GAME 9 | OTTAWA REDBLACKS (5-3) at WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (5-3)

THE 4-1-1

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m., Friday; Investors Group Field
TV: TSN, RDS, ESPN+
Radio: CJOB
Vegas line: The Bombers are favoured by 5 ½ points.
Streaks: Ottawa: 1W: Winnipeg: 3W
Home/Road: The Bombers are 3-1 at home; Ottawa is 2-2 on the road.
Series: The Bombers lead the all-time matchup with Ottawa clubs – Rough Riders, Renegades and REDBLACKS – 44-30-1 and are 22-13-1 all-time vs. the those squads in Winnipeg.
Recent history: The Bombers have won three straight against the REDBLACKS, capturing both games last year – 29-9 on September 22 in Ottawa and 33-30 on August 4 in Winnipeg, and 33-30 in Ottawa on November 4, 2016. Since the return of football to the capital, Winnipeg is 4-4 against the REDBLACKS.

3 STORYLINES

1. THE ‘OTHER’ HARRIS

There are several thousand charter members of the Andrew Harris fan club, especially since the hometown product opted to sign with the Bombers as a free agent in 2016. But the Canadian Football League’s ‘other’ Harris – Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris – continues to put up some eye-popping numbers.

Harris was good on 44 of 54 passes for a whopping 487 yards in last week’s thumping of Montreal – his completion total falling just one shy of tying Henry Burris’ CFL record of 45, set in 2015 – and he has thrown for 868 yards in the last two weeks. That’s the highest passing yardage total for a quarterback in consecutive starts since Darian Durant threw for 918 yards in 2010.

He’s already gone over the 300-yard mark passing five times this year and over the past two seasons, has a TD-to-interception ratio of 39:17.

All of this is to stay the Bombers air defence will be busy Friday night trying to limit the damage done by Harris and a star-studded receiving corps that includes Brad Sinopoli – he leads the CFL in receptions with a gaudy 60 through eight games – Greg Ellingson, Diontae Spencer and R.J. Harris, not to mention the league’s second-leading rusher in William Powell.

“He’s a great quarterback,” said Bombers safety Taylor Loffler of Harris. “They do a lot of different movements on offence, shorter throws – and that’s how they get so many completions. You’ve got to make sure your eyes are good with that offence and with Trevor Harris.

“You’ve got Ellingson and Sinopoli, two big guys, great route runners and they always know how to find the openings in your defence because one was a quarterback and the other is just a great receiver. It means you have to know where the holes are in your defence, because they’re going to know where they are. You just try to make those windows as small as you can.”

2. TAKE ANOTHER BOW, FOOT SOLDIERS

The Bombers plan to highlight their special teams stars in the player introductions Friday night – it’s usually the offence or defence that is introduced – and it’s with good reason.

The club’s foot soldiers continue to shine in kick coverage and kick returns, and kicker Justin Medlock finished last week with two punts out of bounds at the opposition 10-yard-line while the Ticats were held to zero yards on three punt returns.

But there is something special every week from this crew, be it a punt block by Mike Miller that is scooped up by Ian Wild for a touchdown, a reverse on the opening kickoff in a win over Toronto, a direct snap to Jesse Briggs for a first down on a fake punt and so on…

Coaches talk all the time about the three phases of a game – offence, defence and special teams – but the Bombers special-teams units continue to be difference makers in flipping the field for the offence and defence. They’ll have a tough assignment again on Friday, with the dangerous Diontae Spencer handling the return chores for Ottawa, and REDBLACKS kickers Richie Leone and Lewis Ward posting dynamite numbers through the first eight games.

3. REVVING UP THE AIR ATTACK

It’s been a weird week in Bomberland, what with Matt Nichols under the microscope despite throwing for two touchdowns in last week’s win over Hamilton, improving the team’s record to 4-1 this year with Nichols behind centre.

But there were also some near-misses in the Ticats game that turned a potential 300-yard game into a game that saw the Bombers throw for 180 yards. The Bombers have the third-best pass efficiency rating in the CFL at 94.7, trailing just Calgary (108.3) and Edmonton (103.1), but are averaging just 223.4 yards through the air, ranking them eighth.

This offence has established its identity as a ball-control attack that owns the line of scrimmage, but many observers are fixating on the passing totals because they are the sexy stat when it comes to the three-down game.

“We want to hit those plays we kinda missed,” began receiver Drew Wolitarsky. “Those wide-open balls we were either short on or missed the route by a little bit. Those are easy points for us. We still put up plus 30 (overall), so the ability to get those plays and put up 45-50 points per game would separate us and allow us to win.”

