Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
A lot of things have changed over the course of defensive back Matt Black‘s career but one thing has been constant almost all the way through and that is that the Calgary Stampeders’ offence has always provided one of the toughest tests that he and his Toronto Argonauts teammates can face.
That theme will continue this weekend.
“They’re phenomenal,” says Black, sizing up Calgary’s fleet of receivers ahead of the Argos’ Grey Cup rematch with the Stamps, coming Saturday night at Toronto’s BMO Field.
“They’ve got big receivers. It seems like they can all run. Big hands. They catch the ball really well, they use their body. They use their God-given abilities really well.
“They work together really well,” he continues. “They are, on paper, one of the most – if not the most – talented receiving corps in the CFL and we’re gonna have our work cut out for us.
“But we’re up for the challenge,” he adds, quickly.
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Argos safety Matt Black respects the ability of the Stampeders’ pass-catchers (David Chidley/CFL.ca)
Black, the native of Toronto who has entered his 10th year as a defensive back with his beloved hometown team, is displaying a verbal range akin to his physical one as he talks about the Calgary offence, about Bo Levi Mitchell, and about the transition the Toronto defence is making to a new coordinator in Mike Archer.
And his physical range is pretty good, by the way. It allowed him to get the heck over to the sideline, in the end zone, in order to pilfer a Mitchell pass in the dying seconds of last year’s Grey Cup Game, clinching a 27-24 win for the underdog Argos.
Black is one of those thinking fan’s football players. He is cerebral in his approach to the game and he is cerebral in his approach to answering questions, surpassing the basics of cliché, run-of-the-mill answers.
If you’re looking for seven-second sound bites, look elsewhere. You asked a question, Matt Black is going to give you details.
“One of the best things that they do is they make tough catches for Bo,” says Black, continuing his assessment of Calgary’s receiving corps. He pops in a couple of examples; Like Kamar Jorden’s leaping, over the shoulder stunner in that Grey Cup Game. Like Juwan Brescacin’s ridiculous one-hander during last week’s Calgary win over the Hamilton Ticats. “Spectacular,” says Black.
Brescacin and Jorden do their part. DaVaris Daniels and Marken Michel do, too. Second-year man Reggie Begelton stepped up with game-breaking abilities displayed during his rookie year and then again in last weekend’s home opener. And Eric Rogers has returned. The last time we’d seen him in the CFL (2015), he led the league in receiving yards, with 1,448 on 87 catches.
There’s a game plan in place for the Argos, who are looking to rebound from their season-opening loss in Saskatchewan. It does fall into that category of ‘easier said than done,’ but that is usually the case in football, isn’t it?
“We’re gonna have to get in there,” says Black of the physical nature of Calgary’s receivers. “We’re gonna have to challenge them. Make them make the tough catches and make (Mitchell) make the pinpoint, accurate throws.”
Matt Black is pictured making the game-clinching interception in the 105th Grey Cup (Alex D’Addese/CFL.ca)
The Argos’ pass defence didn’t have a half-bad opener in Saskatchewan, holding the Roughriders’ own impressive stable of route runners to just 203 yards on a night when their own offence struggled mightily to find the range.
“Overall, I think we played a pretty solid game,” says Black. “There’s definitely areas we can clean up. But I think we’re off to a good start.”
The Argonauts’ pass defence – indeed the entire defence – came together just about perfectly as the 2017 season pressed on, culminating in big plays in the Grey Cup that turned the tide. Under he direction of Defensive Coordinator Corey Chamblin, the Argos’ defence became one of the league’s best in a season that followed one where they were just about the league’s worst.
Chamblin departed during the off-season, though, and Archer is the new DC, a year after arriving in the CFL as Toronto’s linebacker coach.
That kind of move can often result in a little early-season chaos as the new boss might be ready to distance himself from the old one, but that has not been the case with Archer, says Black, meaning that more continuity than one might expect is present already with the Toronto defence.
“It’s been really good to come back to the same framework, the same terminology,” says Black, who in his 10th season is now playing for his ninth DC (or is it 10th, he wondered).
“Learning new terminology every year, it can kind of get frustrating,” says Black. “One year one thing means something, and another year it means something totally different.”
The Argos do not face that kind of challenge, according to Black, because Archer embraced a lot of what Chamblin was doing in 2017.
Keeping things consistent has ensured a comfort level for returning veterans like Black, Jermaine Gabriel, Cassius Vaughn, Alden Darby and Qudarius Ford.
“That’s the thing that I’ve really appreciated about coming back into Archer’s system,” says Black, who turned 33 during the off-season. “He’s tried to keep the core of it the same and we’ve kind of made tweaks based on the way teams have attacked (particular) defences. Schemes that didn’t work for us last year, you know, we’ve tweaked them a little bit.
“You’re not trying to build a new culture from the ground up,” he continues. “We have it. This is the way we do things. And the new guys in the room have bought into it. We’re not trying to teach 23 new guys the way Argo defence is played.”
Stamps receiver Kamar Jorden has made plenty of acrobatic catches in his young career (David Chidley/CFL.ca)
Black’s secondary looks a little different than it did on Grey Cup Sunday, with the off-season departures of Mitchell White, Rico Murray and Akwasi Owusu-Ansah. Arriving through free agency were two vets, corner Ronnie Yell and halfback T.J. Heath, whom Black says have fit in nicely and smoothly.
“T.J. and Ronnie have really done a good job of coming in, assimilating to the group and buying into the culture. It feels like they’ve been there for a long time.”
Which, literally, is Matt Black’s story. As a tenured veteran, he can really appreciate a little continuity of thought, of structure, of process. What Chamblin brought to the team, he says, was something that dovetailed perfectly with Head Coach Marc Trestman’s philosophies – and demands – surrounding attention to detail, consistency of preparation and dedication to each other. It’s something that has continued with Archer overseeing the defence.
“That’s really the biggest thing for me,” says Black. “That whole culture is still there. That ideology hasn’t changed. The way we do things is the way we do things. The pillars that we built on are there. And that’s how we function.”
It’s a nice bit of consistency to have for a veteran DB as he and his teammates think about the lockdown challenge they have ahead of them in Week Two.
BLACK’S CAREER: SOOOO MANY DCs
Is it true? Ten different defensive coordinators in 10 seasons?
“This is 10 in 10,” replies an amused Matt Black, who then he proceeds to name all the defensive coordinators he’s played for during his career with the Argos. One after another Black rhymes them off, stymied, briefly, part way through before picking up the train of names once again.
I lose count part way through, but he doesn’t. As soon as he names Mike Archer, Black adds: “There’s one more… umm… maybe it’s nine in 10, then.”
After winning a Grey Cup in his first year as DC, Corey Chamblin left the Argos this off-season (Larry MacDougal/CFL.ca)
Nine or 10, that is a lot of change in one decade.
Not all defensive coordinators are cut from the same cloth, even if they share some similarities and Black has an analogy to illustrate it.
“All cars are similar, right? They have a gas pedal, they have a brake. Some have a clutch, some don’t. They’re all cars but they drive totally different.”
While the difficulty in continually adjusting to a new DC with new ideas has been a big challenge for Black, he insists he wouldn’t change a thing. That he is better for it.
“I think I’ve learned a tremendous amount of football because I’ve had so many different defensive coordinators in my time. It’s forced me to adapt and constantly stay on my feet (mentally). You’re learning, learning, learning every year.”
For the record, it looks like it’s nine defensive coordinators:
Pete Kuharchek, Chip Garber, Orlondo Steinauer, Chris Jones, Tim Burke, Casey Creehan, Rich Stubler, Corey Chamblin and Mike Archer.
