Hundreds upon thousands of words have been penned over the years theorizing the effects of bye weeks in the Canadian Football League.
And, just to stick to that theme, here are a few more…
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers returned to work Monday morning fresh from the first of their three scheduled bye weeks. Now 4-3 after thrashing the Toronto Argonauts 40-14 back on July 27th, the club is trying to rekindle some of the mojo it had before the break after winning three of its last four.
“Luckily I have a couple of kids and a wife that keep me busy and get me away from it a little bit. You do need that,” said quarterback Matt Nichols. “But at the same time, I’m glad bye week’s over and we’re back out here. This is where we want to be right now and I’m excited to see all the guys back. It was lonely in Winnipeg without them for a couple of days.
“Offensively we were off on a few things, but overall, the intensity level was there and everyone’s excited to be back. I’ve been part of teams where you come back from a bye and everyone’s out here being a little lazy and dragging from the week off. Execution-wise we missed on a couple things but overall I loved the way the guys came out and practised hard.
“I think we’re fired up and ready to go, which I think is a really good sign for us.”
The Bombers have back-to-back home dates with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats here this Friday and with the Ottawa REDBLACKS the Friday following. That leads into a stretch that sees the club play seven of its final nine games against West Division opponents.
At 4-3, the Bombers are alone in third in the West behind the Calgary Stampeders, 7-0, and the 5-2 Edmonton Eskimos.
“Right now, you don’t focus on your overall record, you just try and get wins week by week and hopefully they start piling up for you,” said Nichols. “But you can’t look too far ahead, especially in the West right now. In my mind you are, at minimum, trying to get to 10 wins. There’s a good chance you’re going to be in the playoffs at 10, so as quick as you can get to there and then you try and get (playoff) seeding at the end because I know we are pretty West-heavy at the end, against Edmonton and Calgary… a couple of teams right at the end that are probably going to be the big difference in the season.
“We want to make sure we get to that point and are in position to change seeding.”
Interestingly, the Bombers are 3-0 in their last three games coming off a bye, winning 29-9 against Ottawa after a Week 13 bye and 43-40 over Saskatchewan after a Week 1 bye last season, and after posting a 32-18 decision over Montreal following a Week 9 bye in 2016.
Prior to that, the club had lost three straight coming off a bye week since Mike O’Shea became head coach in 2014.
Asked if he had changed anything in his or the team’s approach pre and post-bye week to bring about that change, O’Shea served up a rather straightforward answer:
“I don’t think so. We’re a good football team and we have gotten better. The players and the coaches need the maximum amount of time off that you can afford to give them. They need to come back refreshed and ready to go and that’s been the formula.”
More news and notes on the Bombers first day back at work in this week’s installment of Need to Know…
BUSY-BUSY:
Bombers RB Andrew Harris hardly threw up his feet and vegged during his bye week. He and his fiancée Carina Fiorentino had their wedding social the day after the last game and also moved into their new digs.
“Bye week was great,” said Harris Monday. “It was good to get a nice rest and step away from football a little bit and recharge. We’ve been really busy… we moved into our new house, so it was a lot of work. But it was good to get that mental rest and physical rest and there was a high energy today at practice and you can see that guys were anxious to get back and get back to work.
“Busy time for us. A lot of excitement. It’s crazy because you think all the outside things are distracting from football, but it’s been a nice balance of home life and football life and it’s been great so far.”
OUCH UPDATE:
If the purpose of a bye week is to help players recharge and get healthy again, then mission accomplished for the Bombers. LB Chander Fenner, DB Anthony Gaitor, RB Timothy Flanders and QB Alex Ross were back in full gear on Monday. LB/DB Maurice Leggett was in attendance, but did not practice.
“We’ve got a lot of guys coming back. It’s exciting,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “The main thing, and we’ve talked about it before several times, is the amount of depth we have now is very healthy. Where everybody fits in – where they go, how they fit – that remains to be seen on a weekly basis, but I’m very excited about the depth and the opportunity the other guys have gotten from it.”
Fenner, meanwhile, couldn’t contain his glee at being back in uniform after missing three games with a lower-body injury.
“It just feels good to be on the field reconnecting with my teammates,” said Fenner. “It’s a little bit different when you’re on the sidelines trying to shout stuff out. It’s good to be able to stand next to them and get on the field with them again.
“It’s one of those things where your role changes. You have to understand that for that time you’re assisting the team from a mental standpoint. You’re no longer going to be on the field with them, physically able to fill in in those responsibilities, so your responsibility is to be an extra set of eyes. That’s how I look at it. That’s how I can help the team in that moment.”
JOHNNY FOOTBALL, ONE MAN’S VIEW:
Matt Nichols was asked after practice for his two cents on the debut of Johnny Manziel with the Montreal Alouettes. Manziel and the Als struggled in a 50-14 loss to Hamilton, as the former Heisman Trophy winner completed just 11 of 20 passes for 104 yards while throwing four interceptions.
“It’s tough to say anything without knowing what their reads are and all that stuff,” said Nichols. “Only people inside that building can really speak to how that game went. Overall, he showed some flashes. I was a huge fan of his in college and it was exciting watching him run around a little bit and he also had a couple bad breaks.
“He’s learning a new game. New defences, new offence all at the same time. That’s definitely a lot. But from what I’ve seen in this league is the guys that are given the opportunity to go out and make mistakes and grow from it are the guys that usually get to have a decent career up here. You’ve got to go through some growing pains, I think every starter in the league has.
“I’m sure he’s going to continue to work hard, his teammates will work hard to make plays for him and they’ll be alright.”
THE LAST WORD:
The Bombers have held opponents to 20 points or under in each of their last four games, and in so doing, showed some real defensive flashes. But defensive coordinator Richie Hall wants more. Here’s Hall when asked to assess the defence through the first seven games:
“We’re getting there. We still make a lot of mistakes… mistakes that you guys might not see, but mistakes that can help us become a better unit. We’re progressing along. I think they believe in what we’re doing and they’re seeing some success out there.
“Our whole thing is that we want to keep going upward. We’re getting there. We’re a long ways away from where we need to be, but we’re in a good position right now.”
