Dru Brown will make his third straight start for the Blue Bombers Friday night against the Calgary Stampeders; photos by Cameron Bartlett
We’ve reached the one third mark of the Canadian Football League season and if you were to ask around the Winnipeg Blue Bombers clubhouse for a quick summation of the first six games the answers would be virtually the same.
At 4-2 — and even through a three-game winning streak of late — there’s been some good stuff, some meh periods and some chunks of play which are certainly left to be desired. Or as head coach Mike O’Shea said Thursday in advance of Friday’s home date against the Calgary Stampeders:
“We’re learning. Still trying to become the team we want to become. That’s part of the process and I don’t think that’s different than any other year.”
That’s the thing about the expectations in Bomberland over the last few years which has featured nine consecutive double-digit win seasons, five Grey Cup berths and two championships: the push for more never stops and that means the hard questions are always being asked, even after victory. You see, it’s too easy to settle sometimes.
And as the old saying goes, ‘whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.’
“It’s been a good season so far, but we hold ourselves to a high standard and we know how much more we have to give and how much more potential there is that’s still untapped on this team,” said veteran receiver Nic Demski. “We’re still learning how to play together but here we are a third of the way through the season and now we can’t use that as an excuse or something to hinder what’s going on. We’ve got to come out here and play good Bomber football and get back to our brand, back to our standard and hold ourselves that to us.
“I don’t want to call the down periods hiccups because I don’t think we’ve been playing bad football. It’s just, again, that we have that high standard here. And this is a good team. We love working together and there’s still a lot of great football we still haven’t shown yet.”
Friday night offers an excellent opportunity step to the front of the stage and showcase more of that untapped potential, because the Stamps are asking their own questions after their 2-4 start that features four losses by a combined total of 18 points — including a 30-28 loss to Winnipeg in the season opener.
“That’s a good football team, man,” said Blue Bombers cornerback Jonathan Moxey of the Stamps. “They’ve got tenacity and dogs and grit over there, too. It’s just sometimes in CFL football the ball just doesn’t bounce your way sometimes. I know first game in the season we went over there and got the ‘W’ and now they’re going to come over here and try to do the same thing.
“We’ve got to be on our P’s and Q’s and protect our home turf.”
BLUE BOMBERS (4-2) vs STAMPEDERS (2-4)
Kickoff: Friday, 7:30 p.m. CDT; Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg
TV/Streaming: TSN; RDS2; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB; Play-by-play: Derek Taylor | Analyst: Doug Brown;
Streaks: Wpg.: 3W; Cal: 2L
A win by the Blue Bombers would already secure the season series with Calgary because this is the final matchup between the two clubs in the regular season. Still, it’s July and there is a whole lot of highway left.
“I wouldn’t say you’re thinking about that,” said Demski. “But anytime you’re playing a West team there’s a bit more heaviness to it even though we don’t talk about that stuff. We don’t talk about winning the season series or anything like that, we talk about going 1-0 each week and if that’s where you put your focus, you’re going to have better results rather than thinking about all the other little stuff around it.”
Here’s O’Shea if anyone in the building is on standings-watch thing right now:
“I would say none from the coaching staff; I would hope none from the players. It would be foolish for me to say there isn’t a player that isn’t trying to do some standings math because there’s got to be 70 or whatever number of guys we have and there’s got to be somebody who is doing it.
“But for the most part I really don’t think the vast majority of our guys do not do that — they stay focussed on the task at hand. All the games against Calgary seem to be very, very tight and right down to the wire and if you can spare a few minutes to look somewhere else than rather at your playbook then I think you’re doing your team a disservice.”
All of this isn’t to say the Blue Bombers are unsatisfied at 4-2. They’ve won games with three different quarterbacks at the helm in their four wins — Zach Collaros, Dru Brown and Taylor Elgersma — and have also welcomed a whole pile of new faces to the roster through the first third of the season.
Yet, they do know they’re still light years from their ceiling.
“We’ve shown we’ve got a lot of grit. We had to grind out a win last week and we’ve had some tough games where we had to find a way to win. That’s a good thing to see early on,” said Moxey. “That tenacity and mindset, we’ve all got it. We’re finding ways to win. Everybody has already had an opportunity to showcase why they’re here. We practice so hard, Osh pushes us to high limits, and I think you’re seeing that turn over into the game.
“But in football you never really peak because you’re always going to think you’ve got more left in the tank. There’s always something you can correct, something you can get better at, get a step faster, read your keys quicker… there’s always something. We definitely have room for improvement. We haven’t played our best football yet.”
