, it still is a rarity. The Eskimos have yet to score one this season and have allowed just one to their Alberta rival.
“We had a couple guys on that play, myself included, who fell for a bit of misdirection and it cost us on the boundary,” said the Esks’ James Tuck.
That said, the Eskimos pride themselves on sound, simple coverage and it seems to be working. Saskatchewan, B.C. and Calgary have all given up four return majors, most in the CFL.
“This season is really a message to cover teams,” Kilam said. “Cover with urgency because the way it’s going this year, those returners can change the game.” dbarnes@postmedia.com Twitter.com/sportsdanbarnes