Upon Further Review | WPG 40 OTT 32

The words came out in a hoarse tone and seemed to fade with every syllable.

And yet, Matt Nichols had a size-large grin on his face as he recapped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers massive 40-32 overtime win over the Ottawa REDBLACKS Friday night in the capital.

The Bombers quarterback had arrived in Ottawa early Thursday afternoon under the weather and was dispatched straight to the hotel rather than head over to TD Place for what would be his usual day-before media requirements.

He then settled in for the night, hoping to be recovered enough to not be affected when the ball was put on the tee Friday.  What followed was a solid performance by the veteran pivot – he finished 27 of 36 for 265 yards and three touchdowns against zero interceptions – in a game that saw the Bombers put up points on each of their first six possessions into the third quarter with five field goals and a TD.

“I feel great,” Nichols told bluebombers.com outside a rocking Bombers locker room after the victory. “My voice is pretty much gone. We’ve got a little bug going around the locker room a little bit. There’s a bunch of guys playing a little bit sick. Luckily, I’ve got some great teammates. Andrew Harris delivered some food (Thursday) night. I was in my bed all night. We take care of each other. You deal with it during the course of the season, especially when the weather starts turning, but everyone is dealing with something.”

Including Harris who, like Nichols, authored one of his best performances of the season with 163 yards from scrimmage – 132 along the ground on 20 carries and 31 more through the air on three receptions.

“I’ve got a nasty cold,” said Harris afterward, his voice also close to a whisper. “After meetings (on Thursday) I was out with my fiancée and texting Matt and I ended up bringing him some NyQuil and a steak. We were both on the NyQuil train. You’ve got to feed your quarterback.”

It should be said the Bombers got solid work from almost everyone on their roster in Friday’s victory, which was the club’s third straight and improved them to 8-7. Six different receivers caught passes as the offence was an impressive 18 of 29 (62 percent) on second-down conversions.

The Bombers registered four sacks – by Brandin Bryant, Tristan Okpalaugo, Jeff Hecht and Chandler Fenner –  Taylor Loffler led the club with six tackles and Justin Medlock was a perfect six of six on his field goal attempts.

But when the game mattered most – hello, OT – it was the Bombers star players who pushed pulled and dragged this team to victory after it had coughed up a 15-point lead with 4:36 remaining, as Ottawa rallied to tie the game at 32-32 on a TD and two-point conversion, both to Greg Ellingson, with 12 seconds remaining.

Harris touched the ball on three consecutive snaps to start overtime – one reception for seven yards, two rushes totalling 16 – before Nichols hit veteran Weston Dressler for his second score of the game, then connected with Darvin Adams for the two-point convert.

And on Ottawa’s first possession it was Adam Bighill who rocked Brad Sinopoli so hard at the Bombers five-yard line that the Ottawa receiver fumbled, which was pounced on by Jovan Santos-Knox to end the game.

It reminded us of a line former Bombers head coach Dave Ritchie didn’t invent, but did parrot often: ‘Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.’

“Andrew ran the ball extremely hard, got some tough yards and looked great doing it,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “I thought Matt was moving the ball extremely well. Dressler was right on time and then Darv secures that catch for the two pointer. It’s the guys you need to count on and they’re coming through for you.”

“You can’t forget the O-line when you talk about big-time players in big-time moments,” added Adams. “Without them we wouldn’t get the ball off without them blocking. Those guys stepped up, too. Matt threw the ball extremely well and Andrew was running over everybody. You know, a lot of people had been counting us out. We know what we’ve got in here. We’ll keep our head down and keep fighting”

More on the Bombers win in Ottawa in our weekly post-game collection of notes and quotes we call UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

MORE ON BIGHILL… yours truly had the opportunity to sit in for Doug Brown alongside the legendary Bob Irving for the entire broadcast of Friday’s game and it was during the pre-game show on CJOB when the Bombers GM was asked about the prospect of re-signing Bighill.

“You watch him play in B.C. and you’re like, ‘Boy oh boy, that’s the kind of guy any team would want and particularly with our head coach this is the kind of guy that fits our organization,’” began Kyle Walters. “He comes in and he’s everything as advertised. He is what we expected and beyond. So yes, without a doubt when you start ranking guys (free agents) and who we need to have come back, that’s #1 right there.”

Asked Irving as a follow up: “You have some money tucked away in a drawer somewhere for that, Kyle?”

“Yes, I do. With everybody going to be a free agent, you’ve got lots of money. It’s how you spend it. But without a doubt Adam Bighill has met beyond our expectations and the decision to bring him in after training camp started knowing we were going to be in a bit of a cap crunch throughout the course of the year… we all said, ‘It’s worth it.’ He’s an unbelievable young man and an unbelievable leader.”

Remember, all this came before Friday’s game and Bighill’s crushing hit on Sinopoli that sealed the deal.

“That’s just one of many big plays for him,” said veteran cornerback Chris Randle. “He’s everywhere. He makes his plays. He’s a great leader. The guys listen to him, he has a good voice in our locker room and his presence in the field is outstanding. He’s added greatness to our defence, but even more to our team.”

