It was late in the first quarter of last Friday’s game in Regina. The Saskatchewan Roughriders had taken the ball at their own 40-yard line after a Lirim Hajrullahu field goal had given the Toronto Argonauts a 10-0 lead.
Quarterback Trevor Harris had led the unbeaten Riders down the field and was looking at a first-and-goal from the Argos 5-yard line. They were in a double tight-end set with a receiver moving to the backfield to create an offset I-formation. It left one receiver split wide to each side.
Harris looked to his right, where Samuel Emilus was covered man-to-man by Toronto’s Tarvarus McFadden. One step into the end zone, Emilus tried to sell a corner route, then cut to the inside. What the Riders didn’t expect was that McFadden read the play perfectly, cut in front of the receiver, and intercepted the ball, the first time Harris had thrown a pick in almost 200 passes.
The Argos would take over, with the ensuing drive resulting in a field goal. The potential 10-7 lead had instead become 13-0 thanks to McFadden’s big play, the second time is as many weeks that the Argos held their opponents pointless in a first-and-goal situation.
“It was just man coverage,” McFadden recalled for Argonauts.ca. “I just had to hold my leverage. I saw him try to fight for his leverage, so I knew that the ball could possibly be coming there. I just wanted to be ready and aware when it did happen.”
McFadden attributed the play to heavy doses of film study. He had mentally filed that Saskatchewan likes to run a lot of in routes and it helped him anticipate the play call. The pick sparked a post-pick celebration with his teammates joining him in raising their left arm in the air and pointing to their left wrist where a watch would be.
It was to acknowledge the play was made by “T-Time,” McFadden’s long-time nickname.
The moniker goes back to his youth football days in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He was constantly making big plays, so he was compared to Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, who played at Florida State, the school at which McFadden would eventually become a star.
So instead of “Prime Time,” Tarvarus became “T-Time.”
In his sophomore year with the Seminoles, McFadden won the Jack Tatum Award as the best defensive back in the NCAA, mainly based on his eight interceptions that season. After taking a shot at the NFL, McFadden landed in Toronto and has been around long enough to be considered a veteran leader and mentor, a role the field corner embraces.
“It’s been really cool,” McFadden replied when asked how he accepts that responsibility. “This is my sixth year now, but I’ve always felt like I’ve had a leadership role, even when I was a younger guy. So now, it’s just passing along the information to them. We’ve got a bunch of rookies who can really play some football, so we’re just trying to make sure they’re in the best position possible to make plays.”
McFadden is working with a new positional coach this season, Jovon Johnson, who is in his first season coaching pro football. Johnson knows a thing or three about the position, as he was the first defensive back to be named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player, an award he won with Winnipeg in 2011.
He appreciates what his veteran cornerback brings to the group.
“His value is sky high, through the roof,” Johnson told Argonauts.ca. “He comes from a really good program in college, so he knows the game inside and out. His ability to process things from different spots on the field, from corner or halfback, makes him valuable to the room.”
How so?
“He holds other guys accountable, which is great,” Johnson explained. “When he plays with consistent technique, he’s a force to be reckoned with, he makes plays like the one everybody saw in the last game.”
The Argo defence is starting to put things together, though there is a lot of work to be done. McFadden chuckled when asked how good the defence can eventually be.
“We’ve got a lot more to do,” he admitted. “We can get a lot better and that’s the crazy thing. We want to bring down the average total points against (currently 31.7, fifth in the league), so that’s the focus. Then, turnovers, we want to lead the league in turnovers (tied for first with Edmonton with 10).”
The next test for McFadden and company is on Thursday night when the Double Blue visit Calgary.