If at first, you don’t succeed… You know the rest of that cliché, and so does Brendan O’Leary-Orange.
The 28-year-old Tiger-Cat receiver out of the University of Nevada and Toronto’s Michael Power High School had a catchable ball carom off his hands early in the Ticats’ comeback 32-29 overtime victory in Vancouver.
It was part of the Ticats’ offensive struggle in the first half—they didn’t register a first down until the game was into its 20th minute — and because of the way the game progressed, and where Bo Levi Mitchell was finding the openings, O’Leary-Orange wasn’t targeted again until the final minute-and-a-half of regulation.
That kind of time between passes directed his way, tacked onto an early mistake, can prey on an athlete’s mind, but it never occurred to O’Leary-Orange to dwell on it. That was then, this was a couple of hours later.
“I definitely keep a next-play mentality myself,” he says. “That’s something I’ve learned over my career: no matter what it is, ‘next play’; you can’t control what’s happened, you can control everything moving forward and I definitely try to keep that going the whole way.”
So here it is, the clock ticking away to just 90 seconds left and the Ticats 2nd and 7 from the Lions’ 25-yard line. Mitchell dropped straight back, got protection and saw O’Leary-Orange on the right side, coming back toward him to evade a defender. He threw, O’Leary-Orange went down and caught it and the Ticats had first down at the 10. On the next play, Mitchell threw the ball high and a leaping O’Leary-Orange, controlling what he could control, outbattled the defender for the ball, for his first touchdown as a Ticat and the Ticats’ first lead of the pivotal game.
“Coach always talks about, if we saw a certain coverage and a certain blitz you can expect the ball and it’s something me and Bo worked on this whole off-season and the whole season leading up to now,” O’Leary-Orange says. “At moments like that you just rely on your training and all credit goes to coach for calling the play and putting his trust in me and to Bo for throwing the ball.”
After spending his first three pro seasons with the Blue Bombers, with whom he won a Grey Cup—over his current team—O’Leary-Orange signed with the Ticats as a free agent early this year. But he’s been injured much of this season and Friday was only his sixth game of the year. He’s established himself as a regular and has made important contributions. In that last-second victory over the Argos in Toronto two weeks ago.
He caught all three passes directed his way, including a critical one—also, like Friday’s grab, on second-and-7—which set up a key fourth-quarter field goal from Marc Liegghio. And eight of his 13 receptions have been made on gotta-have-it second downs.
“Big, strong, fast,” head coach Scott Milanovich says of O’Leary-Orange, the son of former Argo Doyle Orange. “The injuries have kind of held him back this year from having a bigger season than he’s had. But he and Bo are certainly gaining trust. He had a big catch at the end of the Labour Day game that helped seal it away. He just gives us another target out there if the matchup dictates.”
On Friday night, his former team comes into town, riding a six-game win streak and the Hall of Fame play of Zach Collaros, Brady Oliveira and Willie Jefferson. When the Ticats were edged 26-23 by a last-play field goal in Winnipeg on August 23, it was a positive turning point for both teams. It was the best the Ticats had played in more than a month, and they’ve won all four games since. Winnipeg has won five straight since then, so you have the two hottest teams going head-to-head on Friday.
“Any time you get to play your old team, there’s a little bit of extra motivation for you,” O’Leary-Orange concedes. “At the end of the day, preparation-wise, it’s the same thing we’ve been talking about all week; one game at a time, just preparing the same way we do for any other game.
“I feel very confident in this offence, I feel very confident as a player. Whatever the team needs I’m ready to execute, I’m ready to do.
“But at the same time I feel that–we as a receiving corps– all the guys–everybody plays a special role, not just myself, and we all add our two cents to the pot for the wins.
“There’s an infectious attitude going around the locker room. Everybody’s excited to make a play and we’ve got this ball rolling right now.”