Wolitarsky said earlier this week in a radio interview that the offence has a goal of a point per minute, even if that seems unrealistic.

“That’s the goal and that’s something we strive for,” he said. “Whether it’s realistic or not, it’s a mindset. It doesn’t necessarily mean we actually do it, but our mindset is we need to go out there and score so if it’s been seven minutes, we need a touchdown. If it’s been 14 minutes, we need 14 points. That’s just the motto we have. If we hit all our shots, we can do that.”

THE QBS

• Winnipeg’s Matt Nichols is 35-22 in his career as a starter; 25-10 since taking over from Drew Willy in July of 2016 and 4-1 lifetime vs. Ottawa.
• Ottawa’s Trevor Harris is 26-22-2 as a starter in his career and 5-3 lifetime against the Bombers.

ROSTER SHUFFLE

The Bombers are making one change to their 46-man roster. Coming onto the roster is WR Ryan Lankford, who takes the spot of WR Weston Dressler – moved to the six-game injured list.

Reserve QB Bryan Bennett will step in for Dressler to handle the holding chores for kicker Justin Medlock.

3 BOMBERS TO WATCH

#3 Kevin Fogg, DB: Fogg leads the CFL with 498 punt return yards for an average of 11.6 yards per return, which ranks fifth overall. He sees double-duty as the field corner in the Bombers secondary and, like the rest of his teammates, will be tested by the REDBLACKS solid receiving corps.

#15 Matt Nichols, QB: He’s 4-1 as a starter this season and threw for two TDs against no interceptions last week. End of discussion.

#51 Jermarcus Hardrick, OL: The Bombers mammoth right tackle flanks the O-line along with Stanley Bryant and – along with centre Matthias Goossen and guards Pat Neufeld and Sukh Chungh – has done a masterful job opening holes for Andrew Harris and keeping Matt Nichols from running for his life.

X FACTOR

#84 Ryan Lankford, WR/KR: Head coach Mike O’Shea has praised the veteran receiver’s work ethic all week and he’s earned this opportunity after coming off a solid training camp. Lankford brings the bonus of being the club’s leading kickoff-return man last season and, after a game in which the Bombers admitted there were a couple of assignment mistakes after Weston Dressler was injured, his understanding of the offence can’t be understated.

CRITICAL NUMBER

9/21: The Bombers have allowed just nine sacks, fewest in the CFL, and have 21 quarterback sacks – most in the league.

MISCELLANEOUS

• The Bombers victory last week evened Mike O’Shea’s record as a head coach in Winnipeg at 40-40. The club’s next win would move him past Mike Riley (40-32) and into fifth place on the club’s all-time wins list. Bud Grant is first at 102-56-2, followed by Cal Murphy at 86-51-1, Dave Ritchie at 54-44-1 and Ray Jauch at 45-35-0.
• The Bombers are 16-5 vs. the East Division since 2016.
• Winnipeg has a +96 scoring margin in the first half through the first eight games, but is just +1 in second halves. Ottawa, by comparison, is +20 in the first half and -5 in the second.
• Ottawa’s Brad Sinopoli already has 60 receptions through eight games. He is one of only three players in CFL history to have accomplished that feat, joining Derrell Mitchell (64 catches in seven games in 1998, en route to a league-record 160) and Allen Pitts (62 catches in eight games, finishing with 118).
• Since 2015, the REDBLACKS have the most wins vs. West Division teams of any East Division clubs. They are 15-17-2 over that span; Toronto and Hamilton are 12-24 while Montreal is 10-25.
• This is the last home game of the summer for the Bombers, who are on the road in Calgary next weekend before the annual Labour Day Classic in Regina. After this week, Winnipeg’s next home game is the Banjo Bowl on Saturday, September 8th.

QUOTABLE

“We’re doing a lot of different things, changing the looks up, which is nice, from the previous years. Our defence is able to do that and it’s made a big difference out there. It gives the offence we’re playng against different looks and they can’t know exactly what we’re going to do every time. We’ve definitely come a long ways and we definitely still have a long ways to go. But it’s really looking up right now and we just need to keep going from here. We had a little bit of a rocky path there to start… we’d have a good game and then have a bad game, but we’ve been a lot more consistent over the last month and just keep steadily improving. We can’t take a step back. We have to keep going on an upward path.” – Bombers safety Taylor Loffler on the evolving defence.