Turnovers tell the tale

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This article was published 04/10/2016 (3293 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One could come up with a number of reasons why the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have lost back-to-back games after posting seven successive wins: undisciplined special teams, an inconsist offence, or a defence that has surrendered too many yards and points, to name a few.

But of all the troubling signs the Bombers have shown in recent weeks, there appears to a common theme to their losses — losing the turnover battle.

When the Bombers commit fewer turnovers than their opponent in a game they’re 8-1. When they are tied or have more, they’re 0-5.

Simply put, when the Bombers are creating more turnovers than their opponent they win games. When they aren’t, well, they lose, as they have the past two weeks to the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders, and earlier in the year when they started the season 1-4.

“It’s momentum,” said Bombers defensive back Kevin Fogg following Tuesday’s practice at Investors Group Field. “If a team can get momentum through a turnover, or through a stop on downs it’s a huge momentum shift.

“It all plays hand in hand,” added Fogg. “We have to do our part defensively and stop them and get turnovers and the offence has to do their part.”

When both sides are doing their part — the defence creating turnovers, the offence turning those into points — the Bombers have been near unstoppable.

In their seven-game winning streak the Bombers forced an incredible 29 turnovers, including 27 by the defence (17 interceptions, 10 fumble recoveries), while giving up only five.

In four of those games, Winnipeg didn’t have a single giveaway. In a stretch of three games they combined for 18 takeaways, forcing six turnovers in each those games. Not once did they give up more than two.

The offence, led by quarterback Matt Nichols, has done a good job protecting the ball. Nichols has proven his ability to make smart decisions, throwing just three interceptions in his nine starts, and has thrown for 12 touchdowns.

Winnipeg leads the CFL in turnovers (45) and in turnover ratio (plus-24). The Bombers also lead the league in points off turnovers with 120, 20 more than second-place Hamilton.

As much as the offence deserves credit for capitalizing on those turnovers, it’s often been the defence pulling double duty — forcing the turnover and returning the ball for a touchdown. In total, the defence has scored five touchdowns on turnovers this year.

It’s not just how many turnovers the defence has forced, or whether it’s returned them to the house, but when it has managed to take the ball away, too.

Against Hamilton in Week 7 it was C.J. Roberts who set the tone early, intercepting a Jeremiah Masoli pass before returning it for a touchdown less than two minutes into the game. The next week in Toronto it was Maurice Leggett who, after the Bombers had already intercepted twice, ended any chance of a comeback for the home side when he returned an interception 98 yards for the score — one of his two picks in the game.

When the Bombers were clinging to a 22-19 lead late in the fourth quarter in the Labour Day Classic against Saskatchewan, Johnny Adams came up with an interception which led to a field goal. When Riders quarterback Darian Durant marched down the field on the ensuing drive, making it down to the Bombers’ 13-yard line, it was once again Roberts who stepped in front of a pass to get the ball back.

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“Definitely we need to be great,” said Bombers defensive tackle Euclid Cummings. “That’s what we were doing when we had our stretch; we had multiple games where we had as many as six turnovers and we were making things happen. So, yeah, we have to be great.”

It’s no secret the Bombers’ capacity to create turnovers has played a big role in the team’s success this season. Their ability to come up with the big play has negated the fact they average a league-worst 407 yards per game of net offence.

It’s a prowess Winnipeg must re-establish if they hope to be successful down the stretch, particularly against a B.C. Lions team they face in a home-and-home series the next two weeks. Similar to the Bombers, the Lions are 5-0 when winning the turnover battle.

“It’s really going to come down to just who plays a smarter game… and obviously taking care of the football has been a big thing for us — the turnover ratio,” said Nichols. “That’s a part of the game we got to win.”

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.