Dru Brown starts again for the Blue Bombers Thursday night against the B.C. Lions; photos by Cameron Bartlett
We’re seven games into the Canadian Football League season and in the search for the best overall description of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — an up and down 4-3 through the first chunk of the year — yours truly keeps coming back to a quote from a dozen years ago by Gennaro Gattuso.
Gattuso, then coaching Greek soccer club OFI Crete, offered this simple answer about his team:
“Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe s–t.”
Now, there has been a lot of good through the Blue Bombers four victories, the wins coming with three different quarterbacks at the controls in decisive moments in Zach Collaros, Taylor Elgersma and Dru Brown.
There have been moments of brilliance from the offence, the defence and special teams and the roster has also undergone more change than you may think, with Thursday’s lineup featuring four first-year starters and four more starters new to the club.
Yet, last week’s 52-30 loss to the Calgary Stampeders — that coming in the wake of a sloppy OT victory over the Ottawa RedBlacks — also has everyone in Bomberland agreeing this team needs to start playing closer to its ceiling than hovering around its floor.
“I really truly just want to win football games so, when it comes to last week… we didn’t get the job done. We didn’t do enough to win that game. We made way too many mistakes,” said running back Brady Oliveira, who had 14 carries for 128 yards and two touchdowns in the loss, after Wednesday’s walk-through practice.
“For me moving forward after looking at last week, what motivates me from last week is we didn’t get the job done. So, how can I be better? How can we be better as a group so that when we get out there for our next opportunity we can be better and hopefully walk away with a better result.
“… Short week, which is amazing — I love short weeks — and this gives us another opportunity to go out there and respond quickly.”
BLUE BOMBERS (4-3) vs LIONS (1-5)
Kickoff: Thursday, 7:30 p.m. CDT; Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg
TV/Streaming: TSN; RDS; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB; Play-by-play: Derek Taylor | Analyst: Doug Brown;
Streaks: Wpg.: 1L; B.C.: 2L
Game themes: 90s Night/25k sunglasses giveaway/Adam Bighill tribute/Cal Murphy added to Ring of Honour/Post-game fireworks
The Blue Bombers are facing a Lions squad that desperately misses all-star QB Nathan Rourke and will roll with rookie Kaidon Salter, who replaces Chase Brice.
No one in blue and gold is licking their chops at facing a rookie pivot — we broached that subject in this week’s 48-Hour Primer, ICYMI — but the Lions will also be without running back James Butler, veteran DB T.J. Lee and offensive tackle Joshua Donovan.
B.C.’s roster shuffles, in reality, have little to do with what the Blue Bombers have facing them Thursday night. The taste from last week’s loss may linger, but it’s time to dine again.
“Last week is in the rear-view mirror. No matter how you played last week you want to play well this week,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “You’d hope that that performance isn’t necessarily lingering to the point where they’re distracted by it. You’ve got to move forward, and you’ve got to prepare against a different opponent that presents different challenges; you’ve got to be laser-focussed on that task at hand.
“Does it provide a little bit of fuel or juice during the week? Maybe, but we’re on a short week and we’re just trying to keep them fresh and get through it and not trying to dwell on it, for sure.”
A result would also push the Blue Bombers a full eight points ahead of the Lions as the club heads into next week’s bye week before returning for another home game against the Ottawa RedBlacks.
So, call this one a response game and a chance to change the ‘sometimes maybe good; sometimes maybe s–t’ narrative.
“That’s one thing I love about this sport — you always remember the losses and what you could have done better,” said veteran defensive back Deatrick Nichols. “In a win you can sometimes just brush it off with, ‘OK, I did my job’ and not really be looking at the weaknesses on film.
“You never want to lose and, of course, especially when somebody puts 50 on you like last game. This game comes after a loss so we should have, we’re going to have, that energy to play better, faster and do our job.”
PROTECT HOME TURF
It’s time for the Blue Bombers to re-establish Princess Auto Stadium as the CFL’s toughest neighbourhood. Winnipeg had the best home record in the league last year at 7-2 and heading into the season had been 56-14 in their own back yard since the start of 2017.
Yet, through four home dates this year the Blue Bombers are just 1-3 and those three defeats include a 10-point loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the home opener and last week’s 52-30 loss to the Stamps. Critical to that have been slow starts and the fact that in each of the four home games Winnipeg has lost the turnover differential with that number an ugly -7 overall.
“We have to execute better; we have to execute better in all phases — special teams, defence, offence,” said veteran guard Pat Neufeld. “Offence, especially, we’ve got to get the ball in the end zone better, we’ve got to protect the football better and then that allows the crowd to be what the crowd they want to be.
“We’ve got to get momentum on our side and get things rolling. To me, again, it comes back to execution. You can draw up all the plays you want but if you don’t execute, you’re not going to get anything.
“We’ve got the best fans,” Neufeld added, “and we’ve got to make sure they’re into it at the start and that makes this an incredibly tough place to play. We’ve got to get back to protecting that.”
STARTING BLOCK WOES
Some telling numbers that scream out about the Blue Bombers slow starts out of the starting blocks so far this season:
The Blue Bombers have led just once at halftime through their first seven games, have trailed four times after the first quarter and five times after the third quarter.
That’s a lot of numbers, but the race looks much different from a trail position than from the pole.
“It changes what you do,” said receiver Tim White. “If you’re down by a lot then you’re typically into a faster tempo which can get you into a rhythm. But we’ve just got to execute early, especially when we get into the red zone. When we get there, the energy needs to go up.
“… We see sparks, but it comes down to us getting everything clicking. We see Pokey (Wilson) taking a jet sweep for a touchdown, we see me on a slant, you’ve got Nic Demski catching a screen and Brady (Oliveira) on a 45-yard run.
“So, it’s like, ‘OK, let’s put all that together’ and once those things are all clicking, we’ll be good.”
BULLY BALL
This is the most talked about narrative all week in Bomberland, whether we call it finding an offensive identity, cleaning up the turnovers or stopping the assignment mistakes on offence.
But so much of what the Blue Bombers have done well over the years has been about establishing the offensive line of scrimmage, getting out in front early, and then bullying teams and working the clock late in games.
Just to repeat this nugget — Oliveira’s 45-yard TD run against the Stamps came with less than a minute left in the third quarter. His next touch came with less than a minute left in the game.
For the record, Oliveira has 551 yards on 93 carries through seven games this year and last year he had 413 yards on 82 carries in his first seven appearances. Of note, he did play only one series in last year’s season opener before leaving due to injury, so that does skew his rushing totals.
What is also noticeable is his drop in receiving production. Through seven games a year ago Oliveira had 27 receptions for 277 yards, including a 100-yard receiving effort. He has had just four catches in his last four games and 19 overall this year.
THE LINEUP: The Blue Bombers have made two changes to the roster for Thursday’s game with Micah Vanterpool starting at right tackle for Jarell Broxton, who left last week’s game due to injury, and DB/LB Jaiden Woodbey returning in place of DB Matthew Jackson.
Broxton was ‘close’ according to O’Shea and has been placed on the one-game injured list. The six-game features safety Redha Kramdi, QB Zach Collaros, DT Cam Lawson, DB Cam Allen, linebackers Brody Clark and Jovan Santos-Knox and defensive lineman De’Shaan Dixon.
