The Canadian Press
While they met and watched film, prepping for their game against the Calgary Stampeders, June Jones and Jerry Glanville came away from it with the same question.
“I don’t know where they keep getting those guys,” Jones said.
“Whoever does their personnel, when they lose a player they plug another one in,” Glanville said. “I think one reason they win so much is when someone gets hurt, the next guy can play.”
The newest next guy up for the Stamps is their running back, Romar Morris. The 25-year-old from Charlotte, N.C. has been biding his time behind Don Jackson and Terry Williams, getting reps where he can and handling the occasional punt or kick return. He saw the door open when Jackson was hurt in the Labour Day Classic.
RELATED
» No Fly Zone: Ticats’ secondary continues to dominate
» Berg vs. Ferg: Are the Ticats ready to contend?
» Marquee Matchup: A potential Grey Cup preview?
» Stamps, Ticats lead CFL Simulation
In the rematch against Edmonton on Sept. 8, he showed what he could do. He had seven carries for 95 yards and two touchdowns, including a 75-yard burst to the end zone. That wasn’t enough for him, so he caught five passes for 62 yards and added two more touchdowns.
Stamps’ radio voice Mark Stephen pointed out on Friday that Morris is the first Stampeder to ever score multiple touchdowns in two different ways in the same game.
“I’ve been up one week and pretty much down the next,” Morris said of his spot on the team, after the Stamps landed in Hamilton. “Just being able to come out and show what I can do has been pretty good. I’m enjoying it so far.”
Morris will get the start again this week. While the film is limited — he’s shown flashes through this season, before his explosion against Edmonton — the Ticats feel like they’ve seen enough of him to know what they’re getting.
“He’s scary,” Jones said of Morris. “He can play, he can go. If he hits a seam it’s gone. He’s electrifying.”
“I think that the backs are shot from guns. The backs are so explosive,” Glanville said.
“Their backups will run it 70 yards, let alone the starters. That’s something you have to be aware of. You cannot leave your grap integrity. It changes the game.”
Morris’ highlight of that game against Edmonton came early in the third quarter, when he took a handoff at his team’s 35-yard line and burst through the Esks’ defence for a 75-yard touchdown, cutting a 13-point Edmonton lead down to seven.
If he looked like a sprinter as he pulled away from the four Edmonton players that were briefly on his heels, there’s good reason.
“I ran track my whole high school career and then a bit at UNC Chapel Hill,” he casually said.
“I won the state championship in the 100-metre dash my sophomore junior and senior year of high school. My fastest time was 10.40. Then I went to UNC and ran on the 4×100 team while I was playing football.”
While the Ticats boast the league’s second-stingiest defence behind Calgary, Morris no doubt received much of Glanville’s attention in the buildup to Saturday’s game. His crew is the league’s best at defending the pass (211.5 yards allowed per game), but tied for last in rushing yards allowed (116.5 yards allowed per game).
“Honestly, I feel like we have a good rush defence as well,” Ticats linebacker Don Unamba said.
“We’ll play good, good, good, where we won’t give up any rushing yards and then we’ll have that one play where we weren’t gap-sound and they creased us for one.”
Both Umamba and Glanville provide the example of their Week 6 loss to Saskatchewan. They were holding the Riders in check, until Marcus Thigpen took his only handoff of the game and bolted 80 yards to the end zone.
“We’re good on the run, but we’ve popped some big ones,” Glanville said. “And this is a team that can do that.
“That puts your stats out of whack, but the bottom line is they got the 80, we did something wrong. It changes your stats, but it changes the game. We have to eliminate the explosive runs. We’re pretty good (for stretches). People have 12 rushes and 20 yards and then bam, they go 80 on you.”
Saturday’s game comes along at the right time. The first CFL Simulation of the season has the Ticats and Stamps as odds-on favourites to meet in the Grey Cup.
“I definitely feel that,” Unamba said. “If I don’t feel like that I’d be limiting myself and what I think of this team. They’re the best team in the league right now and we’re the best team in the East. It’s’ definitely going to be a Grey Cup preview.”
“It could be,” Morris said. “I feel like as long as we just do what we’ve been doing and continue to play well and handle our business, whoever we play in the Grey Cup it should be a good game.”
While the Stamps try to put their loss to Edmonton behind them, the Ticats will think back to the last time Calgary was here in Week 17 a year ago and look for their fourth-straight win. The Stamps won on a field goal at the end of regulation and Ottawa won its game, providing a season-ending one-two punch for their playoff hopes.
“I don’t want to get into one of those situations to where you have to have all these possibilities, where you have to win this game and these guys have to lose,” he said.
“I want to get hot right now and put these games together, where toward the end of the season you know you’re in the playoffs and you can clinch. I want to clinch and be ready to go take that first-round bye and head into the Grey Cup.”
