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Upon Further Review August 12, 2018

Upon Further Review: HAM 23 | WPG 29

@EdTaitWFC

Growth can be measured simply through a statistical comparison from one game to another, one season to another. And it is often best represented by the cold, hard numbers that show up in the black and white of a Canadian Football League stats package.

There are other tell-tale signs too, although not always as visible to the naked eye from the stands, the press box, from home while watching on TV or listening to the radio.

Jovan Santos-Knox, for example, lived it and felt it as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers stepped onto the field late in Friday’s victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats while protecting a slim lead.

“As we got in the huddle at the end we said, ‘If we want to be a championship football team this is what we do: we make big stops at this time,’” began the Bombers second-year linebacker in a euphoric locker room after the game. We want that pressure. We want the game to come down to us and that’s the difference I see in this team, the growth I see in this team. Before, it was like, ‘C’mon, we need our offence to score.’

“I’m proud of how we dug in deep, fought and didn’t give anything up at the end. That’s a great step in the right direction. Now we’re taking all challenges on. We get a lead, that’s all we need. That’s a great sign.”

It’s a great sign and an important development for a franchise that wants to morph from a playoff team to a team that wins in the playoffs. And what the Bombers did in the final moments of the 29-23 win is exactly what every squad wants for those Sunday games in mid-to-late November.

Leading by a field goal at 26-23 with 7:58 remaining, the Bombers limited the Ticats to nine plays totalling 20 yards – with the crowd chipping in to help as Hamilton took two procedure penalties on their last possession. It was exactly the shut-down finish that had been lacking in a season-opening loss to Edmonton and in that second-half meltdown in Vancouver last month.

Again, while teams can preach this all they want, until they live it – and have success with it – it’s just chatter. What Friday’s defensive performance does is help build on a foundation that has been established over the last few weeks in which the Bombers have gone 4-1 while surrendering an average of 19.2 points per game.

“That’s a solid football team we just played,” said Santos-Knox of the Tiger-Cats. “And for us to lock in like that, to be able to look at everyone to my left and to my right and know that they’re dialled in and we’re going to do everything we can to get off the field… that’s a great feeling, man.”

More on the Bombers win Friday night – the result improves them to 5-3 and into a second-place tie in the CFL’s West Division with the Eskimos, four points back of the 7-0 Calgary Stampeders – in our weekly post-game collection of notes and quotes we call UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

MORE KUDOS FOR THE BOMBERS DEFENCE… from the men who line up against them every day in practice. Perhaps there is no better evaluator for the growth on defence we are discussing here than the Bombers offensive charges.

After all, no one takes more snaps against them than their own teammates.

“They’ve been playing unbelievable,” said quarterback Matt Nichols. “I can feel how they are gelling lately. I can feel it at practice; practice has gotten harder against our defence. They’ve figured some stuff out and they’re playing great together right now.”

Added Andrew Harris:

“They’re just coming together. They have confidence. They’re playing as a unit whereas before they were more individuals. They really trust each other and hold each other accountable and they’re filing around as a unit. It really shows. That’s a credit to the leadership out there and the young guys stepping in and playing great roles.”

THERE WAS SOME CRITICISM ON SOCIAL MEDIA – WHEN ISN’T THERE? – ABOUT THE WORK… of Nichols and the Bombers offence on Friday.

Nichols completed 13 of 24 passes for 180 yards with TD strikes to Weston Dressler and Nic Demski and no interceptions. While the defence was doing their shut-down thing in the fourth quarter Nichols & Co. also pieced together a 10-play drive that covered only 28 yards, but chewed up five minutes and nine seconds of clock before Justin Medlock’s 33-yard field goal put the Bombers ahead 29-23.

Nichols admitted afterward that he missed some throws and was rushed on some others, while the injury to Dressler seemed to discombobulate the offence on a couple of possessions. There’s also this: the Ticats defence under Jerry Glanville is a beast.

