GAME 13 | MONTREAL ALOUETTES (3-9) at WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (5-7)
THE 4-1-1
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m., Friday; Investors Group Field, Winnipeg
TV: TSN, RDS, ESPN+
Radio: CJOB
The forecast: Sunny with a high of 14C, periods of rain overnight with a low of 5C.
Vegas line: The Bombers are favoured by 10.5 points.
Streaks: Montreal: 1L; Winnipeg: 4L
Home/Road: Montreal is 2-4 on the road; the Bombers are 3-3 at home.
Series: The Alouettes lead the all-time series (since 1961) 48-45-2.
Recent history: The Bombers crushed the Alouettes 56-10 in Montreal during a Week 2 matchup back on June 22nd. Winnipeg has won four straight against the Als, dating back to dropping their 2016 season opener to Montreal and is 11-4 in its last 15 meetings against the Larks.
3 STORYLINES
1. GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS
Any narrative around the Bombers right now begins and ends with the play of quarterback Matt Nichols, who was pulled at halftime of the Banjo Bowl after throwing three interceptions – two of them in the score zone that were both returned for TDs by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
There’s no debating that the Bombers QB1 is in the crosshairs. But the club could also take some pressure off their starting pivot by getting back to playing the complimentary football that helped them run up a 23-13 regular season record through 2016-17. That has been in short supply this season, even as the club went 4-1 prior to this current four-game slide.
The Bombers defence held firm in the back-to-back losses to the Roughriders – they didn’t surrender an offensive TD in the Banjo Bowl – but it’s been a while since all three phases did the same in the same game.
“At the end of the day this is a team game,” said Bombers middle linebacker Adam Bighill. “It takes every man on the roster doing his part to make it happen. Rarely do you see one phase dominate so much and the other phases not pull their weight where you actually win games. It’s a collective effort, a team game.
“We have already proven we can do a lot of great things out here. But it’s about being consistent and that’s where we need to have our veteran leadership group pull that through and a focus and mindset that pulls that through. We know we’re good, we just have to be consistently good because we’ve shown that if we’re not consistently good for four or five games it can cost us.
“So there’s no panic, but we understand the importance of what we’ve got to get done.”
2. PUTTING THE ‘SPECIAL’ BACK IN SPECIAL TEAMS
This was a key leading into the Banjo Bowl, too, and it speaks of the importance of the kick-cover and kick-return teams, and especially of the expectation for them to be dominant every week.
Special teams is about attitude, it’s about being efficient and consistent and it’s about being difference makers in providing field position or a big play, whether it’s a kick-return score, forcing a fumble, placing a punt inside the 10-yard line or blocking a kick.
And the Bombers could use any of that now as they work to get out of their current funk.
“The last two matchups (against the Riders) have been pretty tough personnel-wise,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea earlier in the week. “You’re dealing with two teams that put a lot of stock in special teams and take a lot of pride in it.
“In the Labour Day game, we gave up a punt-return touchdown and our guys would love to have that one back. This last game (Banjo Bowl) we drew even or edged them out a little bit in terms of the actual stats, but that didn’t equate to winning. We need to create a big play on special teams; we definitely need to stop any big plays against us. These guys want to be the reason why we win tight games and they’ll get it.”
The Bombers added five players to their practice roster this week and O’Shea admitted there’s no coincidence that two of them – Charles Nelson and Boobie Hobbs – have big-time credentials as returners in college, although neither will be in the lineup against Montreal.
“We’d like a spark there,” said O’Shea. “We do have the guys, we just need to have it work for us once.”
3. JOHNNY FOOTBALL
Johnny Manziel has lost both of his starts as a member of the Alouettes, has completed 27 of 46 passes for 272 yards with zero TDs and four interceptions, and has a microscopic QB-efficiency rating of 39.4. And yet, no player has generated more headlines through the first two thirds of the season – not Andrew Harris, not Mike Reilly or Bo Levi Mitchell, Charleston Hughes or Duron Carter – than ‘Johnny Football.’
That says something about our fascination with celebrity and Manziel’s past troubles after winning the Heisman, being a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns and flaming out in the NFL before cleaning up his act and heading north to Hamilton before being traded to Montreal.
But all of that, of course, means diddly when the Bombers and Als line up Friday. What Manziel has shown in small flashes is his ability to ad-lib and extend plays with his mobility around the pocket, and regardless of his recent struggles, that’s something the Bombers respect immensely heading into this crucial contest.
“He creates plays. He creates things,” said Bombers defensive coordinator Richie Hall earlier in the week. “He reminds me, going back to my era, of Doug Flutie and those types of players. They’re just hard to defend because you can’t contain them because of the extra dimension they bring.
“He makes things happen. He’s ‘Johnny Football’ and he creates excitement and that’s what you want in that position. We know what he’s capable of doing even though he hasn’t done it yet.”
