D-line might be minus Brown and Smith against B.C.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/08/2011 (5206 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT sounds like there’s a good chance the Bombers will be missing both of their starting defensive tackles when the club takes on the B.C. Lions in Vancouver on Saturday.

Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice said Saturday that defensive tackle Dorian Smith suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Bombers 28-16 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos at Canad Inns Stadium Friday night.

LaPolice said Smith’s injury is not as severe as the high ankle sprain defensive back Johnny Sears suffered in pre-season that has kept him out of the lineup the last six weeks, but said it’s too early to tell how long Smith might be out.

LaPolice was also noncommittal on the return of Doug Brown, who missed the Eskimos game with a foot injury. But Brown made some comments in an interview Friday night that seemed to suggest he might miss the B.C. game too.

“I don’t want to miss those Vancouver games — especially because I have a niece and nephew out there to visit,” Brown said. “But I’ve got to do what’s right in the long term interest of the injury. Haste isn’t helpful with injuries like this sometimes.”

The Bombers get a bye week after the B.C. game and do not return to the field until Aug. 26, which would give Brown plenty of time to heal.

Smith did not play the second half against Edmonton and the Bombers were forced to use backups Bryant Turner and Don Oramasionwu on the interior line in place of Smith and Brown, but still managed to limit Edmonton to just 29 yards rushing in the second half.

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Speaking of Brown, the veteran lineman was asked if it was hard to watch from the sidelines on Friday night.

“It makes it a lot easier to watch when guys play inspired like that and get after it like that,” Brown said of his teammates on the Bombers defence, who held the top-rated offence in the CFL to just five points through the final three quarters.

“The first person who coined the phrase, ‘lights-out defence’ — that’s exactly what they meant. They turned the lights out, kicked everybody out of the room and had their own little party. That was unbelievable,” Brown said.

“To do that to a 5-0 team is a feat in itself. That’s incredible.”

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Winnipeg has, at least for the moment, the best football team in Canada.

And after two ear-splitting sellout crowds in a row, LaPolice ventured that Winnipeg might now officially also have the loudest fans in the country.

“I used to say, ‘Let’s make this place the second loudest in the CFL’ to give (Saskatchewan) their props,” LaPolice said Saturday. “But now, the way we’ve sold out our last two games and how loud it’s been — we can be as loud as anywhere in the league. That’s a tribute to the fans.”

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The Bombers organization will be paying respects and seeking at least the beginnings of some closure at a service today for the late Richard Harris.

The Bombers assistant head coach died suddenly of a heart attack on July 26 and a service is scheduled for him today at 2 p.m. at Immanuel Pentecostal Church, 955 Wilkes Ave. The Bombers have announced they will stream a webcast of the service on the team’s website at bluebombers.com.

“It will bring up some moments again,” said LaPolice, “but it’s needed. We need to honour him as much as we can, but we also have to move on.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca