How to avoid trouble
Lions running back Harris takes on stingy Hamilton defenders who just like to have ‘fun’
It would be tempting for the B.C. Lions to kick the ball away from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ electrifying returner Brandon Banks, but it’s just not football
HAMILTON — It’s a question of who will blink first.
When the Hamilton Tiger-Cats take to the gridiron on Saturday night at Tim Hortons Field to square off with the B.C. Lions, their defence — tops in the Canadian Football League against the run — will have the task of containing Andrew Harris, who led the league with 519 rushing yards after Week 7.
“They run the ball pretty well and Andrew is having a great year so far,” Ticats general manager and head coach Kent Austin said on Thursday.
“(Harris) has a good combination of speed and strength. He is elusive enough to make you miss in open field and he catches the ball out of the backfield as well. He’s a good back.”
The Tiger-Cats have been consistent and have demonstrated improvement in stopping the run under defensive co-ordinator Orlondo Steinauer. In 2013, his first year running the Hamilton defence, Steinauer watched his group hold opposing offences to an average of 98.8 yards a game on the ground, good for fourth overall in the CFL; last year, it was whittled down to 76.8 yards a game, the lowest average allowed in the league.
Several positives resulted in a 4-2 record for the Ticats in their first six games and keeping teams from running the football was key. Heading into Saturday, Hamilton has given up an average of only 71 yards a game on the ground.
“We hit the ground running,” linebacker Simoni Lawrence said, the pun not intended. “With concepts, we are into stuff we were doing late in the season last year. We just jumped on all of that right away. I think it’s why we have started off with the fast start, because we picked up where we left off.”
One would hope that a team that has lost in the Grey Cup the past two years would have gained some mental strength from those experiences and the Ticats have done exactly that. Not all of them, of course, have been with the team for both losses, but those who have acknowledge a difference in 2015.
“We’re definitely not satisfied with being just okay or average or just doing what we are supposed to do,” Lawrence said. “We can’t do that because we tried it in the past couple of years and we came up short. We weren’t good enough. We’re not okay with being just a good team.”
So the adage that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, applies with this group. “I believe that, because you learn a lot more from losing,” Lawrence said. “I feel like if you are not learning from your mistakes, you are not learning at all.”
For now, for the defence, the test is Harris. “Another good back, another good challenge,” Lawrence said. “We take pride on our great team defence. It’s fun.”