Upon Further Review: WPG 38 | TOR 20

We could begin this with the latest in a series of yarns heaping praise on Andrew Harris and bowing to his growing legend.

Truth be told, we probably should given the Winnipeg Blue Bombers workhorse running back set a single-game career best rushing total in Saturday’s 38-20 win over the Toronto Argonauts, and in the process, moved past Jon Cornish into second place on the list of all-time Canadian rushers in the Canadian Football League – now behind only Normie Kwong.

Harris pushed, pulled and dragged his way to 161 yards along the ground against the Argos, added another 16 through the air and scored twice in one of those tone-setting performances that have become so custom.

It was his third-straight 100-yard rushing effort and it came just a couple of days after an enlightening chat with bluebombers.com in which he discussed his mindset this season and the state of his game.

We’ll get to all the Harris praise in due time, but what has been overlooked and undersold in Saturday’s win over the Argos is the work of a defensive unit that has spent as much time over the last few years defending itself as much as opposition quarterbacks, running backs and receivers.

And so, let’s revisit what the Bombers did Saturday and over the past three weeks – two wins, one shoulda-won – in getting back to .500 at 3-3 one third of the way through the 2018 season.

• The Bombers yielded just 165 yards of offence to Toronto, forced four turnovers, sacked James Franklin twice and held the Argos power back – James Wilder, Jr. – to minus two yards rushing on three carries.
• The 20 points against is also a bit misleading, given that two touchdowns came without the defence on the field – a Kevin Fogg punt-return fumble and Nic Demski fumble after a reception.

Over the last three games, the Bombers have held the B.C. Lions and now the Argos, to 20 points or less.

But these guys want more. Much more.

“It was a good effort, not great,” said defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat in a raucous Bombers dressing room early Saturday evening. “We’ve still got things we want to clean up and get better at because we want to be the best defence in this league. We made some corrections this week, but we’ve got to do it day in and day out, every game.”

What’s also worth noting is Saturday’s work came without cornerback Chris Randle, who was a late scratch – prompting the Bombers to start their fifth different combination in the secondary in six games – and minus Chandler Fenner.

Those changes meant Maurice Leggett was back at his dime back spot, with Kevin Fogg and Tyneil Cooper at the corners and Brandon Alexander – just back from the injured list himself –and Marcus Sayles manning the inside of the secondary along with Taylor Loffler.

“Those guys are playing well. I’m proud of Cooper. I’m proud of Sayles,” said Jeffcoat. “Those guys… they’ve got so many vets in the room with them they’re listening and they make sure that if they make a mistake they don’t make the same mistake over and over again. That’s the sign of young guys growing up quickly. That’s what those guys are doing: they’re growing up quickly, they’re making plays.”

The Bombers have worked through a first third of the season in which they didn’t have their starting quarterback for three games and played four of the last five on the road. They play host to the Argos this Friday, then have a bye before home dates against Hamilton and Ottawa.

After that, the final half of their season will see seven of nine games against West Division rivals.

“We’re going in the right direction, but there are things we are working on,” added Jeffcoat. “You can never be satisfied. It’s not the end of the season, we haven’t even hit the halfway mark yet. There’s a lot for us to improve on, to grow and get better on. We’re looking up, but we’ve got to keep going up.”

More on the Bombers win in Toronto in our weekly post-game collection of notes and quotes we call UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

WE NOW RETURN TO GUSHING ABOUT ANDREW HARRIS… even in praising the defence in a post-game chat with Jeffcoat, the conversation still turned to the Bombers star. Jeffcoat was asked about stifling Wilder Jr. and limiting the Argos to just 22 yards on nine carries, and naturally, used the opportunity to mention Harris.

“We go against a good running back in practice every day and all through camp and against a good offensive line,” said Jeffcoat. “We like to be physical. We always talk about winning the bully game and so that’s how we want to play – we want to be physical every game and out-physical every team. That was the goal.

“Plus, we want to make sure Andrew is at the top (for the rushing title) at the end of the year.”

That was a common theme in the Bombers locker room post-game, where the praise for Harris was universal and the respect he has from his teammates was obvious.

Some samplings:

Matt Nichols on Harris:

“The guy is an absolute beast. He takes his job very seriously and he takes good care of his body. He’s a freak, honestly, to be able to do what he’s doing. It’s mind-blowing sometimes. We’re going to be in the stadium (IGF) tomorrow and he’s going to be the one running around the locker room laughing and playing jokes on people. I’m pretty sure if I took the hits he does I’d be lying in bed for a couple of days, but the guy is just something different.

“I don’t think there are many running backs in the world like him. It’s nice to recognize it while I’m playing with him because I can really enjoy the time I get out there with him, not just on the field, but in the locker room and away from the locker room. We’ve become very good friends. I’ve said more than a few times that he’s one of my favourite teammates that I ever had.”

Darvin Adams on Harris:

“It’s week in and week out with him. It’s not like this is a one-week thing. I mean, Andrew comes to play every week. Just imagine the things he could do if we even gave him the ball more. You have to give a big shout-out to the offensive line because they’re taking care of the trenches.”

And Weston Dressler on Harris:

“He’s just an ultimate pro. The guy works hard every day. He understands the game better than any back I’ve ever played with, I think, and he knows the big boys up front are going to do their job and he’s going to work with them to hit those runs in the right spot. As a receiving corps, we’re trying to do our best to help make those seven-eight-yard runs into the big ones with our blocks downfield just to spring him even more. He’s just breaking tackles… I mean, you can’t say enough good things about the way he plays the game and the way he goes about his business day after day throughout the week.”

