Meaningless game means a lot to Bombers

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Win, lose or draw on Saturday afternoon the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats both know what they’ll be up to next week when preparations for the Grey Cup playoffs begin.

The Bombers, 7-10, will begin readying for the Edmonton Eskimos and the East Division Semifinal while the Ticats, 3-14, will start bracing for another offseason of change.

But don’t call their regular-season finale at Canad Inns Stadium Saturday afternoon a meaningless affair, even though it has no impact on the East Division standings.

“It’s not a meaningless game,” said Bomber quarterback Kevin Glenn. “It’s the last game of the season, it’s in front of our home crowd in our back yard and it’s against a team that should have a better record than they’ve shown. You see a lot of promise in that group. They’re going to come out and play a good football game and we’re going to have to match it in order for us to keep our momentum going into the playoffs. That’s what you want, it’s all about momentum at this time of the season.

“Some people may say that they don’t have anything to play for, but they do. They just announced that Marcel (Bellefeuille) is no longer just the ‘interim’ head coach coach and so guys are going to go out there and try to earn jobs for next season.”

Glenn is expected to only play a half or so as head coach Doug Berry wants his QB to keep his rhythm but also take another look at Bryan Randall, who moves up to second on the depth chart with the ankle injury to Ryan Dinwiddie. The Bombers have a slightly different offensive package for Randall, the former Virginia Tech star who is much more mobile than Glenn or Dinwiddie.

“This will be valuable playing time for me,” said Randall. “Now that I’ve assumed the back-up role anything I can get is going to be special. If it ever happens that I get into a game later on in the season I need to be ready.

“There’s no experience like game experience. Any time you get out there on the field it’s totally different from practice. You’re going to make mistakes, but you learn a lot from those mistakes in game experience. You see these quarterbacks that have been in this league for 10 years… they’ve learned so much and you can always learn something even after 10 years.”

The Bombers will be making seven lineup changes for the game, adding QB Timmy Chang for Ryan Dinwiddie; cornerback Robert Bean for Willie Amos; defensive back Willie Byrd for Kelly Malveaux; returner Casey McGahee for Jason Armstead; receiver Kerry Johnson for Terrence Edwards; defensive back Marc Beswick for Michael Roberts and running back Fred Reid for Joe Smith.

The game will also serve as a chance for the Bombers and their fans to salute the Canadian Forces, whose families will be guests of the football club. There will be a Canadian Forces obstacle challenge at halftime and two fly-bys before the game.