THE SCENE INSIDE THE BOMBERS LOCKER ROOM AFTER THE GAME… was pure bedlam. There are wins, and then there are wins like Friday when a team almost gives it away in the final minutes only to regroup and get it done when it matters.

And there was Santos-Knox afterward, proudly clutching the ball he scooped up after the Sinopoli fumble like it was a newborn child.

“That’s one of the wildest games I’ve ever played in,” he said. “It’s the CFL, so we know the game is never over and no lead is safe. I’m just proud that we fought to the end. That’s a big statement win for us.”

Bomber fans saw hints of the potential of Santos-Knox last year, particularly in the second half of the season. But his emergence this year has been impressive. And it’s no coincidence it has come with Bighill lined up beside him on the field and with the youngster soaking up as much knowledge as possible from the veteran linebacker.

“He made me right. He had my back on that play because I missed the tackle,” said Santos-Knox. “And boy, did he made up for it in a big way. We just count on that guy. We know when a big play is needed he’s going to make that big play. He stepped up and did it.”

AS MUCH AS THE BOMBERS FUMBLED WITH SEALING THE ‘W’ IN REGULATION… something must be said about their ability to recover between the end of regulation time and OT. The Ellingson TD and two-point convert with 12 seconds left, after all, was an emotional gut punch and there’s very little time to regroup mentally.

Enter some of the vets, including Harris.

“I brought the team together and said, ‘This is exactly how we planned it,’” Harris revealed. “I felt like we had a good energy. I felt like we were making plays and so I said, ‘It comes down to making plays. Who’s it going to be? Stay focused, keep the energy. This is how we planned it.’ We said ‘Win on 3’ and that was it. That was the gist of it. We had such a good vibe. I just didn’t want to let (Ottawa’s) last two-point convert disrupt what we had going.”

Interestingly, Harris then yelled at O’Shea as he ran out onto the field for OT, ‘Let’s get this going’ before catching a pass for seven yards, rushing for five and then 11 yards on three successive plays. That set up the Dressler TD and Adams’ two-point convert.

“This was an amazing game for us because I felt like all three phases contributed,” said Harris. “I had been saying that we needed that. Our defence was great in limiting that great offence of Ottawa. Our special teams was lights out and the ‘O’ brought it today. That’s big for us, especially at this point of the season.”

THE BOMBERS CRANKED OUT 191 YARDS RUSHING AND HAD 265 THROUGH THE AIR… on a night in which Nichols was especially sharp. That’s a massive development, clearly, as during the Bombers three-game win streak Nichols has completed 75.3 percent of his passes for 700 yards with four TDs and one interception.

In the four-game losing streak that preceded this run, Nichols TD-to-interception ratio was an ugly 4:8.

Nichols said after the game he felt like it was his best of the year in terms of accuracy and that, coupled with what Harris did along the ground, was massive against a Noel Thorpe defence known for bringing heat.

“We had that offensive balance,” said Harris. “(Ottawa) really tried to eliminate the run and bring some pressure. We were able to complete some ‘hot’ throws (short passes against a blitz) and get the ball out quickly so guys could make plays. It was a great job by everyone today, but Matt was really dialled in and focused. He was smooth.”

“Our offence was great today and we fed off that,” added Santos-Knox. “Their energy… we fed off that. When they scored on that first possession in OT it was like we forgot about the scores against us at the end of regulation.”

IT WAS SOMEHOW FITTING THAT IN A NUTTY GAME… that was essentially a track meet – Winnipeg and Ottawa combined for six passing TDs and 871 yards net offence – that it was a defensive play that sealed it for the Bombers.

This bunch won’t be pleased at all with their final four minutes or so in giving up a 15-point lead, but that clearly gets somewhat glossed over given the end result.

“That was all over the place, an emotional rollercoaster,” said Chris Randle. “Defensively we had some quarters of solid football and then they’re tempo (hurry-up offence) kind of threw a wrench into things. We had some opportunity plays – including one by me (late in the fourth quarter) on an interception I felt I should have had. But to come out with a win, it brought our life back.”

And for a veteran-laden club that wasn’t lacking in confidence even in the four-game losing streak, what happened Friday in Ottawa can feed a fire.

“Especially when you are piling wins together against good opponents,” added Randle. “These past two games (against Edmonton and Ottawa), we haven’t beaten those teams. So for us to step up and respond when our season is on the line is important. From a defensive standpoint, from a team standpoint, our coach told us (before the Montreal win) to just keep fighting, to play cleaner football, to play with a higher IQ and be physical. Now it’s starting to turn in our favour.”

Randle then took a moment to soak in the scene in the locker room and grinned.

“This is good, man,” he said. “I like this feeling. Defensively, I feel like we’re playing some of our best ball. We had some slip ups, but to get a win where all phases are doing well… I mean, Andrew Harris did his thing, Matt Nichols was Matt Nichols. We’re in a good place right now.”