OF COURSE, ANY BACK THAT HAS A CAREER DAY… should always credit the men up front, and Harris went out of his way to praise the work of the Bombers offensive line, featuring Stanley Bryant, Pat Neufeld, Matthias Goossen, Sukh Chungh, Jermarcus Hardrick, and occasionally Michael Couture and fullback Mike Miller.

But any card-carrying member of the O-line fraternity will always preach about how owning the line of scrimmage in front of a dominant back is a powerful elixir.

“It’s great,” beamed Neufeld when asked about being part of Harris’ career-best day. “He’s such a relentless player. He keeps his legs churning and it allows us to keep pushing the pile. We’ve just got to give him a little bit of room and he can make some plays for us. Week in and week out he does phenomenal things for our team and our offence and I’m super happy for him.

“We feel like if we can keep moving the line of scrimmage and keep getting five and six yards on first down it just makes our life that much easier. We like to put that on our backs and it worked out for us today.”

MORE ON HARRIS MOVING UP THE ALL-TIME CHARTS… his 161 yards rushing Saturday allowed him to not only move past former Calgary star Jon Cornish into 15^th place on the CFL’s all-time rushing list at 6,878 yards – he now trails Earl Lunsford, 14^th overall, by just 116 yards – but past Cornish into second place among the list of all-time Canadian rushers.

First among Canadians is Normie Kwong at 9,022, who also ranks eighth on the all-time list.

“That’s something I’ll look back on when I’m done playing,” Harris said. “Jon Cornish was an amazing running back and definitely somebody I watched coming into the league – he was a couple years before me – and to surpass him is great. But it’s something I’ll cherish and look at after I’m done playing. Right now, I’m just happy about the win and happy with how well the O-line played and looking forward to the next game.”

HARRIS IS FOREVER WORKING ON HIS CRAFT… and as we mentioned in our game recap, one of the first things out of his mouth post-game was his disappointment in a fumble he had near the end of the first half that led to an Argos field goal.

“There’s so much going on in those piles and I probably had the ball just a bit too low and it got punched out,” he said. “Instantly when it happens it’s like the worst feeling in the world… the ball’s gone, you have no idea where it is and you hear everyone scrambling and trying to grab it. As great a game as it was for me personally, that one’s going to bug me. I’m going to have to work on that this week to sharpen up in that aspect. Ultimately, we won the game, but I need to clean that up.”

THERE WAS A LOT OF DISCUSSION POST-GAME ABOUT THIS… being a ‘response’ game, meaning it was an important effort from the squad given what happened in Vancouver when they spit up a 17-0 halftime lead to the Lions in a 2017 loss.

Interestingly, it was a narrative Nichols agreed with, but wasn’t necessarily agreed by Harris or head coach Mike O’Shea. It was O’Shea who offered up this take afterward:

“Any time you lose, any time you make mistakes during the course of the game, there’s the idea that you want your guys to learn and grow and increase their football IQ,” he said. “And though we won today I think there are still several plays that we can increase our football IQ on and be better at. I like the win.

“To call it a ‘response’… I don’t know about that. Our guys just got better this week than they were last week.”

What O’Shea was particularly pleased about was how the team reacted to giving up 19 points on three turnovers – 16 without the defence even having a chance to defend.

“Then we settled down,” said O’Shea. “So then the second touchdown they scored that way off a turnover, in no way, shape or form did it relate back to the first one in terms of the guys’ minds. They were completely separate entities they weren’t piling those bad plays on themselves, which to me, is good growth right there.

“And I think that’s expected of these guys; we’ve got a lot of veteran guys who understand that, so they’re not compounding the issue by thinking about one and the other at the same time.”

Added Dressler:

“I don’t know if it was a response or if worry had crept into our room, but it was about focus. We knew we had to finish drives and plays as an offence. It certainly looked like our defence was locked in. They played a heckuva game. Take away those turnovers and they gave up one point. They obviously locked it up and we were able to put together a couple of drives and score some points to keep that separation there.”

THE EFFECTIVE GROUND GAME WAS JUST PART OF A SOLID AFTERNOON… by the offence, which racked up 429 yards, including a tidy effort by Nichols, who completed 17 of 29 for 245 and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

“It’s awesome,” began Nichols when asked about having Harris behind him in the backfield. “But at the same time, I feel like we’re dynamic, both in the running and passing game, which opens it up for each other. We give teams problems and a lot of issues and that’s the kind of offence we can play. We’re very balanced. There are the guys up front and Andrew does a good job running the football and the guys on the edge did a lot of the blocking and a lot of the dirty work. That sets us up for the passing game. It’s a full team effort.

“It’s great to see a full team win. Our defence played incredible… they gave up four points on their own. Obviously, special teams and offence gave up a touchdown each. It’s a full team game that was a dominating victory, but it definitely wasn’t easy. There were a lot of points in that game where it could have gone the other way. Each phase took control when they needed to and that part of it was great to see.”

AND, FINALLY… there was some chatter in the fourth quarter about the decision to leave both Nichols and Harris in a game through to the final gun. Here’s the reasoning from O’Shea…

“They put 11 on us in a very short time at the end of the half. I don’t think you can give any team, especially a Marc Trestman team, an inch. Further to that, Chris Streveler has taken a lot of meaningful snaps. Let’s finish a game.”