“They played well tonight,” said Nichols, tipping his hat to the Ticats D. “They did a bunch of different stuff to us and I felt like I missed on a couple throws, a couple plays we had dialled up and were there – especially earlier in the game – and I got hit on two of them as the ball was leaving my hand which could have been big plays for us. That’s how it goes sometimes.

“They do a lot of different stuff. They don’t have a lot of tendencies. A lot of times they are calling stuff for a certain coverage but there’s no guarantee you’re going to get it, whereas with a lot of teams you are guaranteed with a certain down and distance you know what they’re going to be in. They did a good job of switching it up. They came out and played more zone on us and dropped everyone out on first and 10, which was a little bit different than what they had done all season.

“Overall, a lot of things we’ve got to clean up, but I loved how the guys were able to play through some frustrating times through the game and come back and make the plays when we needed at the end.”

Let’s just remember this about Nichols: the club is 4-1 with him behind centre this year and now 25-10 since he became QB1 in late July, 2016.

“He’s awesome. Matt’s an awesome quarterback,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “We lose Dress, guys are trying to get lined up in different spots and we still managed to score 29 points. I’ll take 29 points any night. Any night.”

ONE MORE FROM NICHOLS… when asked to comment on the work of rookie receiver Daniel Petermann, who took snaps with the starting offence after Dressler exited (although he remained to hold on field goals and converts), and finished with two catches for 29 yards – a 14-yard catch that included 12 YAC yards and a 15-yard reception on that critical drive late in the game that came on a second and 10.

“He filled in great for us,” said Nichols. “We do a decent amount of multiple things on offence with moving guys around. There are a lot of things we have for Dressler and it did take us two-three drives to figured it out. We even got kinda messed up on our formation on the last play on offence where I scrambled around and threw it away… we didn’t get lined up correctly. I thought we did some good things dealing with that, but we also probably took too long getting adjusted to it. We pride ourselves in being able to plug and play and we’ve got to get better at that.”

ANDREW HARRIS DID HIS THING, AS PER USUAL… pushing, pulling, dragging and darting around defenders in Friday’s win as he finished with 82 yards rushing on 16 carries and another 46 yards on four receptions while crashing in from three yards out for his league-best eighth touchdown.

But one of the emerging stars on offence continues to be slotback Nic Demski, the Oak Park/Manitoba Bisons product who finished with 182 all-purpose yards (134 on kickoffs, 45 receiving and four yards rushing) and pulled in a 34-yard TD on a perfect strike from Nichols.

Demski has already established career highs in catches (30), receiving yards (312), rushes (17), rushing yards (120) and touchdowns (4) this year. He has three TDs in his last two games and dusted off an old TD-celly routine afterward.

 

 

STAND UP AND TAKE A BOW, BOMBERS FANS… because the Ticats last drive when the noise helped cause two illegal-procedure penalties – that’s 93 time count or procedure penalties at Investors Group Field since the joint opened – help make it a rowdy place when it is at full throat.

Several players spoke about the noise with the media or tweeted about it after the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“That last drive was definitely the loudest it’s been this year in this stadium,” said Adam Bighill. “You could definitely tell it threw them off a bit as far as their cadence and their timing. Obviously, that’s a huge advantage to us to be able to time up our pressures and get in the backfield and put pressure on (Jeremiah) Masoli.”

“If you look right down to the end, that last drive, it was the defence plus the crowd,” added O’Shea. “Kudos to the fans when you can get a couple of procedure penalties in that last drive when they needed a touchdown to win the game and they’re in a time-crunch situation. The crowd was phenomenal and the defence kept on coming with relentless pressure, so that’s a good combination.”

AND, FINALLY… Friday’s win helped even O’Shea’s win-loss record as the Bombers head coach at 40-40. If you recall, the Bombers were 5-1 in their first six games under O’Shea before QB injuries and other issues led to a grotesque 8-27 stretch from August 7, 2014 through to July 21, 2016.

Since then the Bombers are 27-12 for a .692 winning percentage.

So, what about that significant turnaround and about getting back to .500 as a coach, Mr. O’Shea.

“Who cares? Honestly,” he told reporters with a shrug and a chuckle afterward. “We won tonight. That’s one more win than we had last week.”