There is safety in numbers but there haven't been a number of safeties.
And that's something new in Catland.
Today in Edmonton marks the first time this season that the interior of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive backfield will not have Ryan Glasper at safety, Rontarius Robinson at boundary halfback and Chris Thompson at field halfback.
Glasper is out with a sore shoulder, although he says he can play, so Robinson has moved over to safety and Geoff Tisdale fills in at halfback. It's the first game this year that the Cats have made changes at two positions in the secondary.
Last year, the Ticats went well into September before they fielded the same defensive backfield two games in a row. Yes, cynics, we know: it doesn't seem to make a difference whether it's a revolving door or a stable lineup. The Cats still give up more completions than anyone in the league.
But, over time, playing the middle three of a defensive backfield together for sustained stretches usually helps create the cohesion so necessary to develop a strong secondary. But that's true only so long as a) you're getting a good pass rush and b) the secondary trio are the right guys.
The Cats haven't been able to do a damn thing about a) and think they're on the right track with b), but as head coach Marcel Bellefeuille was pointing out yesterday, when you've won two of 10 games, there should be no experiment which is off limits.
So, while it's probable, it's not necessarily certain that Robinson returns to halfback and Glasper gets his safety job back, when he's ready to return.
Glasper is only 23, and has time to grow into a positon where many of the CFL starters are much older. But, in the long run, non-import Dylan Barker is penciled in as starting safety, if the broken leg which ended his rookie season before it began heals properly. Safety was once an exclusively Canadian spot, but with pass-happy offences the past few years, defensive co-ordinators have countered with American safeties.
Because of the myriad of responsibilities, and the frequent assignments to cover slotbacks in a slotback league, it's more difficult to develop defensive halfbacks than any other defensive position in the CFL.
"It's all lanes, and if you can't have good seal D, be a real shifty guy and change direction quickly you can't make it at the halfback position in the CFL," says Robinson.
So, it would seem that Robinson, who's spent this year and parts of his three seasons in Saskatchewan at boundary half would be automatically assigned to his former spot once Glasper is ready.
But, despite all this loose playoff talk, the remaining eight weeks of the Cat season are really about a test-drive at almost every position ... including, it seems, quarterback.
Sooo, if Robinson works out at safety, and Tisdale's athleticism translates into on-field success, anything can happen back there.
"With Glasper down and Tisdale at boundary half, we're going to have some learning curves," says Robinson, who faces one of the biggest curves in Ricky Ray this evening, assuming the Eskimos star starts.
"But at the same time we've been learning the defence since training camp. We've got a lot of morale right now, we're kind of uplifted. We've had good tempo and we're feeling good about ourselves."
How that morale can exist in the wake of the B.C. and Argonaut losses, we'll never know. But hats off to the professionalism.
"One thing about being a defensive back is that you have to have a short memory," Robinson says.
Robinson played safety in all but one of his high school and college seasons and prefers that position. But he also had experience at every spot in the secondary during three years on the prairies.
While there, he faced Ray many times and actually hopes the Eskimos' No. 1 pivot is healthy enough to start today, as advertised.
The safety is probably more important against Ray than against most other quarterbacks because of his ability to go vertical with extreme accuracy. A lot of help is needed on the seams, and the centrefielder has to provide it.
"Ricky is going to test you deep so if you're not up for the challenge, then expect to get bombed on," Robinson says. "But I accept the challenge. ... I know he'll test the D. As a defensive back you gotta look forward to games like that because you know you're going to get balls thrown at you.
"Last time against him, here, I left a couple out on the field that I could have intercepted. And I'd like to get them back."
No doubt, he'll at least get a chance. Only Toronto has spent more time on the field than Hamilton's defence, and Edmonton's offence controls the ball longer than any other offence in the league.
Those stats do not favour the Ticats. But very few do.
And that's something new in Catland.
Today in Edmonton marks the first time this season that the interior of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive backfield will not have Ryan Glasper at safety, Rontarius Robinson at boundary halfback and Chris Thompson at field halfback.
Glasper is out with a sore shoulder, although he says he can play, so Robinson has moved over to safety and Geoff Tisdale fills in at halfback. It's the first game this year that the Cats have made changes at two positions in the secondary.
Last year, the Ticats went well into September before they fielded the same defensive backfield two games in a row. Yes, cynics, we know: it doesn't seem to make a difference whether it's a revolving door or a stable lineup. The Cats still give up more completions than anyone in the league.
But, over time, playing the middle three of a defensive backfield together for sustained stretches usually helps create the cohesion so necessary to develop a strong secondary. But that's true only so long as a) you're getting a good pass rush and b) the secondary trio are the right guys.
The Cats haven't been able to do a damn thing about a) and think they're on the right track with b), but as head coach Marcel Bellefeuille was pointing out yesterday, when you've won two of 10 games, there should be no experiment which is off limits.
So, while it's probable, it's not necessarily certain that Robinson returns to halfback and Glasper gets his safety job back, when he's ready to return.
Glasper is only 23, and has time to grow into a positon where many of the CFL starters are much older. But, in the long run, non-import Dylan Barker is penciled in as starting safety, if the broken leg which ended his rookie season before it began heals properly. Safety was once an exclusively Canadian spot, but with pass-happy offences the past few years, defensive co-ordinators have countered with American safeties.
Because of the myriad of responsibilities, and the frequent assignments to cover slotbacks in a slotback league, it's more difficult to develop defensive halfbacks than any other defensive position in the CFL.
"It's all lanes, and if you can't have good seal D, be a real shifty guy and change direction quickly you can't make it at the halfback position in the CFL," says Robinson.
So, it would seem that Robinson, who's spent this year and parts of his three seasons in Saskatchewan at boundary half would be automatically assigned to his former spot once Glasper is ready.
But, despite all this loose playoff talk, the remaining eight weeks of the Cat season are really about a test-drive at almost every position ... including, it seems, quarterback.
Sooo, if Robinson works out at safety, and Tisdale's athleticism translates into on-field success, anything can happen back there.
"With Glasper down and Tisdale at boundary half, we're going to have some learning curves," says Robinson, who faces one of the biggest curves in Ricky Ray this evening, assuming the Eskimos star starts.
"But at the same time we've been learning the defence since training camp. We've got a lot of morale right now, we're kind of uplifted. We've had good tempo and we're feeling good about ourselves."
How that morale can exist in the wake of the B.C. and Argonaut losses, we'll never know. But hats off to the professionalism.
"One thing about being a defensive back is that you have to have a short memory," Robinson says.
Robinson played safety in all but one of his high school and college seasons and prefers that position. But he also had experience at every spot in the secondary during three years on the prairies.
While there, he faced Ray many times and actually hopes the Eskimos' No. 1 pivot is healthy enough to start today, as advertised.
The safety is probably more important against Ray than against most other quarterbacks because of his ability to go vertical with extreme accuracy. A lot of help is needed on the seams, and the centrefielder has to provide it.
"Ricky is going to test you deep so if you're not up for the challenge, then expect to get bombed on," Robinson says. "But I accept the challenge. ... I know he'll test the D. As a defensive back you gotta look forward to games like that because you know you're going to get balls thrown at you.
"Last time against him, here, I left a couple out on the field that I could have intercepted. And I'd like to get them back."
No doubt, he'll at least get a chance. Only Toronto has spent more time on the field than Hamilton's defence, and Edmonton's offence controls the ball longer than any other offence in the league.
Those stats do not favour the Ticats. But very few do.
