Cornish gives his O-line some praise
Effort of athletes tugs at his heart
There are a few things in life that really pull at the heart strings of Jon Cornish. One of them, you might think, would be the celebration of a careerhigh rushing experience such as the 170 yards by the Calgary Stampeders ace running back against the homestanding Hamilton Tiger-Cats on a rainy Thursday night.
And while it certainly gave the 27-year-old a warm and fuzzy feeling, it doesn’t even come close to the emotions he wrestles with while watching the Olympic Games.
Heck, he even made a point of giving a shout-out to Canada’s Olympians on national television during the game.
“I just really appreciate what they’re doing,” explained Cornish, the afternoon after the Canadian Football League club’s 31-20 win over the Ticats. “I realize we’re in 12th place in the medals and that stuff but I don’t think that really matters. I think the most important part is we’re out there competing and that Canada is a big player on the world stage, summer or Winter Olympics.”
Cornish said that while he doesn’t really know any of the Olympians, he can relate to their situations.
“When somebody achieves what they feel they’re meant to do, I think there’s nothing better in sport. It’s magical, almost. It’s so rare to have that perfection, really cool to see. Watching Rosie (trampolinist McLen- nan) get her medal and seeing her parents tear up in the stands, that really tugs at me.
“Hey, I was the guy who cried when the two ice dancers in the Winter Olympics completed their gold medal run.”
There were no tears of joy at McMahon Stadium during Friday’s rundown, only satisfaction from a job well done to finally spring Cornish and the team’s rushing game loose. Remember, Cornish had criticized the offensive line just two weeks ago after a minus-one effort in the team’s last game before the off-week.
“We came out with a plan and stuck with it and it worked,” said Cornish, who almost scooped half of his season’s 369 rushing yards in the game. “We spent a lot of time working in the media rooms, actually met with the O-line as running backs and I think that was hugely beneficial. “We had a good understanding of what each other was doing. Overall I think it was a great team effort . . . everybody contributed to the running game.”
Cornish carried the ball 20 times, broke one rush for a touchdown, fumbled once late in the fourth quarter, and hauled in a team-leading six catches for another 47 yards. The holes were there even though Spencer Wilson made his debut at left guard and J’Michael Deane started for the first time at right tackle on a line that has been continually juggled because of injuries.
“Any time you can rush for 170 it’s a testament to the strength of the O-line,” said Cornish. “I think the guys who had to come in, Spencer and J’Mike, they stepped up. They all did a good job and that’s why we had so many rushing yards.
“I know a lot of other running backs around the league think they have great O-lines and I like to think we have a great O-line here.”
Head coach and manager John Hufnagel also had a shout out for the offensive line and Cornish.
“Our offensive line did a better job of executing the assignments both physically and mentally so that’s No. 1,” he said in explanation of what made things click between games. “We were able to get Jon past the line of scrimmage and then Jon also made some great individual plays so when you combine both of those, you have a great opportunity to get some yards.
“We did some other things where we tried to get to the edge more to spread the defence out a little bit, also used our receivers, a direct snap, sweep, things like that and I think everything combined allowed us to have success.
“But that’s (170) a lot of yards. Jon played hard, it was very evident. He was disappointed he did fumble the ball late in the game but we moved down the field almost entirely on Jon Cornish’s legs.”
The trick now, obviously, is to keep up strong rushing numbers with some sort of consistency.
“We’re going to come up against defences like B.C. again and they’re really good at stopping the run but that’s something we’ll have to deal with when the time comes,” said Cornish. “If the O-line keeps playing like (Thursday), maybe 100-yard games are a possibility.”