Seeing red, feeling Blue

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This article was published 11/07/2016 (3373 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The good news is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are getting there. The bad news is the amount of points they’re leaving when they do.

Through the first three weeks of the 2016 season, Winnipeg (1-2) has moved the ball into the red zone — the area between an opponent’s 20 yard-line and the goal line — nine times, tied for third most in the CFL. Four of those times the Bombers have scored touchdowns. They have also fumbled three times, were sacked twice and have committed two turnovers.

Their 44.9 per cent conversion rate is the lowest in the CFL, five per cent less than Hamilton and Calgary, 10 per cent below the league average, and almost half that of Toronto, who leads the nine-league team at 80 per cent.

In a 28-24 win over Hamilton Thursday, Winnipeg went 1-for-4 in the red zone; the lone touchdown to Ryan Smith, who needed a bit of luck to haul in an improbable no-look catch that would stymie even the world’s greatest illusionist.

“We all want to score more points,” head coach Mike O’Shea said after the team’s practice Monday. “I don’t know if you’d be happy if you kicked one field goal. If you’re down there in the red zone you want to score touchdowns.”

It’s hard to put the blame on any one person, said O’Shea. It’s a combination of a number of different components — from reading opposing defences, to quicker decision-making, to overall execution of assignments — that contribute to whether a team is successful or not. “I believe that will come as a process,” he said.

Either way, It’s a staggering result given how many weapons are available on the Bombers’ new-look offence this season, both at receiver and running back, with Andrew Harris arguably the league’s most versatile threat in the backfield.

But even with Harris, Winnipeg has all but abandoned the run game in the red zone. Five of their six total carries on the ground there came in the first two games (two of which were consecutive one-yard pushes at the goal line that ended in a Matt Nichols touchdown). Given the CFL is a three-down game, with fewer chances to convert a first down, it’s not all that surprising to see most plays happen through the air.

What’s more surprising is the inability of quarterback Drew Willy (who is just 7-for-14 in the red zone for a total of 47 yards) when you consider his numbers this season. His 50 per cent completion rate in the red zone is 24 fewer percentage points than his overall mark (74.2) on the year, which ranks second best in the CFL.

Under new offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice, Willy has mostly utilized the short pass — he’s averaging three fewer yards per completion than last year — and has been most effective doing so with a hurry-up offence.

In losses to Montreal and Calgary, Willy completed just three passes crossing the 20-yard mark in each of those games. Against Hamilton, he was good on 32 of his 42 passes. Of those 32 completions, only one — a 40-yard gain to Darvin Adams — travelled more than 20 yards.

“It had to be,” said LaPolice. “Hamilton blitzed us probably more than we’ve seen all three games and more than we’d seen on film. And when they bring more people than you protect, then you have to get the ball out of your hands. And I think Drew once again did a good job with that.”

Given Willy’s quickness with the ball and comfort with the hurry-up offence (two skills often needed to run an effective red-zone offence), it’s hard not to wonder if his results may be a result of lingering rust from having missed 10 months of football with a knee injury.

‘… It’s more of a mindset once you get down there because you’ve made the effort to get there, now it’s important to get into the end zone and get points’– Winnipeg quarterbacks coach Buck Pierce 

In the red zone, Bombers quarterbacks coach Buck Pierce said, it’s more mental than anything.

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“You have to be accurate, you have to be able to execute at a high level,” said Pierce, who played quarterback in the CFL for nine seasons. “But it’s more of a mindset once you get down there because you’ve made the effort to get there, now it’s important to get into the end zone and get points.”

LaPolice said it hasn’t been for a lack of trying, and believes with a healthy offence it should just be a matter of time before things start clicking.

“We’ve spent more red zone time this year than I have ever before in my career,” he said. “When you get your opportunities you just need to make the plays down there.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.