No. 2 Dinos take measure of Herd

Bisons QB Cam Clark is hauled down by a Dinosaur defender Saturday afternoon at University Stadium. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

Here's the thing about measuring sticks in football: Used effectively, they can be an excellent gauge of where a squad stands against the elite outfits in the land.

And then there's this: If that elite outfit somehow snatches said measuring stick and turns the thing on their opponent, it can leave some nasty bruises and painful welts.

Just ask the University of Manitoba Bisons, who now have some healing to do in the upcoming days after falling 33-12 to the Calgary Dinos -- the No. 2-ranked team in Canada -- Saturday afternoon at University Stadium in the annual Homecoming Game.

"It was a wake-up call for us," said Bison head coach Brian Dobie. "I think our guys played very emotionally in the first half and it was an ugly first half for both teams.

"But then we saw what a team like Calgary was capable of doing. They're very polished, they're athletically mature and extremely well coached. And in order to match that, as we did in the first half, you've got to rise to that level. We made mistake after mistake in the second half and Calgary minimized their mistakes."

The second-ranked Dinos improve to 3-0 while the Bisons, the only team in the country to face a Top-10 ranked squad in each of their three games, fall to 2-1.

Now, for three quarters the Bisons -- who earlier in the week spoke of wanting to climb into the ring against the dominant Dinos to see how they stacked up -- managed to trade blows with the defending Canada West champs.

The Bisons rallied from a 9-zip first quarter with eight unanswered in the second, the key play an 80-yard Cam Clark-to-Xavier Johnson TD strike that brought a solid crowd of 2,750 to its feet.

But in the second half the Dinos precision passing game, led by quarterback Eric Dzwilewski, was deadly. Dzwilewski finished the day completing 23 of 32 passes for 329 yards, with two TD strikes to Chris Dobko and a third to Jake Harty while also rushing for 55 more yards on just eight carries.

The Dinos also racked up 489 net yards on offence and held a five-minute advantage in time of possession.

Not to be overlooked was the work of Calgary's defence, which threw a lot of blitzes at Clark, sacking him five times, while containing Manitoba's vaunted running game.

Clark was good on 10 of 27 attempts for 211 yards with the one TD toss against three interceptions.

"If we play our game of football, we can compete," said a despondent Clark afterward. "But we can't turn the ball over, that's on me... three turnovers in the second half is just not going to cut it.

"That's the only thing we can do now, bounce back. It sucks right now. But it's a long season and we play them again."

The Bisons do face the Dinos again, but first need to regroup for next Saturday's home date against the Alberta Golden Bears, now 0-3.

"It's still early in the season," said Dobie. "Lesson learned... I hope.

"We'll get back at it. We need to sit back, we need to take in a breath. We need to look at film, the players need to listen to the coaches, come back next week and utilize those mistakes and turn them into productivity.

"I like our guys. I think it's a good team. It's 2-1, it's early in the year. Let's go."

Dinos' head coach Blake Nill indicated afterward he expects to see Manitoba again -- not just in the regular season, but in the playoffs.

"I told my guys in the locker-room that we needed to play the best game we've played in two years," said Nill "I said, 'Right now this could be our toughest game of the season and we need to play our best game.' I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't a matchup we see in the playoffs."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait

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