Can Beefeaters run their way to victory?

They set a league rushing record in 2023. They’re healthy. A win Saturday vs. Hamilton would earn the London Beefeaters a trip to the OFC championship game. Here, coach Matt Snyder’s thoughts heading into the playoffs …

LJ Dyer, who set a new franchise rushing record this year, is hoping to lead the London Beefeaters to a playoff win Saturday. (Photo: Owen Price Photography)

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The London Beefeaters are running headlong into the 2023 Ontario Football Conference (OFC) playoffs – and running, and running, and running.

On Saturday, the Beefeaters (6-2) and their record-shattering running game take on the Hamilton Hurricanes (4-4) in the semi-final round of the OFC playoffs at City Wide Sports Park (3pm). London has already defeated Hamilton twice this season (41-6 on Aug. 20 and 20-13 on Sept. 17).

With a third victory over the ‘Canes, the Beefs could be set up for a matchup with the perennial powerhouse St. Clair Saints (8-0) – the same Windsor-based squad that handed London its only two losses this season. The Saints play the Saturday semi-final nightcap against the Ottawa Sooners (4-4).

During the regular season, London shattered a half century-old OFC team rushing record by posting 2,733 yards on the ground. The previous record was set by the Burlington Braves in 1969. The one-two backfield punch of running backs L.J. Dyer (who set a single-season franchise record with 1,158 yards rushing) and Geoff Clubine (who averaged 12.5 yards per carry) scored a combined 17 touchdowns.  

On the eve of the playoffs, Beefeaters head coach Matt Snyder offered up five keys to his team’s success heading into the playoffs …

WEALTH OF HEALTH.

“Health. It’s the No. 1 thing for a football team to have success.

Last year, going into the playoffs, we were really banged up. We had a couple big injuries in the semifinals which really affected our chances in the finals. We lost our quarterback in the semifinal game. We lost our starting full back the night before the finals in practice – and we were already injured at running back. Whereas this year, everybody’s good to go.

As much as you can coach guys, good players are good and good players who are coached well are really good. So, when all of a sudden, you start losing really good players, it makes a huge difference for your chances. For a football team, health is the No. 1 thing.”

RUN, BABY, RUN.

“I’ve been coaching football for a long time and the one thing that always happens in Canada is that it gets cold in October. (Laughs.) Being able to run the ball helps you when it gets cold, when it gets wet, when it gets icy. It’s also a lot easier for a team to keep running the ball, than to try and start running the ball in late September when you’re normally a passing team.

Being able to run the ball consistently is something I’ve always done. It definitely pays off when it gets to those meaningful games. The people who I’ve worked under are coaches who want to run the football and do it well. I’ve grown up around people who just want to run the ball. It has been ingrained in me.

To me, running the ball gives you the best chance to be successful.

I wish we threw the ball a little bit better this year. But you get to some games when you realize we just have to do what we have to do to win – and what we do is run the ball well.

The strength of our team is clearly the offensive line and our running backs. We have the best running back in the country [LJ Dyer]. Our offensive line is as good as anybody. When you look at it from afar, as a coach, you see the best chance we have to win is running the football and that’s what we want to do anyway. So, let’s just go all-in on it.”

Geoff Clubine is the other half of London’s 1-2 punch or running backs that have wreaked havoc on league defenses this season. (Photo: Owen Price Photography).

SPECIAL DELIVERY.

“We’re not afraid to take points. We kick field goals. Some teams will go for it on a third down early in the game, but we just want to take points. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll chase going for it on third down when the game dictates it. But we put a lot of practice time in our specials, and we’re pretty refined at it, so we trust it.”

SOUND. NOT SPECTACULAR.

“Defensively, the approach is just playing good team defense. We’re sound. We’re not spectacular at any one thing, but we’re good at everything. When we’ve had good games on defense, we’ve tackled well and kept things in front of us.

Our team has a recipe that gives us the best chance for sustained success over the course of a season: We run the football. We play really well on special teams. We do not do dumb stuff on defense.”

SERIOUSLY, AVOID THE DUMB.

“The defense and the offense are tied together. Offensively, we’re not going to put the defense in a bad field position. Defensively, we understand we can’t give up big plays. For a running team, it can be hard for us to get back in a game when we’re down 14 points from the start. So, we try to avoid giving up big chunks on D, which means we might be a little bit more conservative on the back end in how we play our coverages. We’re not going to play a ton of man because we don’t want to get beat.

In the end, we want to avoid making dumb mistakes ourselves and let the other team do dumb things and then take advantage of it.”