Sep
Calgary Herald: Copleland is Mr. Clutch
Courtesy Calgary Herald:
Everybody in Commonwealth Stadium knew whom Calgary Stampeders quarterback Henry Burris was looking for with his final pass of Friday night’s game.
The Stampeders were down by six inside the last minute, and Burris was taking the snap with 30 seconds to play, 18 yards from pay dirt, and the man who’s scored more touchdowns this season than anybody else in the Canadian Football League, Jeremaine Copeland, lined up at slotback.
Funny thing is, Burris revealed on Tuesday, Copeland wasn’t the primary target.
“Actually, Nik Lewis was,” said Burris. “But they covered Nik very well, and the fact I was looking for Nik didn’t allow the safety to get over (to Copeland) as fast as he wanted to. And before the play, I told Cope how he had to run the route, so I knew where he was going to be when I came off my read (for Lewis) if he wasn’t open. And there was Cope working into that area and I put the ball low and away where he could only catch it.”
Which Copeland has done in the clutch with staggering regularity this season. Of his league-leading 11 touchdowns, seven have given the Stamps the lead in a game when they were trailing, two were outright winners (against Edmonton and Toronto) and another pulled the Stamps into a tie.
The 31-year-old nine-year veteran, who on Wednesday was named the CFL’s offensive player of the week after a five-catch, two-touchdown, 117-yard night in Edmonton, heads into Friday night’s game at Hamilton with 48 catches for 759 yards, both ranked second in the league, and just four catches and five yards off his 2008 full-season totals.
Also, he’s two catches away from cracking the 500-mark for his career.
But Copeland refuses to get caught up in the hype of his brilliant 2009 campaign to date.
“A lot of receivers would focus on it, expect it or thrive on it and love it when everybody is talking about them, but I really don’t care,” said Copeland, who’s on pace to beat his career high in touchdowns, 14, which he set during a 99-catch campaign with Montreal in 2003.
“I really want to just win games. I want another Grey Cup so bad. Everybody marked us down when we had a lot of injuries at the beginning of the season, but I really think we have the team that’s going to get it done, and I think we’re getting better and better each week. And that’s what my drive is: to win championships.”
Copeland is stepping up this season in the absence of 2008 league receiving champ Ken-Yon Rambo, whose season-ending knee injury left a void in the Calgary offence.
“When you have a guy like Ken-Yon who’s getting a lot of the balls, we would always try to work him into positions because he’s such a great route-runner, and that took passes away from both Nik and Cope,” said Burris.
“But with Rambo going down, we have a guy who’s always been a great professional, one of the top slotbacks ever to play this game, and now he’s out there showing people the reason why he’s the guy we always have known him to be. He could have been a guy who just pouted and walked away and let the game be. But he came back and worked his butt off this off-season, and now he’s out here putting up big-time numbers.”
And he’s not doing it the easy way, either. He’s making his catches in traffic, using his leaping ability, his hands and his instinct for the ball to leave defensive backs frustrated in his wake. Take, for instance, two big catches he made in the Labour Day win when it appeared Eskimos defensive back Kelly Malveaux had him perfectly covered. In one case, Copeland was able to make a fingertip grab and convert it into a 33-yard gain. In the other, Copeland made arguably the catch of the year, falling backwards in the corner of the end zone and making a one-handed catch.
“Truthfully, I think some guys are defending me well,” he said. “I can’t say it enough. I thank God that I’m making plays. Guys have good coverage, but I’m coming down with it, and that’s why I feel I’m blessed to make those plays. When anybody’s on me, I feel I’m one of the best when it comes to catching a ball in coverage.
“I can say that I feel like I can catch anything, but as a receiver, you know you can’t catch everything. But you have to believe it. Sometimes you might have a drop, but I’m at a point now where I know if I do drop one, it’s not going to harm me because I’m going to come back and make the play later. Man, I just feel like if it’s coming my way, I’m going to make the play. Or nobody’s going to make it.”