BIG PLAY V.A.
The volume should probably be cranked up on a narrative that has been far too quiet early in the CFL season: Stampeders QB Vernon Adams, Jr. is a legit Most Outstanding Player candidate, right there with Edmonton’s Justin Rankin, Davis Alexander in Montreal and Saskatchewan’s Trevor Harris.
The veteran Stamps QB has a TD:interception ratio of 17:0 — tying a CFL record to open a season with Ricky Ray and Darian Durant — and has not thrown an interception in his past 243 attempts. His current pace would see him throw for 51 TDs and 6,010 yards.
“What makes Vernon difficult to play against is in his career as a quarterback is he’s been in a bunch of different systems and see a lot of different defences,” explained Blue Bombers defensive end Willie Jefferson. “Right now, he’s playing with a ton of confidence with a good receiving group that, with a bunch of those guys, he’s had in his two years in Calgary. They have a chemistry and he knows how to get the ball to those guys. He’s in a spot now where they believe in him, he knows he can win, and he’s just doing what he does best.
“He’s elevated his game. When he first came into this league and up until a few years ago he was the elusive quarterback, who if he didn’t get to his first or second reads he was going to put his head down and use his legs to get the first down and get out of the pocket to extend the play.
“Now, he’s more confident and calmer in the pocket. He has that expertise and know-how to wait to see if his receivers could maybe get open.”
GETTING BACK THAT ‘O’ MOJO
Given the end result, there was a ton to like about Winnipeg’s 36-34 OT victory in Ottawa last week which included a rally from being down 26-9 in the fourth quarter.
Yet… it also begs the question: where the bleep was that in the first half?
“I wish I knew that. We’re figuring out the same thing,” said receiver Tim White this week with a grin. “How can we get going faster? How can we execute a little bit better in some of these situations — in the screen game, in the deep ball game. We’re trying to figure it out. I think we have the guys to do it. We have the coaches to do it, so I don’t think it’s going to take too much longer.”
A number worth noting: after the Blue Bombers were down 26-9 Brown then completed 14-of-16 for 181 yards and two TDs to get the team to OT.
“I feel like we have a really confident group because in the locker room at halftime it was, ‘All right, we’re going to lock them down and then go and get the win,'” said White. “That’s exactly what we did. It came in the fourth quarter where the targets started coming our way and guys were making plays. You don’t even think about what’s on the scoreboard — obviously, you’re aware of it because that’s what we do — but you’re kind of in flow state and that’s where everybody was. Eventually, it was, ‘All right, the game’s tied, this is exactly where we were’ and it was funny hearing the other team speaking and we were like, ‘We’re about to lock them down.'”
BROWN X3
Friday night will mark the third straight start for Brown, acquired in a trade with Ottawa on June 23rd, as Zach Collaros spends another week on the six-game injured list. Through his two starts, both wins, he has completed 52-of-74 passes (70.3 percent) with three TDs and one interception.
This from a guy who, while familiar with some receivers and offensive coordinator Tommy Condell, has essentially parachuted into the club without the benefit of a full training camp.
“I haven’t really thought about that, to be honest with you,” said Brown to a question from Taylor Allen of the Free Press. “The situation is the situation. I try not to think, ‘Oh man, it would be a lot better if I was here from Day 1’ because that wasn’t in the cards.
“From the time that I’ve been here I’ve tried to communicate and work with those guys pretty relentlessly. We have a great coach and quarterback room that have done a lot of work before I got here and as I’ve got here in getting everyone on the same page.
“I’m pretty happy with where we’re at and just look forward to building with them.”
THE LINEUP: The Blue Bombers have made five changes to the roster for Friday’s game, the biggest being the absence of safety Redha Kramdi, who moves to the six-game injured list.
Kramdi will be replaced by Jake Kelly, with Ethan Ball added to back up that position along with Nick Hallett. Also coming aboard are LB Lane Novak, who has been out since last summer after suffering a knee injury, DT Tanner Schmekel, WR Kevens Clercius and DB Matthew Jackson.
Off, in addition to Kramdi, are DB Ethan Stuart, DE Kydran Jenkins, LB Charles-Elliott Bouliane and WR Joey Corcoran.
The six-game injured list now features Kramdi, QB Zach Collaros, DT Lawson, DB Cam Allen, linebackers Brody Clark, Jaiden Woodbey and Jovan Santos-Knox, defensive lineman De’Shaan Dixon, offensive lineman Micah Vanterpool.
