Toliver ready for another faceoff against Carter
Tiger-cats wide receiver says coverage by Riders cornerback commendable
HAMILTON It’s not quite Groundhog Day, but Terrence Toliver, barring a sudden change of heart by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, knows exactly what he’s up against Thursday at Tim Hortons Field.
Unless the Riders change tactics, which is always a possibility, he’ll again be lining up across from Duron Carter for the extent of Thursday’s return match.
Carter, the all-star receiver turned cornerback for the time being, spent the bulk of the July 5 game between the two teams covering Toliver and no one else.
Riders head coach Chris Jones, never a stranger to turning up his nose at football tradition and doing things his own way, had Carter on Toliver and Ed Gainey lined up opposite Brandon (Speedy) Banks in the 18-13 Saskatchewan win and, based on accounts coming out of Riders practice this week, will do the same again Thursday.
“We only did it one game, so we’ll see,” Jones told reporters in Regina of his plans for Thursday. “We happened to win one game with it, so right now I’m a genius.”
That strategy is certainly not the norm in the CFL. Sure, teams will manoeuvre to line up their best defenders against an opposing team’s top target but to have two such scenarios and to do it for an entire game is taking things a little further.
Tiger-cats head coach June Jones, for instance, points out that his team will do that with its shutdown corner, Delvin Breaux, basically eliminating an opponent’s top target. But as is his reputation, he has gone a little further.
For his part Toliver didn’t even recognize the devoted coverage while the game was on.
“I didn’t think about that until after the game,” Toliver admitted. “I didn’t notice it until then because I was so focused on what I had to do, but he did a great job with the matching-up part. I thought it was fun.”
That Toliver didn’t recognize the full extent of Carter’s attention should not be viewed as a slight on the receiver turned cornerback.
Toliver comes across as very impressed by Carter’s skill set at a position he’s still learning.
“He’s tall, long and athletic,” Toliver said. “But that’s what I like. It’s an adjustment (going up against someone much like himself ), but it’s my duty to make plays like the one in the end zone. I should have just went up over his head instead of waiting on the ball, but I haven’t played in a year so I’m still getting my feet back under me. I will look to make plays this game.”
It’s only after being informed that Carter has been talking about studying Toliver’s tendencies and preferences on video heading into the game that the competitor in Toliver comes out.
“I’ll say this: I’ve been playing receiver longer than he has been playing (defensive back),” Toliver said. “He can focus on whatever he wants to focus on but I’m just going to focus on what I need to do to be successful in this offence.”
As Toliver mentions he’s still catching up to the player he was before an injury cost him all but a few minutes of the 2017 season.
Coming off a 1,000-yard-receiving and nine-touchdown year in 2016, Toliver tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on the Tiger-cats’ first possession of the 2017 season.
He returned in the second game of this season and over his last three has 13 receptions for 230 yards combined along with one touchdown.
“I feel good,” Toliver said. “I’m not where I want to be physically but you can’t really tell out there on the field. I’m just going out there and doing my job. If I’m out there I have to play whether I’m 100 per cent, 90 per cent or 80 per cent. I just gotta play so that’s what I’m out there for.”
Toliver is well aware of Carter’s lack of experience at the position of cornerback but he won’t underestimate him.
“Yeah, you can tell,” Toliver said of Carter’s relative unfamiliarity playing the position. “It’s going to be a while, but again he’s athletic, he has great ball skills, you see the one-handed catch he almost made on the post route, so I think he can be pretty good.”
Carter and the Ottawa Redblacks’ receivers had a few issues earlier in the season, but Toliver has absolutely no beef with the man against whom he caught three passes for 70 yards.
“He didn’t say nothing to me,” Toliver said of any trash talk. “I don’t talk and he didn’t say anything to me.”
Another 60 minutes going at one another on Thursday and that could change quickly.