Winning return for new Blue OC LaPolice

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This article was published 09/06/2016 (3406 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It had been six years since the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had won a pre-season game at home.

Making his CFL head-coaching debut, Paul LaPolice led Winnipeg to a 34-10 win over the Montreal Alouettes at Canad Inns Stadium back on June 13, 2010. Two-and-a-half years later, following a 2-6 start to the 2012 season, he was fired.

On Wednesday, LaPolice was back, this time in his debut as the Bombers’ new offensive co-ordinator where he helped snap the six-year drought with a 36-13 pre-season opener win against those same Alouettes at Investors Group Field.

It was a successful return for LaPolice, the kind of performance the Bombers brass envisioned when they inked him to a deal in the off-season and then surrounded him with new talent.

Dressed in the team’s new royal blue and gold colours, LaPolice paced up and down the sidelines, implementing a scheme that seemed to expose every area of Montreal’s defence. Running backs found holes, and quarterbacks were hitting open receivers in the secondary for big plays. The Bombers put up 400 yards of offence: 222 in the air, while adding another 178 on the ground.

As much as the return of LaPolice represented a change from past results, it also marked promise for the future of the Bombers offence.

“I think when we watch that film we’re going to have more gamers than maybe we’ve had,” said Bombers coach Mike O’Shea.

Though celebration for LaPolice may be premature at this point — after all, it was the pre-season, and most of the points were scored after Montreal’s first-team defence had already left the game — the early signs are encouraging for a team desperate to improve in this area.

Last season, under OC Marcel Bellefeuelle, the Bombers had the league’s worst offence, finishing last in almost every category, league statistics show. As O’Shea alluded to in his post-game interview, the Bombers needed to find some players capable of getting the ball down the field.

To show just how serious they were about improving the offence, Winnipeg spent most of the off-season dedicated to implementing a major overhaul. The team dropped Nick Moore and Clarence Denmark, two receivers who were respected but often underachieved, and replaced them with Weston Dressler and Ryan Smith, two guys known for their tireless work ethic. Fans got a glimpse of Smith’s skill set — his quick feet and sure hands — Wednesday when he dazzled an opposing corner before reeling in a 32-yard catch.

“We’ve been working hard through training camp to get to where we are, and it’s coming along really well,” said Smith.

They brought in running back Andrew Harris, a hometown guy, who, in his limited reps against the Als has already shown signs of being that dynamic backfield threat the Bombers have been craving for years.

Late in the first quarter, Harris broke three tackles for a 40-yard TD catch-and-run, a play that would still be showing on highlight-reels across the country had a penalty not reduced it instead to a 16-yard gain.

“They got a taste of what I can do out of the backfield,” said Harris, who then when asked about an element of the team’s struggles moving the ball last season said, “This is a new year, new team.”

Drew Willy, the team’s starting quarterback, has talked in detail about the creativity of LaPolice’s playbook. He admitted not everything has gone perfectly – the first-team offence accounted for just three of the Bombers’ 36 points on Wednesday — and that there are still some kinks to be worked out but he also noted since it’s still pre-season the team is limiting what they’re showing the opponent.

Which, in a way, makes Wednesday’s game all that much more impressive; that the number of players in the second and third team offences, many of whom haven’t been getting the same kind of meaningful reps as the first-team through training camp, have also managed to shine.

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Players such as Fred Williams, who hauled in a Bryan Bennett pass from 28 yards out for a touchdown and Timothy Flanders, who led all running backs with 80 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown.

“I love it,” said Flanders of the playbook. “From what I’ve seen so far, I’m excited for the season to start.”

The focus now shifts to Ottawa, where the Bombers will take on the Redblacks Monday in their final pre-season tilt before the regular season begins June 24 in a rematch against Montreal. Harris expects the offence to be even better than on Wednesday, knowing well that if that happens the result will likely remain the same.

“This is what this city needs, it’s what this club needs and I’ve been telling the guys to get used to this,” he said. “The feeling of winning is something you need to get used to and you got to understand how to do it and appreciate it. Even if it’s just pre-season, you can’t overlook that.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.catwitter: @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.