THE QBS
- Winnipeg’s Matt Nichols is 33-26 in his career as a starter and 25-14 since taking over from Drew Willy in July of 2016. He is 4-1 in his career against the Alouettes.
- Montreal’s Johnny Manziel is 0-2 in his CFL career as a starter. This is his first start against a West Division club.
ROSTER SHUFFLE
The Bombers are making three changes to their 46-man roster from last week. Coming onto the roster are WR Weston Dressler, DB Brendan Morgan and FB John Rush. They replace RB Timothy Flanders, OL Cody Speller and OL Qadr Spooner.
Dressler will replace Corey Washington in the receiving corps and the return of RT Jermarcus Hardrick to active duty means Pat Neufeld will move back to left guard with Michael Couture dressing as the sixth man along the O-line.
3 BOMBERS TO WATCH
#51 Jermarcus Hardrick, RT: The return of Hardrick to the right flank on the O-line not only means the Bombers get an all-star back to their trenches, but can shift Pat Neufeld back to left guard. Hardrick is a solid tackle and his infectious enthusiasm certainly couldn’t hurt a squad working through a ton of negative emotions as the result of a four-game skid.
#33 Andrew Harris, RB: We broke down here how Harris’ touches this year are virtually the same as a year ago, with a drop in receptions offset by a jump in carries. Harris is coming off a Banjo Bowl in which he carried 10 times for just 21 yards – his second-lowest rushing total this year (he had 13 in the loss to Calgary). Expect his touches to be close to 20, if not over, against the Als.
#54 Tristan Okpalaugo, DE: Okpalaugo is third on the Bombers in sacks with three – behind Jackson Jeffcoat (5) and Jovan Santos-Knox (4) – but hasn’t brought down a quarterback since July 7th and has gone two games without registering a defensive stat. The Bombers need him, Craig Roh and the rest of the D-line to stand out against Manziel & Co.
X FACTOR
#7 Weston Dressler, WR: There’s nothing complicated here: Dressler is a savvy vet with great hands and the speed to get behind defenders. He’s also a favourite target for Matt Nichols, and his return after a four-game absence could be massive for the offence. A number to hammer home his importance: the Bombers are 0-4 this season without him in the lineup.
CRITICAL NUMBER
27-3: That’s the Bombers record since 2016 in games in which they make fewer turnovers than their opponent. They are 0-14 in games in which they make more.
NOTABLE
The Bombers will add Melvin ‘Fritz’ Hanson to their Ring of Honour on Friday. Hanson was the first superstar in the franchise’s history, helping Winnipeg become the first team based in Western Canada to win the Grey Cup, in 1935. He was also part of two other Grey Cup championship teams in Winnipeg and is a member of both the Canadian Football and Winnipeg Football Club Halls of Fame. Hanson passed away in 1996, and his family will be represented at the ceremony by one his daughters, Alix Bauce, and her husband, Frank.
Hanson joins Chris Walby, Ken Ploen, Gerry James, Milt Stegall, Leo Lewis, Jack Jacobs, Doug Brown, Bud Grant, Herb Gray and Dieter Brock on the Ring of Honour.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and the club will be honouring some special families at the game. The players will also be wearing blue and gold ribbons on their helmets to show support for children battling cancer.
MISCELLANEOUS
- The Bombers are 4-1 in their last five games coming off a bye. During a stretch from 2013-15, they were 0-4 after a bye.
- Winnipeg led the CFL with 21 sacks through Week #9, but have registered just three in the weeks since. Worth noting: the Alouettes allowed seven sacks in last week’s loss to B.C., the most surrendered by any CFL team this season.
- The Bombers are the only team this season to score at least twice in every game this season. They have produced 36 offensive TDs in 173 chances this year for a 21 percent rate, second in the CFL.
- Dating back to 2015, Winnipeg is 16-6 against East Division rivals and 12-14 vs. the West.
- Andrew Harris needs 16 rushing yards to hit the 1,000 mark for the fourth time in his career. He ranks 12th all time with 7,252 yards along the ground and with 25 more yards he would move past Arland Bruce III into the CFL’s Top 20 in combined yardage (rushing and receiving) with 11,743 yards.
- The Als decision earlier this week to shift from Antonio Pipkin to Manziel wil mark the sixth time this season the club has made a QB change.
QUOTABLE
“It’s the leadership. It’s the history. It’s the coaching staff. It’s the confidence in each other. Even after the (Banjo Bowl) when I was saying we are a good team… we are and we know it and we feel it. But, for whatever reason we haven’t been able to put it all together. It’s just finding what needs to get done and what works for us and then going out and achieving it.
“We have all the right tools in the locker room but it starts with ‘What’s not working? How can we fix this?’ I feel like we made strides this week. Let’s just see how it translates to the game on Friday.” – Bombers RB Andrew Harris.
