It looks, smells, and feels like a Canadian Football League preseason game, even if it will come in the first week of November and just 22 sleeps out from the Grey Cup.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have their spot in the Grey Cup derby secured while the Edmonton Eskimos – hosts of the game at the end of the month – have been eliminated.
The Bombers practice week has come against that backdrop and reflected as much, with many of the regulars giving way to the likes of Chris Streveler and Bryan Bennett at quarterback, Kienan LaFrance at running back, Rashaun Simonise, Daniel Petermann and Corey Washington in the receiving corps, with Charles Nelson returning kicks, and new names like Chris Humes getting a ton of work on defence.
That’s potentially a pile of changes for a squad on a five-game heater that is trying to keep that momentum stoked – but most importantly, stay healthy – with the West Division Semi-Final in either Calgary or Saskatchewan on November 11th.
All of this, it could be said, is a long-winded way of asking this question: why does this game matter?
“To me, there are lots of reasons,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea after practice Thursday. “One being you want to continue the feeling, the positivity that we have going into this game. Everybody wants to win… winning is better than losing.
“For some of these young starters that are getting a shot it’s a chance to honour their teammates and show their teammates how hard they’ve worked and how much information they’ve taken in because there’s a lot of learning that’s passed on from a teammate to another teammate. They can sit in meetings and they can listen to the installs and the coach and they watch the film, but there’s a lot of conversation and learning that goes on from player to player so there’s a certain amount of pride that some of the veteran players or more experienced players are going to have when a younger player goes in and does it all right.
“And the younger guys want to go in and do it all right, not just for them but for their guys that have moved over for a game. So, all these things carry a lot of weight.”
Not surprisingly, O’Shea wasn’t tipping his hand at all by confirming any potential lineup changes for Saturday’s matinee. He did say this about the quarterback spot:
“Matt’s going to go and will dress, but how many snaps he gets is still debatable… probably not many, if at all. As I said, I always like to figure out what they need and Matt’s looked good in practice this week but so have the other guys. I don’t know that he needs any snaps.”
The other relatable storyline here is Andrew Harris and his pursuit of a second-straight rushing title. Harris trails Ottawa’s William Powell by just seven yards heading into the final weekend and the REDBLACKS have already announced earlier in the week that their running back would be out for a second straight game on Friday.
O’Shea wouldn’t confirm whether Harris would suit up on Saturday, but did say this about the rushing title: “I haven’t thought much about it yet, but we’ll do some thinking as LaPo (offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice) puts together the call sheet. We’ll have to consider that.”
Harris, meanwhile, spoke of watching his running back compadres – Kienan LaFrance and Johnny Augustine – in action on Saturday. And as for the rushing title…
“I’m not really thinking about that,” he said. “For us, I’m thinking about just being healthy and playing my best game when it matters.”
There’s also this: Harris might not win the individual rushing crown, but the Bombers have 2,256 yards along the ground this year – 252 yards more than Saskatchewan with one game remaining and the Roughriders finished their regular season.
“I don’t even know who’s second to us, but I know we have a pretty healthy average as far as a team rushing and it’s been one of the highest in quite a few years,” said Harris. “That’s definitely something we take a lot of pride in, and it’s complimentary… it’s not just me, it’s (Nic) Demski, it’s (Weston) Dressler, it’s Wolly (Drew Wolitarsky), It’s Kienan, it’s (Chris) Streveler… it’s the guys who all contribute to this. It just shows how dynamic and how many different ways we can get yardage gained. It’s definitely a team effort.”
The Bombers completed their final full practice today in advance of Saturday’s matchup in Edmonton against the Eskimos. Here are some notes and quotes from today’s media availability…
READY, WILLING, ABLE:
The Bombers lineup might remain a bit of a mystery right up until kickoff, but expect to see healthy doses of RB Kienan LaFrance and WR/KR Charles Nelson.
“Every week the goal is to do what you can and exactly what the coaches ask you to do… knowing that your load is going to be increased a little bit is obviously fun,” said LaFrance. “And it’s exciting. My game plan is the same – just keep going out there and studying and doing the same things I can to be ready every week and then go out there and have some fun.”
Nelson, meanwhile, could add a spark to the kick-return game. A star during his playing days at Oregon, Nelson played offence, defence and returned kicks and was Pac-12 First Team All-Conference in 2015.
“You see his athletic skill set and you would like to see what that looks like on the field as a returner and in other spots, too – he’s not going to be limited to that role,” said O’Shea. “We’re going to have him playing as many special teams as we can, we’ll see if he can get in on offence and show what he can do. Athletically he’s pretty interesting. He seems to catch the ball well, he seems to have learned well. Now it’s putting it in a game and see when everything is going faster around him in a full-speed session other than practice we’ll see what it looks like there. But we’re confident he can show us quite a bit.”
GRAY DAY:
The Bombers are also expected to activate Geoff Gray from the one-game injured list, enabling the 2017 first-round draft pick and Manitoba Bisons product to make his CFL debut.
“(We’ll) get him in the game… I don’t know how many snaps that’s going to be,” O’Shea said. “He’s only been here a couple of weeks. He’s a very sharp guy and certainly will know some stuff, but there’s a group of five guys playing O-line and you do need that kind of continuity. He’ll get some snaps, but how it looks or how many it adds up to I’m not sure yet.”
TWO BLUE SALUTED:
Both Matt Nichols and Adam Bighill – along with Ottawa QB Trevor Harris – were named Thursday as the CFL’s Top Performers for October.
Nichols helped lead the Bombers to three wins in October, completing 70.1 percent of his passes for 778 yards and six touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Bighill hit the 100-tackle mark for the third time in his career in October, compiling 18 tackles and three sacks in the Bombers three games. He also forced three fumbles in the month.
