UnDniable
Need proof that defences rule the CFL? Check out today’s West semifinal
It looks like defence won the 2018 regular season in the Canadian Football League, but let’s rewind the videotape, just to be sure.
League-wide offensive points per game were down 5% from last season. Check.
Net offence dropped 3%. You don’t say.
Second-down conversions were down 2%. Passing yards were down 8% per game and big plays of 20 yards or more fell 2%. Interesting.
Turnovers per game were up an incredible 18%. Wow! And two-and-outs? A whopping 11% increase over 2017.
Well then, upon video review, there is absolutely no question that defences dominated the league in 2018, and there will be no better post-season showcase for that regular-season trend than the West semifinal at Mosaic Stadium on Sunday, featuring the Roughriders and the Winnipeg ... sorry, the hated Winnipeg Blue Bombers; followed by the West final a week later in Calgary.
Saskatchewan forced more two-and-outs than any other team, allowed the fewest points by opposing offences, and scored 11 — count ’em, 11 — TDs. The Riders offence kicked in just 25, worst in the league. Yet here they are at 12-6, hosting the first playoff game ever at Mosaic Stadium, thanks to that defence.
“We’re just doing what we’re coached to do and we practise it too,” said Riders defensive lineman Eddie Steele, referring to TD production. “It’s not by fluke. We practise going after the ball and trying to create turnovers, and not just creating turnovers, but trying to score off turnovers.
“We had a really good defence when I was in Edmonton in 2014 and 2015 but we weren’t scoring at the rate we were this year. We were getting after it.”
There is no denying that the Riders, Bombers and Stamps led a defensive resurgence and it showed itself in post-season award nominations. Consider that the Regina-based members of the Football Reporters of Canada voted for defensive lineman Willie Jefferson as the Riders’ most outstanding player. It could easily have been linebacker Samuel Eguavoen. Maybe Charleston Hughes.
The storyline was similar with the Winnipeg ... sorry, the hated Winnipeg chapter of the Football Reporters of Canada, who voted for linebacker
Adam Bighill as the team’s most outstanding player. And that’s something, given that the team’s offence runs through running back Andrew Harris, and scored more points than any other team in the CFL.
As an aside, the Bombers defence that Bighill anchors will cost you $6,300 of your $30,000 budget this weekend if you’re playing TSN CFL Fantasy Football. You can buy B.C.’s starting wideout Bryan Burnham and running back Tyrell Sutton, or even Riders’ QB Brandon Bridge for less.
And Bridge might actually start on Sunday. The Riders listed Zach Collaros first on the depth chart but it may be misdirection. Collaros, who took a high hit from B.C.’s
Odell Willis in Game 18 two weeks ago and didn’t finish the tilt, wouldn’t even confirm whether he’ll be in uniform on Sunday.
There’s every chance this game is decided by big defensive plays, anyway. And there’s plenty more evidence in the CFL stats sheets for the defences having had their way all year. The Stamps and Bombers both forced a leaguehigh 49 turnovers, while Saskatchewan was tied with Ottawa for third at 41.
Those units gave their offences such a leg up that the Bombers, Riders and Stamps finished one, two and three in points scored off turnovers, with 151, 147 and 140 respectively. The bottom four teams, by way of contrast, were Toronto (65), Montreal (72), Ottawa (78) and Hamilton
(81).
“We’re probably the only team that works a period of practice on day three that’s really just about turnovers,” said Jefferson. “It’s not just interceptions, it’s fumbles, getting to the ball, breaking on the ball, finding where the quarterback is looking, little things that some teams don’t work on that we always work on.”
It’s physical ability too. Put the right athletes in the right scheme, coach them up to put 12 hats in the TV picture, as Riders defensive back Ed Gainey likes to say, and good things should happen.
But football is a three-phase game and good things didn’t happen right away for the Riders’ offence, the team stumbled out of the gate at 1-2, and that grim reality came as a punch in the mouth for the defence.
“We just knew the defence was going to have to be a lot tougher, a lot more physical and a lot more mentally tough and into the game,” said Jefferson.
They embraced the challenge, fine-tuned the details and became a dominant force.
“Finally we figured out how to play a little more solid,” said head coach Chris Jones, something of a defensive guru. “If we can ever figure out how not to give up the big play, that’s when we’ll turn into an elite defence.
“We still have too many lapses where we give up a 60-yard play for points. If we’re going to go where we want to go, we’re going to have to eliminate that.”
They want to go to Calgary for the West final and Edmonton for the Grey Cup.
If they complete their tour of Alberta, you can bet it will be on the backs of a ballstripping, gang-tackling defence.