If we were suggesting a sound track here, it would have to be David Bowie with Ch-ch-ch-changes, not Bob Dylan and The Times They are a' Changin'.
Because maybe the Times ain't ? but a whole bunch of the people are.
A full third of the starting Tiger-Cats defence will not be the same Sunday in Guelph as it was last Friday in Toronto.
Half of the four changes ? defensive end Sam Scott in for Greg Peach, halfback Arthur Hobbs in for Dee Webb ? are because of injuries to the incumbents; the other half are more performance related.
Terrance Parks likely starts for Ricardo Colclough at wide-side linebacker as does Hamilton's Matt Bucknor at wide corner for fellow Canuck Ryan Hinds.
"There's no panic, but we're not going to stand pat," says co-ordinator Orlondo Steinauer, whose defence took it repeatedly on the chin in the Argos' 39-34 victory. "We're going to do what's best for this football team right now.
"We're just trying to find the right mix, the right combination of players to be better. That's the bottom line. We weren't good enough last week."
No, they weren't. Too vulnerable to the run, not strong enough at the point of arrival, and far too civil in rushing the quarterback. Apply that little pressure to a tourniquet, and you'd bleed to death.
Head coach Kent Austin, who says he's not concerned ?"but ask me in three weeks" ? adds that it's imperative for the defence to get more pressure on the quarterback. That would be true against any opponent, and is especially so against a fairly fleet Eskimos receiving corps.
And Austin expects the Eskimos to test the defence afoot, since the Argos had their way with them overland too. Has to be a huge improvement there too. When you give up 39 (points) it's rarely a unidimensional problem.
"It was execution for us last week," says Bucknor, the former Hill Park Ram. "We didn't make plays, we had opportunities to make plays and didn't make them."
Steinauer echoes that, in a more restrictive sense. He pointed to a fluttering Ricky Ray pass at 3rd-and-5 that went for a Spencer Watt touchdown, Dontrelle Inman winning a jump ball in the end zone, and Hinds dropping a sure interception in the Cats end zone, that would have thwarted the ensuing touchdown.
"Even though we didn't play great, that's a large point swing. And if we make even one of those plays, at the end we don't need a touchdown, just a field goal," he said.
At first blush, four changes in the season's second game to a defence that has seen three different co-ordinators in as many years and could reasonably place some fraction of the blame for its 2012 porosity on an inconsistent lineup, seems to extend a perpetual problem.
But, says Steinauer, "In reality, they're all professional players and if we put them out there we better believe that they can get the job done. And if we've made some choices that aren't working out, then we need to keep moving. There's not enough time to live and die and say, 'Well, they might grow into this by Labour Day.' We're trying to win right now.
"But we have room for growth and mistakes. We're not one-and-done: 'You did this, you're out, somebody else is up.' If there's growth in practice, and in the meeting rooms and as a man and in the culture, if there's that growth we have patience. And if you're getting better. If there's no check marks beside those criteria, and you're not making plays, then we have to move on. That's kind of the approach."
Bucknor, who started at both corner and half last year, but was also periodically deposed from both jobs, understands exactly what his defensive coach means.
"It's a performance business, so when you're not performing they look for the next man up who is going to perform and give him a shot," he says, "So you always have to stay ready."
That last sentence is one of the planks of Austin's coaching platform. He says anyone who gets a chance to play, whether it's for injury, ratio or performance reasons, has to play as if he were already a starter. That means, as Bucknor says, always being ready.
And the defence simply must be ready this week. Especially early. Another loss with another few dozen points surrendered by the defence ? no matter how much effort and determination they show ? and this team can, and must, have no complaints about being compared to those Cat teams before them.
"We need a huge game," Bucknor says, and credit to him for that. "I definitely feel it's on our shoulders. We have to help the offence out. We have an explosive offence and we have to be able to limit mistakes on our end, and make plays."
Which is what Austin says, and what Steinauer says.
