CFLFear factor influences CFL passing game

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Big hits, like this one by Winnipeg's Deon Beasley and Jovon Johnson that forced a Geroy Simon fumble in a game last season, can have a lasting impact. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)

Defenders call it Alligator Arms. And you've seen it.

That's when a receiver or slot back has been hit a couple of times on pass routes, and suddenly his willingness to put those hands aggressively up in the air to haul in the ball begins to fade.

The defensive backs and linebackers love that moment, one that used to be called "hearing footsteps" because it's the time you can really smell fear.

Now, unless a receiver does a dirty in his underwear, or a pool of liquid suddenly appears between a guy's shoes that was not there a moment ago, you can't really "smell" fear, but you most certainly sense it, the players say.

"You can definitely tell [if fear is setting in] because their demeanour changes," says Winnipeg's Jovon Johnson, part of the league's current best defensive club. "The way they attack the ball is different.

"Later in the game, after taking a big hit, those arms get shorter and [receivers] try to take it more catching the ball in the body rather than with the hands."

Video is, not surprisingly if you think about it, a big help to defences in this regard, because long before the opening kickoff an offence has already had a chance to look at those big hits in the film room. A little pre-game propaganda can go a long way.

The Bombers defence beat on the Toronto offence in two straight games, for example, and that's going to be seen by everyone else.

"When you go into the game, and you expect to get hit and [the offence] knows you are that style of defence, it makes them wary of where the defenders are," Johnson says. "And it kind of throws them off."

An alternative view

Now, just a darn minute, says Geroy Simon, current president of the CFL's Receivers Who Aren't Easily Intimidated Union.

First of all, those alligator arms aren't always because you've conceded the courage battle, he says. Sometimes catching with your body is a smart thing to do, especially in the dangerous middle of the field, because you're keeping healthy.

Besides, says the B.C. Lions legend (who one day will reside in the Hall of Fame), this smell of fear thing works both ways.

"I know there are times when I come out and I'm running a route, and I ... look in [the defensive back's] eyes and you can see the deer in the headlights look, and they aren't sure what they're going to do," says Simon, a 13th-year veteran who had caught 872 passes in his career heading into Week 5.

"You can sense it."

OK, but Geroy, you've seen young receivers come to the sidelines looking like they want to stay right there on the bench. Then what?

"The game of football is a very humbling sport," he says. "And at times it can turn to cockiness, and, if something goes wrong, you can lose confidence real fast.

"For younger guys, you can go talk to them and let them know you've been through it ... or I can do something [on the field] that's positive and that can help them feed off of it."

Simon showed exactly how that's done on Thursday night in Winnipeg by making a one-handed catch right in the middle of two Bombers defenders and running it down to the five, from where B.C. would score.

Too many of his fellow receivers dropped balls that should have been caught in front of the same defenders, however.

Follow the bouncing player

There are ways to tell if a defence has already gotten into the heads of an opponent, says Alex Suber, who guards the Bombers bulwarks along with Johnson.

Watch, for example, for that guy who is jumping up and down and being really physical right before the game, trying to psyche himself up. Or, someone who is being really loud, that can be a giveaway.

B.C. head coach Wally Buono once pointed out that all sports, including golf, are about intimidation.

Experience, however, seems to show that some athletes are more easily intimidated than others. Johnson won't say what teams fall into that category in the league - he's not giving anything to the other side to get them all riled up. As for the other end of the spectrum...

"You always run into an offence that won't be put off that way," he says. "Calgary, for example, is one team that won't be put off. They welcome a physical challenge because they are a physical offence.

"There are also teams that back down from it," Johnson adds, treading very carefully. "Usually [it's] the teams doing a lot of crying to the refs about hits and the physical nature of the game."

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