Cornish heading into bye week on a roll
WINNIPEG — Tim Burke has devised a creative game plan to shut down Calgary Stampeders tailback Jon Cornish.
Too bad it won’t fly in the eyes of the officials.
“We’re going to play with 15,” the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach dead-panned Thursday. “And put some extra guys in the box.”
Truth be told, the Bombers boast the best defence in the land against the run, so extra guys might not be necessary
Regardless, Burke realizes Cornish can break open a game like few others in the Canadian Football League.
Through four games, the Calgary banking consultant has carried the ball 61 times for 413 yards, three touchdowns and a glittering average of 6.8 yards per carry. What a difference a year makes.
“I’m looking forward to the bye week, personally,” said Cornish, still battling a cold that hit him during last Saturday’s victory over the Montreal Alouettes. “It’s a lot better position to be in than having 199 yards after five games.
“Everybody’s forgotten about it, but I haven’t really forgot about it.”
Back in 2012, Cornish en- tered the bye week on a low after rushing for minus-1 yards in a 34-8 loss to the Montreal Alouettes. Post-game, he openly questioned the lack of holes to run through and bemoaned the swarm of tacklers in his face the moment he touched the ball.
The next morning, he hit the road for some much needed time away from the office with his girlfriend and her family in Ashley Lake, Montana.
“I thought about football,” Cornish said. “For me, it wasn’t really so much that I needed to change aspects of my game. We needed to change aspects of the entire offence, at that point. So we did that, and we had a few key replacements step in.
“I did reflect, and I just thought about how I could be a better team player more so than becoming a better running back, which is hard to do in the middle of a football season.”
That “better team player” proceeded to lead the CFL with 1,457 yards on the ground and break the record held by Normie Kwong for most rushing yards by a Canadian in a single season. At the end of the year, Cornish conducted a post-mortem on his season and figured he could top those numbers with a strong start to the 2013 campaign. So far, so good. In fact, Cornish is on pace for 275 carries and 1,859 yards through 18 games.
“He’s pretty steady,” said head coach/general manager John Hufnagel. “I think the biggest thing is maturity as a running back — not only his emotional maturity, but also him progressing as far as when he does have the ball, what’s the best way to be productive? What’s the best way to get positive yards? In all the other things the running back position has to do, he’s doing much better this year.”
Cornish was the CFL’s outstanding Canadian in 2012 and runner-up for the most outstanding player.
After tonight’s game, the Stamps get a week to rest up and a week of preparation for an Aug.9 home date a gainst the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
But first off, Cornish has business to take care of.
“I don’t think we can underestimate this Winnipeg squad,” he said “They definitely have a great defensive line, great linebackers and great DB’s. So for us, it’s going to be challenge on offence to get the ball moving.”
And that’s with 12 guys on the field, not 15.