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August 18, 2018

Game recap: OTT 44 | WPG 21


The Winnipeg Blue Bombers three-game winning streak has come to a full and sudden stop in a shocking and disturbing fashion.

The Ottawa REDBLACKS rolled into enemy territory Friday night and administered a thorough beat-down in the Bombers own back yard, dominating in a 44-21 victory in front of 27,602 disgruntled fans at Investors Group Field.

The result means the Bombers skid into the halfway point of the Canadian Football League season at 5-4, while the REDBLACKS improve to 6-3. Worth noting as they attempt to push for a home playoff date is the back half of their schedule features seven games against West Division foes.

“Not good,” began Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea in opening his post-game media address. “Undisciplined play leads to a lot of points. I think you’ve got to give Ottawa credit. We made mistakes and took penalties that kept them on the field on plays where we should have been off the field.

“There’s even two two-point converts we stopped, but took penalties on and gave them another chance. They capitalized and really generated a lot of points after we made mistakes and kept them on the field. I think the game looks different if we’re more disciplined and get off the field… the defence is then more rested and our offence has more opportunities to drive the ball and battle a good Ottawa defence.”

For the record, the Bombers took 11 penalties for 80 yards – Ottawa was nailed seven times for 60 yards – but the home side’s problems go beyond those infractions. The REDBLACKS generated 493 yards in net offence as Trevor Harris completed 29 of 39 passes for 361 yards while William Powell cranked out 106 yards along the ground.

Ottawa held the ball for 33 minutes and 26 seconds to 26:39 for Winnipeg and converted a whopping 67 percent of their second-down opportunities.

Bombers QB Matt Nichols completed 23 of 35 passes for 291 yards with two TDs – both to Darvin Adams – and one interception.

He was particularly emotional in his post-game media address on hearing boos from fans when he re-entered the game in the fourth quarter after suffering an arm injury and being briefly replaced by Chris Streveler.

“I usually wouldn’t ever say something like this and I probably even shouldn’t, but I’m going to…,” Nichols said. “The saddest thing tonight for me was I feel like I give my heart to this city and this team. It’s pretty frustrating, I put everything into trying to perform for my teammates and these fans. It was pretty sad for me… I took some shots tonight and took a big one on my elbow and had to come out for a couple of plays, shook that one off and came back out and got booed by the whole stadium when I was coming back out there.”

“That one was pretty hard for me tonight.”

And naturally, everyone in the Bombers dressing room rushed to Nichols defence after hearing his comments. Just for the record here: Winnipeg is 4-2 with Nichols at the controls this season and 25-11 since he took over from Drew Willy as the starting quarterback in late July 2016.

“It’s rough,” said Andrew Harris. “I thought Matt played a good game today. I don’t think he had a bad game, I don’t think he deserves that. I mean, any time someone comes in and is marching… that’s the armchair quarterbacks up in the stands that don’t really understand the pressure and the ebbs and flows of a game.

“It’s unfortunate, but we ride with Matt, Matt’s our guy. He doesn’t deserve that, that’s for sure.”

Asked how he thought Nichols might respond, Harris added:

“Like a warrior. I think he’s going to bounce back. He already plays with a chip on his shoulder. If that happened to me, I’d come back with a vengeance. I’m expecting Matt will do the same thing.”

After a lacklustre first half that saw RedBlacks jump out to a 22-7 lead, the Bombers looked to capture some momentum midway through the third quarter when Harris scored his league-leading ninth touchdown of the season to pump some life into IGF.

But Ottawa, with Harris operating their attack with the precision of a diamond cutter, answered immediately with a five-play, 78-yard drive that was capped by a five-yard strike to Dominique Rhymes. The proverbial nail-in-the-coffin came on the next series when Matt Nichols was levelled while unloading a pass, with the ensuing fumble scooped up by Avery Williams and returned 43 yards for a score.

And with that a one-score game was suddenly 38-14 in the span of two minutes.

“They executed really well,” said Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill. “I told Trevor after the game he had a heckuva game. He played awesome. He threw the ball on point, on time… especially in some of the man-coverage situations he threw great balls. They played great. A lot of stuff they did, a lot of stuff we planned for. They executed really well tonight.”


THE BIG STAT

361: Yards passing by Ottawa’s Trevor Harris, who has now thrown for 1,229 yards in his last three games.

FYI

The Bombers two inactives were OL Manase Foketi and DB Tyneil Cooper… All-star right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick was injured in the fourth quarter and replaced by Michael Couture. Asked afterward if the injury was serious, O’Shea said: “I wouldn’t think so. I don’t have any update on him, but I know how tough he is.”… Chris Streveler was 4-of-5 for 80 yards in his brief stint replacing Nichols.

NUMBERS GAME

162: Receiving total for Darvin Adams, on eight catches. He became the first Bombers receiver to crack the 100-yard mark this year.

24: Consecutive field goals for Ottawa kicker Lewis Ward, the longest streak ever for a first-year player.

72: Yards rushing for Andrew Harris on 12 carries.

7,060: Career rushing yards for Harris, as he moved past Earl Lunsford and Dick Shatto into a tie with Jim Evenson for 12th place on the CFL’s all-time rushing yardage list.