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No. 2 QB Alex Brink was taken by surprise at the end of Saturday�s workout. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS archives No. 3 quarterback Joey Elliott gets the call for Thursday night�s home game against Hamilton.

Apply enough pressure to the situation and something is going to give.

On Saturday, that something was Alex Brink.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced Joey Elliott -- the No. 3 man on the quarterback depth chart at the beginning of the season -- will get the start when the club hosts the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Canad Inns Stadium Thursday. Elliott takes over from Brink, who was lifted from the position after the coaching staff had a bye week's worth of time to review tape and evaluate his performance through three starts in 2012 and some injury replacement duty.

"During the bye I watched every throw from pre-season and we want to see what Joey can do," head coach Paul LaPolice said. "Alex has done OK, but we want to see if a change helps us in our pass game.

"Again, it's my fault. All of this is my fault. I'm not placing blame anywhere but squarely on me, but we want to see how this change works."

Change was needed. That was the official line from the coach, but make no mistake: This move arrives with the stench of desperation and anxiety in the air. Winnipeg has one win in six games and has been vanilla pudding on offence, scoring a league-low 127 points in those games (21 points per game) and sitting near the bottom of most offensive categories.

Someone had to take the fall for this bland reality, and the lowest rung in the chain of command starts at the quarterback.

Understandably, given his progression over his three starts, Brink was hit harder than a helmet shot to his own grille by Montreal's Rod Davis when informed of the switch. He was bitter at the demotion, and felt a little blindsided when he got word.

"Obviously, it's disappointing," he said. "It's every kid's dream to be the starting quarterback for a professional football team and it's frustrating when that gets taken away from you."

Amazingly, he was the last one to find out about his benching. The club sent out a note via social media as the players practised Saturday, and Brink only was told of the decision after the workout.

"Coach made a decision to go in a different direction based on where we are at as team," the third-year pivot said. "I've played this position a long time. Part of playing quarterback is that you get a lot more credit than you deserve and you get a lot more blame sometimes."

On the flip side, Elliott, also in his third year with the Blue and Gold, was tickled pick to hear of his promotion.

"It's an opportunity," the 26-year-old said. "That's all you want as a quarterback, to be able to go out and compete and hopefully we can get us a win. Offensively, we're doing pretty well. We just have to find a way to win.

"My name got called this week. Who knows? It could be his next week. You just never know."

Filling in for an injured Buck Pierce (who is still at least a week away with a left-foot injury, the club says), Brink went 60-of-111 for 790 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions in his three starts this year, and judging by the numbers, he was improving each time out.

His 25-of-39 passing for 311 yards and two touchdowns against Montreal Aug. 3 was a major improvement over his 9-of-24 for 185 yards and two interception performance against Toronto July 18 -- his first start of the season.

Following each Brink start, coaches said they were pleased with decision-making, writing off most of his errors in reads or execution as understandable shortcomings of a young CFL pivot. Success was being planted; even Brink thought he was starting to germinate.

"It's natural as a young player that every opportunity you get you get a little bit better," he said. "There are always ups and downs. You can look across this league for probably the last 20, 30, 100 years it's been around: Growth at the quarterback position takes some time. So yeah, I felt I was growing.

"When things aren't going well... change gets made."

And there you go, the first chapter, straight from the 'struggling team' handbook: Nothing was stirring within the Bombers offence, so a shakeup at quarterback was made at the exact a time when wins are needed the most.

No pressure, Joey.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @wazoowazny

Sputtering offence

was due for change

A sputtering offence? A team that has scored a CFL-low 127 points in six games? An absence of wins?

With starter Buck Pierce still recovering from a foot injury, the Bombers announced No. 3 quarterback Joey Elliott will get Thursday's start over Alex Brink, the second-stringer who has started the last three games. Elliott only has a pair of CFL starts on his resumé and hasn't played much football of late, suffering a torn ACL in a game against Calgary last season. He's only thrown 109 balls in his three-year CFL career (compared to the 339 attempts by Brink), but the coaching staff loves his confidence, anticipation in the pocket, accuracy, and ability to make good decisions -- positive traits to his game hedged against the fact he hasn't played much.

Funny, weren't they saying those same things about Brink?

Elliott's most recent action: He went 11-of-18 for 193 yards in mop-up duty in a blowout loss to Edmonton last month. He might not have the mobility of a Pierce or a Brink, but he stands tall in the pocket and has a good understanding of where the heat is coming from.

Head coach Paul LaPolice's move to Elliott at this juncture, with the Bombers desperate for a win, harkens Blue historians back to 2010, when the club was going through similar offensive struggles with Steven Jyles at the controls. While his numbers that year weren't terrible, the club was unable to put points on the board consistently and Jyles couldn't find the right formula for wins.

Needing some optimism, LaPolice turned to an inexperienced Brink for the Thanksgiving Day game against B.C., and the crowd promptly booed him off the field after he started the game 4-of-18 for 61 yards. LaPolice eventually pulled the rookie later in the game, and Jyles led the Bombers to a 47-35 overtime win.

Of course, Elliott, who's in his third CFL season, has a little more experience than Brink had at the time, and could be the missing ingredient to a Winnipeg team in need of some flavour. But still, the situations that surrounded the Bombers in 2010 and at this current time are eerily similar.

"Bottom line, we have to score points. We have to put ourselves in position to get downfield and score touchdowns." That's a quote from LaPolice from Saturday's post-practice scrum. Here's a quote from the coach after he announced the Brink-for-Jyles switch:

"We have to find ways to score more points... that's why we made the change."

Eerily similar, indeed.

-- Wazny

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 12, 2012 B3