Boyd Vows To Protect His Pivot

THE CANADIAN PRESS

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — To get to Toronto quarterback Cleo Lemon, Diamond Ferri and the Montreal Alouettes are going to have to first go through Argonauts tailback Cory Boyd.

Ferri officially kicked off the war of words leading up to the East Division final on Sunday (TSN, 1 p.m. ET) by calling Lemon “shark bait” and stating Tuesday the well-rested Alouettes, who had last week off after finishing atop the conference standings, would hit the Argos quarterback hard and often. On Wednesday, the usually happy-go-lucky Boyd quickly came to his quarterback’s defence.

“If he thinks whatever he feels about Cleo, tell him to come see me,” Boyd said. “If he thinks he’s going to do something to my quarterback, no, negative, it’s not going to happen.

“I’m his personal protector.”

Although the two teams split their four regular-season meetings the defending-champion Alouettes head into the division final as the favourite after finishing atop the East Division with the CFL’s second-best record (12-6).

As for Lemon, he merely chuckled at Ferri’s threat.

“No, man, that’s funny to me,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and getting into my head is pointless, you can try that with somebody else.

“It’s good for the game but for me we’re ready to go out and play and execute.”

Argos head coach Jim Barker also shrugged off the rhetoric.

“I’d like to have Cory Boyd back there as my protector,” he said. “It’s talk and when the game starts, the game starts.

“I’m sure there will be things said during the week. Bottom line is when the kickoff happens 12 guys run on to the field for each team and the best team is going to win.”

The upstart Argos (9-9) finished third in the division under Barker after posting a league-worst 3-15 record in 2009. Toronto advanced to the East final for the first time since 2007 with a 16-13 road win over Hamilton on Sunday.

Toronto’s defence shone against Hamilton, forcing five turnovers that set up 13 of the club’s 16 points. The offence, though, failed to move the ball consistently in the contest before mounting a crucial 10-play drive late in the fourth quarter that force Hamilton to mounts its comeback from its 10-yard line with 52 seconds remaining.

After surrendering a whopping 15 turnovers in three regular-season losses to Hamilton, Toronto’s offensive gameplan Sunday was to run Boyd, then go to a short passing game. That’s because the Ticats usually only rushed four or five men and dropped the rest back into zone coverage.

The conservative approach, while dull and not conducive to a lot of scoring, did result in the Argos only turning the ball over once versus the Ticats.

But Montreal’s defence employs more of a man-to-man cover scheme.
The Alouettes are certainly good at it but the approach does give a rival offence a chance to make a big play the result of a receiver simply beating his man or a blown coverage.

Montreal ended the regular season ranked second-last against the pass, giving up 291 yards per game.

Trouble is, Toronto wasn’t an overly proficient passing team this season, averaging a league-low 221 yards per game. Lemon was a stellar 22-of-29 passing against Hamilton, but for just 134 yards as the Argos ran for 140 yards with Boyd registering a game-high 93 yards on 19 carries.

However, receiver Jeremaine Copeland said he feels the Argos match up better against Montreal’s defence than they did against Hamilton’s.

“You know what you’re going to get, there’s no secret to it,” he said. “They’re going to play man and they think their defensive backs are better than your receivers.

“We’re going to take advantage of our speed and try to go downfield and go underneath but we’re going to be doing a lot of stuff. I really think this matchup is better for us than it was against Hamilton. We love to have man and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Well, that’s not what Barker is necessarily looking for.

“They’re a big pressure team, they do what they do very well,” he said. “You can’t simulate what Montreal does because they do it better than anybody.

“We’re expecting them to play a lot more zone. They’re a team that plays great man-to-man defence but we know in the (East) final last year and Grey Cup they played a lot of zone so we’re preparing for that.”

Once again, Toronto will head into a playoff game the underdog, a role Barker said he and his team both relish.

“It’s important for us to win games the way we win where people think we’re ugly and think we can’t do it,” he said. “That’s great, that’s no issue for us.

“Our thing is about winning games.”

That’s not to suggest, Barker said, that there’s no pressure on Toronto.

“Obviously there’s pressure on everybody. It’s like the pressure you have when you go in for a big test. If you’re prepared you go in and you don’t feel as much pressure but if you don’t study and you’re not ready then you have a problem. This is going to be a test for both teams . . . they’ve had a week off they’re rested, they’ll be very prepared and it will be two teams shooting it out.