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September 22, 2016

48-Hour Primer: WPG at CGY

They are reminded daily to live only in the moment. It’s one of Mike O’Shea’s commandments as to how he wants his Winnipeg Blue Bombers to approach each week.

Don’t fixate on what’s in the rear-view mirror. Focus only on the opponent ahead. Respect every opponent and any chest-thumping or public trash talking is positively verboten.

Ok, so let’s all agree that does absolutely nothing to promote something like this weekend’s spectacular matchup with the Calgary Stampeders – the Bombers and Stamps’ combined 16-game winning streak is the longest in Canadian Football League history – but that is the public face just about everyone in Bomberland is wearing.

Case in point, we give you Weston Dressler…

Weston Dressler

Asked after practice on Thursday if he had ever been on a seven-game win streak like this during his days in Saskatchewan, the nine-year vet paused for a moment.

“We won six in a row in my rookie year in Saskatchewan but, to be honest with you, I don’t know,” said Dressler. “As players we always move on to the next week fairly quickly.”

That’s been one of the Bombers’ mantras during this seven-game run. And so no matter how much the league or the media tries to hype Saturday’s showdown, neither team seems willing to engage just yet.

Dressler, for example, was asked if the marquee matchup has just amped everything up this weekend.

“Probably for the fans and you guys, for sure,” he said. “For us we’re trying to approach it like we have for the past 12 games now. We’ve done a good job in the last few weeks on staying focused on the present and what’s in front of us and doing what we need to do to win that week.

“This week is no different for us.”

Here’s what Dressler will weigh in on, though: the growth and potential he sees in this club and how the win streak is feeding a confidence level that he felt was percolating even in the 1-4 start.

“There’s definitely a good feel in the locker room right now,” Dressler said.  “We’re confident in ourselves and that confidence grows every time you win a game. It’s not that we weren’t confident before… we were always confident in our group. But when you start to see the results that confidence grows each week.”

“We’re really focused on getting better every week and we’ve been able to do that. We’re trying to improve on every aspect of the game so that we have a chance to make a run for the playoffs.”

Weston Dressler

“We watch game film every day after the game and notice all the things we’ve done well. But we also notice all the mistakes that we’ve made. The potential of this team has definitely not been reached yet.

“We’re not really trying to see where we measure up (on Saturday),” he added. We just want to win this week. That’s our mentality, just as it was last week and the week before that and so on.”

Nichols LaPolice

BLUE ON THE FYI…

The Bombers (8-4) are in Calgary to face the mighty Stampeders (10-1-1) Saturday afternoon (3 p.m. CT).

Three things you should know as the club completed its final practice Thursday prior to jetting out Friday morning:

STILL NO WORD:

RB Andrew Harris didn’t practice again, ditto for LB Ian Wild, WR/KR Quincy McDuffie, DE Justin Cole and receiver Addison Richards. Meanwhile, LB Khalil Bass was back at his post and new DB T.J. Heath will make his Bomber debut against the Stamps.

Head coach Mike O’Shea wouldn’t rule out a player like Harris making the trip to Calgary, but for the second straight week Timothy Flanders got almost all of the work at the tailback position with the No. 1 offence.

“All these guys, you develop a little trust with them and give them every opportunity you can, you give them the most amount of time you can for them to be able to compete on game day,” said O’Shea. “And I’ve got no problem with that. These guys have been through training camp, they know the system and you’ve certainly got to give them that opportunity.”

Ryan Smith was working with the No. 1 receiving corps that also included Dressler, Rory Kohlert, Clarence Denmark and Julian Feoli-Gudino but O’Shea wouldn’t yet confirm on whether he would be back in the lineup.

Newcomer Eric Martin – the former Nebraska star with 33 NFL games under his belt with New England and Cleveland – was getting a lot of work at the end spot opposite Jamaal Westerman, along with Shayon Green and Trent Corney, with Cole nursing some sort of ailment.

WRITTEN IN PENCIL:

Second-year Bomber QB – and former Stampeder – Dominique Davis will again be listed as the No. 2 pivot behind Matt Nichols on the team’s depth chart. Davis came off the bench in the late stages of last week’s win over Toronto and has been running the second offensive unit since Drew Willy was traded to the Argos. Davis might be the guy to get the Bombers through a game if there was an injury, but the intriguing question would be who would get the next start if something were to happen to Nichols.

“We brought him in for a reason,” said O’Shea of Kevin Glenn. “He’s got unbelievable veteran experience, poise, leadership. We’re going to keep on letting him figure things out and Dom is going to get better, too.”

Nichols

HISTORY/SCHMISTORY:

The Bombers are a woeful 1-13 in their last 14 visits to McMahon Stadium dating back to 2003 and 3-22 since 1992. Their seven-game win streak is also their best run heading into a game in Calgary since they had won eight straight into a meeting on Oct. 19, 1980.

All of which means zilch to a guy like Matt Nichols.

“It’s something we’ve talked about all year,” he said. “All these streaks that everyone likes to talk about, not winning in Commonwealth in the last 11 years and those types of things. This is a new team. I don’t worry about anything that’s happened in the past. We’re worried about this week, this year.”

The same question was put to O’Shea on Thursday when the Bomber boss was asked if he knew what his success rate was in Calgary as a player.

“I wouldn’t remember,” he said. “I do remember getting kicked out in Calgary, at a game there. That’s the one thing I remember.”

Asked for the back-story on that, O’Shea grinned before adding:

“I don’t remember that part, but I was drinking beer before halftime.”