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October 12, 2018

Prairie Rivals

It’s an image from the Banjo Bowl that remains so very vivid even five weeks later…

There was Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols standing on the sidelines back on September 8 – helmet still on, arms folded across the chest – watching Chris Streveler operating the club’s offence.

The scene came as Nichols has been pulled at halftime in a 32-27 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders after throwing three interceptions, two of them returned for touchdowns, in his worst stretch as the Bombers starter.

That the loss, Winnipeg’s fourth straight, came heading into a bye week only fuelled a raging quarterback debate.

Here we are 34 days later and Nichols has not only found his mojo again, but the Bombers have cranked out three consecutive wins. Consider that during the four-game losing streak, his touchdown-to-interception ratio was 5:8. And in the three-game run since it’s a solid 4:1.

“You go through a little patch like that… it happens to even the best quarterbacks in the world,” Nichols explained Friday as the Bombers wrapped up final preparations for the Riders. “A couple bad decisions here, a couple bad breaks there… it can pile up quickly when you’re playing professional football.

“For me, I kind of got lucky and ended up reading this thing about Bill Belichick and how he talks about ‘don’t let a negative outcome affect what you know is a good decision’. I’ve played way more good football than a couple of bad games. There’s no reason for me to question my preparation or what I do on a daily basis to get ready for games. I went through a little bad stretch, kept doing what I do and got back to the football I’m used to playing.”

One of the narratives that has been tossed out by the media this week has been the idea that the Bombers need a victory not just to keep pace in the battle for playoff positions, but to also get over a potential ‘mental hurdle’ should the two clubs meet again in the postseason.

The Bombers weren’t going there.

“Not at all. We’re a good football team,” said Nichols. “We didn’t play great in a couple of games against them and they capitalized on some mistakes. It is what it is. Those are the kind of things that happen over the course of an 18-game season. We’re a different team than we were then. I feel like we’re playing good football and we have a lot of confidence right now.”


KEY MATCHUP:

One of the intriguing battles within the battle to watch Saturday afternoon will be a matchup between the CFL’s two all-star offensive tackles in Winnipeg’s Stanley Bryant and Jermarcus Hardrick vs. Riders dominant defensive ends Willie Jefferson and Charleston Hughes.

The Riders like to move both Hughes and Jefferson all over the front, meaning they won’t always line up opposite Bryant and Hardrick, but this could still be juicy.

“First of all, they’re just great athletes and they love the game,” said Hardrick of Hughes and Jefferson. “And then Chris Jones puts them in great situations. Willie Jefferson is one of the best defensive ends I’ve ever played against in my life. I give him a lot of credit – he works hard and has a lot of natural things you can’t teach that he uses to his advantage. Charleston is one of the greatest to ever play in this league and I’m always excited to go against him. He’s got all these tricks as to how he’s going to get you. I’m excited. You always want to go against the good guys and me and Stanley are some of the good guys; they’re the good guys so it will be a good test. I love it.”

Bryant and Hughes were once teammates with the Stampeders and while the Bombers veteran tackle is a soft-spoken sort, he does expect to hear it from his old pal.

“Charleston is a great competitor. He’s one of those guys you’ve got to stick on for the whole 60 minutes. He plays the run well. He plays the pass well. He’s a hard worker. His age… he’s older, but he’s still playing like he’s 23-24. We were good teammates. He was always one of those guys who was going to talk trash. When I got here we got to go against each other off and on because he was injured a few times when he was with Calgary. It’s a great matchup. I know what he likes to do; he knows my weaknesses, I know his weaknesses.

“(The trash talk) is nothing crazy. He’ll tell you that he made me, or any other lineman that played in Calgary. He’s a great competitor, that’s all it is.”

STATUS REPORT ON #7:

Bombers receiver Weston Dressler is listed on the club’s depth chart for Saturday, but will be a game-time decision as to whether he suits up.

“I’m feeling pretty good, just a little banged up,” said Dressler, who got entangled with defensive back Chris Humes during practice on Wednesday. “We’ve got a little time yet before game time, so we’ll see how everything feels in the morning and take it from there.”

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea trusts Dressler enough to let him take as much time as he needs before a decision is made, but clearly, the club would like to have him in the lineup. Dressler had two TDs in last week’s win over Ottawa, the second coming in overtime.

“I mean, as far as practice goes, I like to practice. I enjoy practice. I enjoy repping everything that’s going to be in the gameplan or potentially in the gameplan,” said Dressler. “But I’ve played enough football and enough games with Matt, especially, as a quarterback that we don’t necessarily need it all the time. It’s helpful, but it’s not always needed.”

Dressler missed both the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl games this year, but has had success against the squad he spent eight seasons with before coming to Winnipeg.

In five games against the Riders, Dressler has 29 receptions for 456 yards and two touchdowns. Asked if there was still a little something extra going against his old team, he said:

“Not really. I mean, it’s very, very different there from when I was there. Obviously, the colours and the team name and all that stuff is all the same but as far as the locker room I think there’s only three or four guys left in that locker room that I played with. That’s the biggest thing… the players and people you work with every day, it’s quite a different group.”