Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
On Tuesday night I popped in the tape – okay, I pressed play on my computer – on the Ticats Eastern Semi-Final blowout of the BC Lions.
What I was expecting to see was an explosive offence created by precision passing and high flying receivers who are emerging in a moment of need.
What kept jumping out to me wasn’t the running game with Alex Green and Sean Thomas-Erlington. It wasn’t Bralon Addison leaping to catch balls the Ticats need him to if they are to achieve anything over the next two weeks. Instead it was an offensive lineman. Not even an offensive tackle.
Just a left guard from Essex, Ontario making game chasing plays over and over while receiving little to no praise – yet.
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Brandon Revenberg was selected third overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2013 out of Grand Valley State University.
Revenberg arrived to Hamilton as an ultra-athletic mauler of a lineman who plays with old school sensibilities and loves to finish the play stronger than he started it.
On Sunday that skill set came to the forefront over and over again to the point I felt awful for not watching Revenberg’s every regular season snap in 2018 as closely as I was his playoff performance.
The game began with Revenberg grabbing my attention by washing talented national defensive tackle Junior Luke from the University of Montreal straight out of the CFL on TSN’s cameras.
Revenberg had the following to say about the play after practice on Wednesday: “He kind of got the edge of me which isn’t ideal but when that happens you just have to drive and push. He’s trying to get my gap but I was just trying to get as much movement as fast as I can.”
Spoiler alert: he did.
The very next play might have been ‘Rev’, as his Ticats teammates and coaches affectionally call him’s, best play of the game.
The Ticats slip left tackle Kelvin Palmer the the second level and use Darius Ciraco as the pulling guard to trap BC Lions defensive end Shawn Lemon. A staple of the Hamilton offence.
While there are plenty of important aspects to this play arguably the most difficult block is Revenberg’s. A ‘reach’ block that requires him to go from inside Junior Luke (#91) to outside all while driving vertically.
Not only did Revenberg do that job with great success. He also found a way to stonewall one of the CFL’s best linebackers in Solomon Elimimian.
“I have my job of blocking there three technique defensive tackle (Luke),” Revenberg said. “I do that and I see Solomon trying to hit the backside gap so I gave him a little shoulder to slow him down.”
To Revenberg, what he remembers as ‘a little shoulder’ was an arm bar worthy of knocking the wind out of any average size grown man and he wasn’t done with Elimimian later either.
After already getting two blocks on one play and helping to open a massive hole for the running back Green, Revenberg was able to stay on his original block and continue pushing Luke downfield.
I asked him the simplest of questions about it Wednesday.
How?
With the down home laugh only a home grown national offensive lineman in the CFL could deliver Revenberg chuckled, “yeah, well, that’s my guy. I’m not going to lose him right? I give a little extra when I can but I’m not going to lose my assignment to win something that isn’t my job.”
Doing your job. It’s preached at every age and level of sports, but it’s amazing to see it executed so consistently with what appears to be control and ease. According to Revenberg, a big part of that is coaching. He believes Head Coach June Jones approach to protecting quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and running the ball have put him in a position to have success.
“He (June Jones) gives you the plan at the start of the week, you don’t have to remember a bunch of tiny details. It’s ‘this is what we do, know how to handle every situation and do it to the best of your abilities.’”
When his job is to block a smaller defensive back he does it with great ease.
Not to mention a smile on his face.
“It’s tough for those little guys when they step into the line of scrimmage like that. We outweigh them so much it’s not fun for them.. You get to have some fun on those plays, you know tossing them around.”
Revenberg talks about defensive backs as if they are mice he plays with before he eats them. It honestly sounds like something Angelo Mosca would say and their mentality isn’t that different at the line of scrimmage as confirmed by the man who used to wear Mosca’s iconic #68 in Hamilton, centre Mike Filer.
“The best part about Rev is his run game,” Filer said of his teammate. “He’s obviously one of those guys who is special in his preparation, his focus, his mindset. Tenacity and physicality are reasons why he’s up for the big award (CFL’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman) this year. He’s got a lot to give and he’s figured it out. He’s dominating.”
In every CFL game there are big plays by quarterbacks and receivers. Rarely does a block get the credit it deserves when springing a big pass play. That was very true about Masoli’s touchdown pass to Tasker against BC Sunday.
Watch closely the bottom of the line of scrimmage as Odell Willis perfectly executes a spin move on Ticats left tackle Kelvin Palmer. Just steps before getting. Clean shot on an unsuspecting Masoli in comes Revenberg to save the day.
It’s even better from the end cut.
I asked Revenberg about this final play in a sequence of excellence on Wednesday. “Ideally I get more of him but it doesn’t always happen like that,” he said. “Playing offensive line isn’t always the prettiest but I try to help wherever I can.”
There you have it. The man who should win the CFL’s best offensive lineman, if anyone voting is actually watching film, is in his own words, just trying to help out. A humble servant to a greater cause in search of glory for the team that wanted to build their quarterback protection future around him in the 2016 draft.
In reality, Revenberg is far more than a piece. He is the motor that drives this offensive line despite being driven by himself daily.
“I’m an intrinsically motivated guy but I do really appreciate recognition,” he said. “I’m really thankful for it. Everyone is really excited back home because a lot of my friends and family didn’t watch watch CFL until I started playing and then suddenly they had a better reason to, they’re definitely loving it.”
Ticats fans are too and Revenberg deserves to be properly rewarded for his excellence with a speech to the CFL family in Edmonton next week.
