Preparing silently for Stamps
B.C. knows that actions speak louder than words before game against rivals
The same picture of a shattered Andrew Harris staring at the turf after last year’s West Division final still has a place in the home locker of the B.C. Lions tailback. It is motivation for a player who still has something to prove, but has realized the true value of actions over words.
If you’re thinking the Lions’ CFL game against the Calgary Stampeders tonight (6 p.m., TSN, Team 1040) is actually a battle for the division lead and are expecting more blather about how Harris and New Westminster’s Jon Cornish are changing the perception of non-import tailbacks, well, jump ahead a few chapters.
“It’s kind of funny; I haven’t thought about it at all this week,” Harris said.
No, Harris isn’t even here in a sense, as the player most responsible for a running game that was deemed non-existent by Lions general manager Wally Buono this week.
A whopping gap of 655 rushing yards separates the two runners, and is representative of the gulf between their teams and what has taken place since they met in the penultimate game last season that left Harris and his mates so glum.
The absence of verbal rocket fire across the Rockies this week has been palpable due to the disparity that has the Stamps almost home for the West Division final. B.C., on the other hand, is clinging to a chance to take second spot over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who have a virtual gift at home against 3-11 Edmonton Saturday.
Nonetheless, Cornish, the freethinking Calgary tailback who had a career-high 208 yards rushing last week, says if the Lions would like to engage in the kind of sabre-rattling which has him on pace to become the league’s most outstanding player, he’s still game.
“I think teams understand now since I made such a point of calling teams out that want to start things in the media that let’s just play football. That’s the only thing that matters,” he said Thursday. “They need to understand that if they do it, I will rise to the occasion.”
Brash talk, but Cornish has backed it up every time, and the 11-3 Stamps are following suit.
It’s the second-straight week where the Lions’ defence has to face the best offensive attack and top rusher, after Cornish took over the lead from Saskatchewan’s Kory Sheets.
Calgary has the best offensive and defensive lines statistically. They have three quarterbacks each with a passer rating in excess of 104.1 without a hint of real controversy normally associated with the position, and haven’t lost two straight in two seasons.
Is there anything the Stamps aren’t doing well these days?
“Sometimes I call (a game) conservatively when we have the lead,” offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson said. “That’s been part of the reason we settle for field goals.”
Most of all though they have Cornish, who has an eye-popping 46 runs of more than 10 yards this season, and is practically begging for Lions defensive co-ordinator Rich Stubler to paint a target on him because of what it would do for his teammates.
“Stubler tried to take Jon away; same for Saskatchewan. We feel we have enough weapons that if even people take Jon away we should still have success,” said Dickenson. “Jon’s been our best player; maybe the best in the league.”
B.C.’s best threat is still Harris, who spurred Cornish to a 172-yard rushing game in the season opener here when he casually mentioned he felt the Lions were the best team in the West Division final last year.
But the Lions running game is, well, not there in the eyes of Buono. As such, the Stampeders are bracing for a retooled offensive package that was the subject of significant focus by the Lions at practice this week. Everything else is just talk. “What are you going to say? You can’t say anything about them,” coach Mike Benevides said. “They’re 11-3 and they went to the Grey Cup last year. They embarrassed us week one.”
One team has a player who can do all the talking he would like. The Lions? Silence is both golden and appropriate, just like the picture still in Harris’ locker.