In the season’s third edition of the ‘Film Room’ series, we’re going to break down running back Ray Holley’s first career CFL touchdown, which came in last weeks’ game in Montreal.
Situation:
The play came on the Tiger-Cats fourth offensive drive of the game, on the 14th play of the drive. Prior to the 75-yard scoring drive, Hamilton had run just 14 plays total on three drives, so this was their first sustained offensive possession. The snap was from the four yard line, on first-and-goal.
Pre-Snap:
The Ticats lined up with receivers lined up wide left and right, along with three receivers in a bunched formation on the right side of the offensive line.
Ray Holley was positioned to the right of quarterback Zach Collaros, who was lined up in shotgun formation.
On the other side of the ball, the Alouettes lined up with three linemen on the defensive line, shaded to the right side of the field. Linebacker Winston Venable lined up close to the line of scrimmage as well, appearing as if he was going to blitz on the play.
Outside of this, the Alouettes lined up in man coverage on the two outside receivers, and appeared to also be in man coverage on the three receivers in the bunch formation. It quickly became clear that the play was a designed run, so the defensive backs did not have to enter coverage, and thus did not show show the designed coverage.
Holley’s perspective: “On the quick toss that we had, the first thought is let’s get outside and run. If I’m running zone or something, I’m looking at my down-linemen, or if I’m running outside zone I’m looking at my D-end. When you’re running quick toss like that, unless there’s an overload or something, I didn’t have much to key on the defensive side of things. Unless a safety walks up or you see a blitzer off the edge, it’s mostly just get behind your guys and run. I didn’t see anything in particular, it was a pretty simple read.”
The Play:
After receiving the snap, Collaros slid right, along with Holley, pitching the ball forward to him after a couple steps. Because the ball was moved forward with the pass, it was technically considered a passing play and a passing touchdown, although the intention was a quick toss run play.
Terrence Toliver and Tiquan Underwood became relatively irrelevant on the play, used to stretch the field and eliminate their defenders.
Off the snap of the ball, the Ticats offensive linemen each worked to their right, with Mike Filer (#68) and Jake Olson (#50) each throwing chop blocks to prevent their men from getting to the ball-carrier. Rather than driving up the field to the right, right tackle Joel Figueroa (#61) took a slide step back to his right, looping around and getting out front of Holley to lead block.
Bakari Grant (#84), Andy Fantuz (#83) and Terrell Sinkfield (#14) each played integral parts on the play as well, blocking ahead of Holley.
Grant worked to his left, sealing off defensive end Corvey Irvin, while Fantuz got out on defensive back Billy Parker (#17), sealing him off to the outside. Parker’s aggressiveness to beat the Ticats running back to the outside worked in Hamilton’s favour on the play, allowing Fantuz to keep Parker to the outside and give Holley a clear cutback lane.
–Click photo for video clip–
The original goal of the play was for Holley to get in behind Figueroa and Sinkfield and follow them into the end zone; however, the over-pursuit of the Alouettes defence, along with the effective blocks of Fantuz and Grant allowed him to cut back on the play and punch the ball in for the score.
Holley’s perspective: “When you see guys pursuing real hard, trying to beat you to a spot, and if there’s not anyone backside it will open up backside. That’s what I felt. My blockers led up a little more outside—and I probably could have followed them a bit more and still got in—but once I took off running I felt the flow pick up, and I felt like the defenders were trying to beat me over the top, to beat me to my spot. As soon as I felt that, I decided to cut up.”
Once the cutback lane opened up, Holley had just one man to beat, Alouettes defensive end Gabriel Knapton. The Montreal defender was also guilty of over-pursuing, hoping to cut off the ball-carrier on the outside. Holley was able to make his cutback, put his head down and dart for the goal-line, diving into the end zone practically untouched.
Holley’s perspective: “I was either going to put my head down and get in, or force it in like I did, I didn’t get hit. That’s really the read, it’s pretty quick. It happened pretty quick. There’s not much going on, it’s one second.”
His first professional touchdown was a special moment that Holley says he’ll always remember, but he also acknowledged that it felt the same as scoring his first touchdown in varsity football and was hopefully the first of many at the professional level.
Holley’s perspective: “You’ve been playing ball for so long—and I was trying to explain it to my family because they asked the same question— for me it feels like the first time I scored in varsity. The first time I scored in varsity, it’s a relief for one, and now two it’s ‘okay, you’ve got that out of the way, let’s go get more’.”