So, OK then, everybody's on the same page. But it's time to go beyond reading from it, and do it.
--thespec.com
Because maybe the Times ain't ? but a whole bunch of the people are.
A full third of the starting Tiger-Cats defence will not be the same Sunday in Guelph as it was last Friday in Toronto.
Half of the four changes ? defensive end Sam Scott in for Greg Peach, halfback Arthur Hobbs in for Dee Webb ? are because of injuries to the incumbents; the other half are more performance related.
Terrance Parks likely starts for Ricardo Colclough at wide-side linebacker as does Hamilton's Matt Bucknor at wide corner for fellow Canuck Ryan Hinds.
"There's no panic, but we're not going to stand pat," says co-ordinator Orlondo Steinauer, whose defence took it repeatedly on the chin in the Argos' 39-34 victory. "We're going to do what's best for this football team right now.
"We're just trying to find the right mix, the right combination of players to be better. That's the bottom line. We weren't good enough last week."
No, they weren't. Too vulnerable to the run, not strong enough at the point of arrival, and far too civil in rushing the quarterback. Apply that little pressure to a tourniquet, and you'd bleed to death.
Head coach Kent Austin, who says he's not concerned ?"but ask me in three weeks" ? adds that it's imperative for the defence to get more pressure on the quarterback. That would be true against any opponent, and is especially so against a fairly fleet Eskimos receiving corps.
And Austin expects the Eskimos to test the defence afoot, since the Argos had their way with them overland too. Has to be a huge improvement there too. When you give up 39 (points) it's rarely a unidimensional problem.
"It was execution for us last week," says Bucknor, the former Hill Park Ram. "We didn't make plays, we had opportunities to make plays and didn't make them."
Steinauer echoes that, in a more restrictive sense. He pointed to a fluttering Ricky Ray pass at 3rd-and-5 that went for a Spencer Watt touchdown, Dontrelle Inman winning a jump ball in the end zone, and Hinds dropping a sure interception in the Cats end zone, that would have thwarted the ensuing touchdown.
"Even though we didn't play great, that's a large point swing. And if we make even one of those plays, at the end we don't need a touchdown, just a field goal," he said.
At first blush, four changes in the season's second game to a defence that has seen three different co-ordinators in as many years and could reasonably place some fraction of the blame for its 2012 porosity on an inconsistent lineup, seems to extend a perpetual problem.
But, says Steinauer, "In reality, they're all professional players and if we put them out there we better believe that they can get the job done. And if we've made some choices that aren't working out, then we need to keep moving. There's not enough time to live and die and say, 'Well, they might grow into this by Labour Day.' We're trying to win right now.
"But we have room for growth and mistakes. We're not one-and-done: 'You did this, you're out, somebody else is up.' If there's growth in practice, and in the meeting rooms and as a man and in the culture, if there's that growth we have patience. And if you're getting better. If there's no check marks beside those criteria, and you're not making plays, then we have to move on. That's kind of the approach."
Bucknor, who started at both corner and half last year, but was also periodically deposed from both jobs, understands exactly what his defensive coach means.
"It's a performance business, so when you're not performing they look for the next man up who is going to perform and give him a shot," he says, "So you always have to stay ready."
That last sentence is one of the planks of Austin's coaching platform. He says anyone who gets a chance to play, whether it's for injury, ratio or performance reasons, has to play as if he were already a starter. That means, as Bucknor says, always being ready.
And the defence simply must be ready this week. Especially early. Another loss with another few dozen points surrendered by the defence ? no matter how much effort and determination they show ? and this team can, and must, have no complaints about being compared to those Cat teams before them.
"We need a huge game," Bucknor says, and credit to him for that. "I definitely feel it's on our shoulders. We have to help the offence out. We have an explosive offence and we have to be able to limit mistakes on our end, and make plays."
Which is what Austin says, and what Steinauer says.
So, OK then, everybody's on the same page. But it's time to go beyond reading from it, and do it.
--thespec.com
