Coach will keep tabs on players’ effort

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This article was published 30/10/2014 (4051 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE game might be meaningless in the league standings, but this Saturday’s contest between the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Calgary Stampeders isn’t meaningless to Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea.

O’Shea said Wednesday he will be watching carefully this week to see if any of his players put forward less than a maximum effort. Indeed, O’Shea suggested he’s more interested this week in who plays poorly than who plays well in a game that means nothing to a Bombers team that’s been eliminated from playoff contention.

“I believe you measure it in a way that if there are players who don’t show up for that game, then maybe that is more of a measurement,” O’Shea said Wednesday following his club’s next to last full practice at Investors Group Field this season.

“They need to come and play…If we’ve got the right group of guys who love to play football, then this is another opportunity for them to do what they love to do.”

The Stampeders, who clinched first place in the West Division two weeks ago, also have little to play for Saturday but have still been annointed 10-point favourites to beat the Bombers, who haven’t won at McMahon Stadium since 2002.

Willy’s the one

O’SHEA says voters casting their ballots this week for his team’s Most Outstanding Player in 2014 have a no-brainer decision to make.

“I think that’s an easy choice — I think it’s Drew Willy. He’s thrown for almost 4,000 yards and he missed a game. So if he (plays) that game, he probably throws for over 4,000. And he won us a bunch of games early.”

Willy’s 3,747 passing yards this season are currently second only to the 4,386 yards put up by veteran Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray and there was a short period early this season in which Willy was in the conversation to be considered the Most Outstanding Player in the CFL this year.

But after a blistering 5-1 start to the 2014 season for the Bombers in which Willy orchestrated late fourth-quarter comebacks on three separate occasions, the first-year Bombers starter has stumbled down the stretch like the rest of his team and heads into the final week of the regular season with a dismal 14:16 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

The Bombers are suffering through an eight-game losing streak and registering a victory in their final game of 2014 would provide some consolation.

Media and coaches are voting across the CFL this week for the MOP of each of the league’s nine CFL teams, as well as in five other categories: outstanding defensive player, outstanding special teams player, outstanding lineman, outstanding rookie and outstanding Canadian.

— Wiecek