3 keys to victory

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/10/2010 (5815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

1. STAY COOL, DON’T PRESS AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Meet Alex Brink, the Bombers’ new starting QB — the third this season and fifth in the last two years — who will be asked to breathe life into a 2010 campaign that is perilously close to flat-lining. No pressure or anything, but this is not only Brink’s first start as a pro, but his first since Nov. 23, 2007 and his days as a Washington State Cougar. Asked how he did in that game, Brink said, “Pretty good. I went out on a high note.”

Did he ever. For the record he tossed for 399 yards and five TDs in a 42-35 win over arch-rival Washington, including a 35-yard score in the final minute. The Bombers aren’t asking for those kind of heroics — sure, they’d take them — but simply hope Brink can play the point guard, limit his mistakes and, if the situation merits, make the critical plays.

“I feel comfortable with the offence, I feel comfortable with my reads and the execution. So it’s just a matter of when you see something, go with what you know,” Brink said Friday. “We’re blessed with a great group of receivers and backs and guys who can make plays. I’m comfortable that if I get it in their hands, even in a short-yardage situation, that they’re going to break tackles and make plays. As long as I can distribute the football then I know we can get it done.”

2. TAKE NOTE, BOMBERS: CFL GAMES ARE 60 MINUTES LONG…

Not 58. not 45, not 30. The Bombers have shown flashes this season that tease, including the first half last week in Vancouver in which they built a 10-zip lead by the intermission. But they dozed off in the third and allowed the Lions to claw back into the game and, ultimately, hand the Bombers their eighth loss in the last nine games. Winnipeg has been an awful second-half club this year — they are 0-6 when trailing at halftime and 0-6 when trailing after the third quarter. In fact, The Bombers are just 2-24 when trailing after three quarters since 2008. Translation: they don’t handle adversity well and don’t always protect leads well — and Bomber fans have seen evidence of both this season.

3. MORE ‘SPECIAL’ FROM THE SPECIAL TEAMS

The foot soldiers have been too inconsistent over the last few weeks — giving up a TD to Toronto’s Chad Owens, holding Montreal punt returners to zero total yards on eight returns and then getting stung by the Lions’ Yonus Davis for 121 yards on eight punt returns in the loss last Saturday. Davis, in fact, helped provide the second-half spark that rallied the Lions to victory.

“It’s a funny thing, you sit in the special-teams meetings and it’s, ‘Well, we’re facing another good returner this week.’ That’s the name of the game in this league — every team has a great returner,” said head coach Paul LaPolice. “I’m sure (the Lions) are sitting there saying, ‘Jovon Johnson is a guy we’re going to face…’ We gave up one in Toronto where we just got blocked and this past game the guy shook tackles and made people miss. We gave up too many yards. We minimized him and we have to keep doing our best to minimize him even more.”