Tip drill: the secret behind half of last week’s 16 interceptions in the CFL

By
Ben Grant
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Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

There were 16 interceptions thrown in the CFL in Week 14, which is an absurdly high number. For perspective, that’s double the average from the first 13 weeks of the season.

When I write these breakdown pieces, I don’t always know the direction they’ll take. I might notice that a particular team gave up several sacks and look closely at the film to figure out if there was a common cause I can write about. Some weeks, I have a long list of topics to look further into, while other weeks, the data is too scattered to turn into a cohesive article.

Before the Saturday night game between the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Elks even began, I already had “interceptions” written at the top of my list as 10 picks had been thrown through three games. When the Battle of Alberta added another six, I dismissed the other topics and got to work.

What I thought I might find was that specific coverages or pressures resulted in so many interceptions, but instead what stood out was how many of them were the result of tipped passes: eight. Half of the week’s season-high number of interceptions came off tips.

That opened to door for me to write about something I’ve been shouting about since I started coaching over 20 years ago: the effectiveness of drills that prepare players for game situations.

If you’re my age or older, you may remember drills your youth or high school coach had you run that you never see anyone do anymore: bull in the ring, three-man weave, hand shield gauntlet, running laps. Those sorts of things.

Some weren’t safe, but the primary reason most have gone by the wayside is that they simply weren’t practical. They didn’t simulate things that happened in an actual game.

When I saw that eight interceptions came off deflected passes, I immediately thought of the tip drill. From youth football all the way to the pros, you’ll find teams running the tip drill at just about every football practice in the world.

There are many versions of the drill, but the most common and simple one involves two players sprinting one behind the other toward a coach. The coach throws a ball to the player in front just above head level, and that player intentionally tips it in the air. It’s the trailing player’s job to catch it.

It’s an exercise designed to drill hand-eye coordination and reaction time. This routine simulation of in-game unpredictability is not just useful, it’s essential in a sport like football where a single turnover is so often the difference in the game. So many teams run this drill at every practice, so the reaction becomes a habit or an instinct rather than a thought-through process.

As an analogy, some firefighters are trained to touch every door before they open it, even when they go out for lunch. The purpose of this instruction is to make this action a habit, so that in an emergency they don’t think about it — they instinctively touch their hand to the door to know whether or not it’s hot, therefore avoiding exposing themselves to a dangerous backdraft.

Let’s take a close look at a few tipped interceptions. The easiest ones to catch are when defensive backs are in deep zone coverage and the tip occurs well in front of them. Against the B.C. Lions, Bryce Cosby was sitting in a deep zone when Nathan Rourke fired a bullet to Justin McInnis. The ball ricocheted off McInnis high into the air, giving Cosby time to stop his momentum and redirect himself towards the football for the pick.

In that same game, Marc-Antoine Dequoy had similar fortunes from a deep zone. Rourke’s pass, this time intended for William Stanback on a five-yard hook, deflected off the running back’s hands high enough to give Dequoy time to plot a new course and get to the football.

When a defensive lineman makes solid contact with the football, slowing it down significantly, linebackers’ eyes light up. Balls tipped like this rarely make it into the secondary, but linebackers lurking anywhere between the underneath hole and the line of scrimmage have the best shot at picking these off.

Logan Bonner had a pass tipped in this way by Shawn Oakman, and the changed arc and end-over-end rotation slowed the ball enough for Edmonton linebacker Nick Anderson to recover and make the play.

Passes that are just grazed at the line of scrimmage by a defensive lineman are slightly more challenging to bring in. Sometimes the contact isn’t even enough for the receiver or defender to see, but the ball’s path alters from its initial trajectory.

This pass from Trevor Harris was just barely tipped at the line by Winnipeg’s Jamal Woods. The ball’s angle changed and it slowed down slightly as it went end-over-end. The intended receiver stumbled to the ground trying to adjust and, though Tyrell Ford bobbled the pass, he was able to hang onto it in the end for the interception.

By far the most difficult tipped passes for defensive backs to intercept are in man coverage where the intended receiver tips the pass. What makes this different from being in a deep zone is the defender doesn’t necessarily get to see things play out in front of them. In man coverage, the defender is focused on the receiver, so they often don’t see the ball until the last second if at all.

On this spectacular pick-six by Damon Webb, the Redblacks were in cover zero, so Webb was playing off, but locked up on rookie Makai Polk. Polk got his hand up late and knocked the ball down. This kind of tip against this type of coverage almost always results in an incomplete pass because there’s no time for the defensive back to find the ball and make an adjustment to catch it. Webb’s instincts took over and he somehow scooped the ball up with his left hand and then secured it with his right before running 96 yards to the house.

As seen this past weekend, the long-lasting impact of the tip drill stretches far beyond the practice field. In a game, when the ball changes course after a deflection, the ability to adjust and make a play without thinking is the difference between an incomplete pass and a critical turnover.

There’s something to be said for occasionally introducing flashy new drills to keep players stimulated during practice, but you can never take too many reps of staple exercises like the tip drill that could give your team an edge on game day.

Ben Grant
Ben Grant
Ben Grant is the radio colour analyst for the Toronto Argonauts. He has been coaching high school and semi-pro football for 20 years.
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