Cornish more ahead of game than behind Sheets
For those red-and-white disciples who find themselves flinching involuntarily at that early 138-yard gap between Jon Cornish and the top of the table, the will-o’-the-wisp tailback has a word of advice:
Light some incense. Slide on a Zamfir CD. Chill. ’Cause he considers himself not so much behind Saskatchewan scatback Kory Sheets as ahead of the game.
“If you remember correctly,” Cornish gently admonishes the slightly-stooped, nearsighted, addle-brained, aging interrogator who’s blocked his way just outside the Calgary Stampeders’ locker-room, “last year I only had 198 yards after five games. Hey, this year I’m on pace for 1,800!
“And that’s with only one big game.
“Do I look stressed? Hey, I’m relaxed right now. I’m in a pretty good position, I think.”
Heading into Week 4 of the 2013 CFL campaign Sheets has set a completely mad pace, hoarding 442 yards or 137 a start to lead all rushers. Cornish, a full 143 yards ahead of his threegame aggregate last season, is next at 304, then you have to scale back 98 more to third-seated Chad Simpson of the Bombers.
Sheets, who finished 180 yards behind leader Cornish in 2012, is clearly aiming to flip-flop positions atop the rushing charts this go-round.
“I don’t compete with anybody but myself,” says Cornish flatly. “I don’t set any long-term goals. I set per-play goals. I want to be the best player I possibly can on every play. That’s my aim.
“When I see and hear people comparing us, I’m thinking ‘Is this legitimate, or what?’ Look, Sheets is a good running back. But I think any time you have someone who distinguishes himself, people automatically want to put him up, match him up, against somebody else.
“I really like the way he plays. He makes excellent cuts and hits the hole hard. But I like the way I play, too. We’re two different backs. Last year there were the constant comparisons between me and Andrew Harris. I anticipate this year there’ll be constant comparisons between me and Kory Sheets.”
Tonight at McMahon Stadium, Cornish gets another dose of the Montreal defence. If the Als’ offence has deservedly taken its share of stick over the past couple of weeks, the stalwart D has been nothing short of courageous, resilient. After being touched for 33 points in the opener by Buck Pierce and the Bombers, it held Winnipeg to 19 in the rematch and then the Stamps to one offensive touchdown last week.
“We had a few good runs against them last week. Actually, I had a 100-yard game but I also had 10 yards in losses. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
“They’re unorthodox. Normally in the CFL you have teams playing a 4-2 defence. They mostly play an ‘eagle’ defence, five guys down with a single linebacker. Or they’ll play seven guys up on the line of scrimmage. That’s a tough alignment to run against. So it brings its own set of changes we need to make to counteract that.
“For me, last year I got a lot of experience against ‘eagle’ defences. Kory Sheets, he gets to run against defences. I get to run against stacked boxes. There’s a difference. I’m not complaining.
: But Montreal has stacked the box against us, Saskatchewan has stacked the box against us. The one team that didn’t stack the box against us? B.C.’’
And Cornish went all Norman Bates on the Leos, slicing them for 172 yards, a 7.2 per-carry average and two TDs.
“As teams start to realize that Saskatchewan’s biggest threat is Kory Sheets, they’ll start preparing that way. Just like Andrew Harris last year — he was able to get open pass-routes because teams didn’t really know just how good he was. Now people have started for that.
“So I think as more teams come to respect Kory Sheets, they’ll base their defences off him.’’
Tonight, against the Als, Cornish is oncer again anticipating a thicket of burly bodies down in the pit, eagerly awaiting his arrival.