48-Hour Primer | WPG at EDM

It is a West Division first-place showdown that will showcase two of the Canadian Football League’s stingiest defences and highest-scoring attacks.

There are Most Outstanding Player candidates and defensive kingpins scattered throughout both lineups. There are game-breakers on special teams and two head coaches who are not only long time buddies, but two of the most competitive men in the whole dang loop.

Still, the most compelling storyline when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers meet the Edmonton Eskimos Friday night in the Alberta capital will centre around Chris Streveler stepping in behind centre for injured quarterback Matt Nichols.

It’s significant not only for the here and now, but for the future – especially with both pivots scheduled to become free agents in February. And so Streveler’s return to the starting huddle – he did have command of four games last year – will be riveting for both the short and the long term consequences.

The pertinent question here isn’t whether Streveler will be ready, but how successful he might be with so much at stake for a squad with Grey Cup aspirations.

What will be fascinating from a Bombers perspective – check that, the entire CFL community will be watching – is how Streveler’s ripening on the vine might be revealed Friday in Edmonton. He’s only thrown 16 passes this year, completing nine, with one TD and three interceptions. But it’s one thing to get periodic work as a short-yardage specialist, it’s quite another to be the man on the field in all situations.

There’s also this: when Streveler got his first start a year ago he was a massive question mark with an accompanying low bar of expectations. Now he’s got the belief of everyone in the Bombers locker room that he can do more than just tread water with this latest opportunity.

“It sucks Matt went down,” said Wolitarsky. “It hurts because guys like him and want to see him succeed because he’s a great dude. But we weren’t in a panic. It’s not like, ‘Oh no… our starter’s gone’ because we know what (Streveler) can do, we know what we need to game plan. It’s not a shock, because we’ve had it happen already.

“There’s no one who is stressing out. It’s, ‘Alright, it happened… let’s go execute.’”

The Bombers finished their final full practice today behind closed doors in advance of Friday’s game in Edmonton against the Eskimos. Here are some notes and quotes from today’s media availability in our 48-HOUR PRIMER…

STEP AWAY FROM THE PANIC BUTTON, OR…?:

There was a media buzz Tuesday at Bombers practice when RB Andrew Harris did not finish the session after appearing to hurt his arm and that was only further fuelled when he was not available for interviews following Wednesday’s closed practice.

Asked about the status of Harris, head coach Mike O’Shea said: “He should be good. I feel good about him playing.”

Pressed about whether Harris was able to practice on Wednesday, O’Shea added: “He was out there.”

The Bombers depth chart won’t be released until Thursday, but O’Shea didn’t rule out that DE Alex McAllister might be activated after just arriving this week. The Bombers are without Jackson Jeffcoat, while Craig Roh was injured in last week’s win and did not practice on Monday or Tuesday.

“We’ll see. We brought him in and there’s certainly a need,” said O’Shea. “We liked him in training camp, so we’ll see how it shakes down tomorrow.”

THE SHOWDOWN:

The Bombers are steadfast in their mantra of just ‘going 1-0 this week’ and that’s no different even in another matchup for first in the West, as it was a couple of weeks ago against Calgary.

“Every game is special,” said Bombers defensive back Anthony Gaitor when asked about the showdown. “Every game that is the next game makes the game special. The record doesn’t matter. Every team is 0-0 when you’re just going on to the next game.

“We’re not worried about that. We’re going to go out there, have fun, play our style of defence, make plays and do what we’ve been doing.”