Matt Nichols has taken an important step in his recovery and returns to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers huddle.
The Bombers removed their starting quarterback from the six-game injured list Tuesday afternoon, following a closed-practice session. The move means the veteran pivot is now free to practice and possibly dress for Saturday’s home game against the B.C. Lions.
Head coach Mike O’Shea would not confirm that Nichols would start on Saturday, saying only:
“He does a little bit more every single day. He’s working hard.”
Nichols was injured in a non-contact play near the end of practice on June 6th – just over a week ahead of their season opening loss to the Edmonton Eskimos. The following day he was placed on the six-game injury list – an administrative move that could have given the club salary-cap relief if he had remained for the duration.
The Bombers are 1-2 with rookie Chris Streveler at the controls, losing 33-30 to the Esks, crushing the Montreal Alouettes 56-10, and then falling 31-17 last Friday to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Winnipeg is in the midst of a stretch that sees them play four of five on the road including the games in Montreal and Hamilton, with this Saturday’s home date then followed by visits to Vancouver and Toronto.
The Bombers offence has been operating in spurts with Nichols down, scoring 30 against Edmonton and racking up almost 600 yards offence in Montreal, but then managing just 273 yards in the loss to Hamilton while going through a spell where the attack had six consecutive two-and-out possessions late in the first half and into the third quarter.
“It’s tough. It was almost like nothing was going our way,” said Bombers running back Andrew Harris. “We had one play called where (Hamilton defensive tackle) Ted Laurent had no idea what was going on, he just ran right into me and we would have had a 30-yard reception on a screen.
“It’s just little things like that, guys missing assignments, guys dropping balls that don’t usually drop balls. It was just a frustrating game overall. But these games happen. I’ve been in this league for so many years and you’re never going to have a perfect season, a perfect game. It’s when those things compound, to have six two-and-outs in a row, that’s when it gets frustrating. But we still had an opportunity at the end of the game to possibly tie it.”
Streveler has been an early-season sensation in relief of Nichols, creating a buzz not just in Winnipeg, but across the Canadian Football League. He threw for just 146 yards last Friday, but is tied for the league lead with six touchdown passes, has a quarterback rating of 84.8 – fourth-best in the league – and is fifth in rushing, with a league-best average of 8.3 yards per carry.
Asked if he expected to start Saturday, Streveler gave the standard ‘I prepare to start every game’ answer. As for the offensive performance in Hamilton, he added:
“We just left a lot of yards on the table. We did a good job of moving the ball at the beginning of the game and then we lost momentum and couldn’t get things moving for awhile in the second quarter and third quarter. Everyone was disappointed with leaving those yards on the table, but there are a lot of good things we can learn from and continue to improve on.”
Nichols, meanwhile, is coming off back-to-back seasons where he was named the Bombers Most Outstanding Player while leading the club to a 21-9 record and throwing for 8,138 yards with 46 TDs against just 17 interceptions.
More on some of the news and notes on the Bombers first day back at work in this week’s installment of Need to Know…
CLOSED DOORS:
CFL teams are permitted to close one practice to the public and media per week, and Tuesday’s session was the first time this year the Bombers operated without any outside eyes present.
“It’s within the CFL bylaws that we can close one. There were some things we wanted to look at differently and we exercised that right,” said head coach Mike O’Shea.
THE AFTERMATH:
The Bombers were attempting to push on from Friday’s loss in Hamilton, but the residual effect – especially the inability of the offence to sustain anything during their stretch of six two-and-outs and the defence’s struggles against the Ticats offence – still dominated the conversation.
“It was just some execution things we need to do. I didn’t play my best game personally. A lot of people didn’t play their best games,” said safety Taylor Loffler. “That’s what we have to strive to do – go out there every week and play our best games. Everyone has little things to fix and that’s going to be big for us this week.”
The Ticats often used maximum protection last Friday, lining six or seven offensive linemen in front of quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, or using fullback Nikita Whitlock for blocking help as Hamilton cranked out 468 yards net offence. The Bombers were stymied in getting pressure on Masoli, who masterfully operated June Jones’ run-and-shoot offence.
“You have a quarterback that can scramble around and get the ball out quick and then you have receivers that run option routes,” explained Loffler. “If a DB (defensive back) is playing high, they’ll sit the route short. If he’s playing right on him, they’ll just keep running. They have multiple different options off one route. It’s read and react and it’s a difficult one to defend.”
“Our plan was to force the underneath throws and take chances on those, moreso than give up the big plays that they’ve been getting every week,” added cornerback Chris Randle. “We executed that well in the first half. We came out and showed that we can do that. They adjusted, Masoli started scrambling and so it was moreso making a play on those underneath-coverage plays.
“Once he started completing those it opened up the over-the-top throws with the time he bought. I’d say if we could have taken more chances on those it would have helped us out.”
MIC’D UP REACTIONS:
The Bombers participated in the CFL on TSN’s first mic’d up game of the season last Friday, giving fans an inside look at what happens on the field. Some fans enjoy the feel they get for the game with players mic’d up, others are somehow shocked at the amount of cursing that takes place on the field.
“I just don’t see the point… I mean, I get that it gets the fans engaged,” said Harris. “But there’s just so much to what we do that doesn’t need to be out there. There’s something to be said about having the huddle and what we talk about in the huddle. Even with the mic’d up game it changes the whole atmosphere of what we actually talk about and everyone’s a little more quiet. It takes away from our game, it takes away from how we feel about it. But, overall, it gets the fans more engaged and just gets people more into the game which is cool, which is great for the fans.
“For us it’s another distraction and it takes away from us playing the game ourselves. Sometimes you forget that you are (mic’d up), but in a situation like that when the refs are coming in and it’s ‘Oh, your mic’s on now…’ the whole huddle hears that and it just changes the dynamic of the sacred huddle we have.”
Streveler was mic’d up for the game and the telecast caught him calling out a colourful play involving Justin Bieber’s name and then going jaw-to-jaw with one of the CFL’s notorious trash talkers in Hamilton linebacker Simoni Lawrence.
“I’ve seen a couple of clips floating around on the internet,” said Streveler, who said he hadn’t wanted the TV tape of the game. “But, you don’t really think about it too much when you’re out there. That’s fun stuff for the fans. I’m sure you got to see some interesting stuff on TV, I got some feedback from family and friends that were watching the game and they said they liked it. If they like it, then that’s fine with me.
“It’s not my job to bleep myself out. I’m playing the game, so someone else is in charge of hitting that button. I’m going to say what I’m going to say on the field… I’m not worried about that. There are so many things I need to be focusing on before the game… I’m just going to be myself, say what I’m going to say on the field and whatever they put on TV is out of my control.”
