Owie factor
OG Matt Sheridan still can't play on his tender groin, C Dominic Picard (high ankle sprain) is out and Winnipeg head coach Doug Berry says SB Milt Stegall's "right on schedule. We still fully expect him to probably be ready for the B.C. game (Friday, July 11, Canad Inns Stadium)."
Doing the Khan-Khan
Berry conceded that C Obby Khan could return to the lineup before Picard. Khan's at about 281 pounds now but loses huge amounts of water following the removal of his large intestine, so they need to build up his weight slowly to 290-295.
1,000-yard man?
"He'd love to be a 1,000-yard receiver and you look at his numbers and say well, he caught 55 yards last week...if you multiply that by 18 that puts him at 990. So he's very capable of being a 1,000-yard receiver for us." -- Berry on Arjei Franklin.
Chris Cariou thinks you should know...
Calvillo finds his rhythm
DOUG Berry says he can tell that Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo is in a groove and that's troublesome news for his Blue Bombers heading into Friday night's game against the Alouettes.
Few coaches in the CFL know Calvillo as well as Berry, who coached him for several years in Montreal before joining the Bombers. And what he sees out of A.C. is a rhythm that will be hard to defend against.
"You try to get to him in pass rush and fluster him but I don't really know," Berry said following Wednesday's final practice before the team departed this morning for Montreal hoping.
"I really think he's very comfortable with what's going on for him. I don't think it's easy to disrupt that rhythm, especially when he's getting his reads and going to the right receivers with the ball.
"I can tell he's in a synch. I see it in the film."
Easy to be hard
The Bombers were last in the CFL in 2007 with only 10 interceptions and they dropped several possible picks in last week's 23-16 loss to the Toronto Argonauts. But LB Ike Charlton, a former CB, says that will change.
"We were in position to make the play and that's a good thing," he said. "The negative thing is that we didn't finish it. You always want to finish it and we didn't finish those opportunities to get those INTs."
Charlton says sometimes, it's almost too easy to make a play, which... makes it harder.
"A lot of times, you think too much," he said. "You can be in great coverage and you're downfield and you make the miraculous catch or whatever... but the easy ones when you break on the football and there's nobody in front of you, those are the hard ones.
"Those are the ones where you've really got to concentrate and squeeze that football. You get a little happy, you get excited, and that's what happened with Cam (Hall). He broke on the football so great and it's a touchdown all day long.
"It's just like a wide receiver dropping an 80-yard bomb when he's wide open because it's easy... The hard ones you catch and the easy ones you're fumbling the ball. We'll get it done. We will make those plays."
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