Harris on a mission this season

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This article was published 20/07/2018 (2636 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Andrew Harris led the CFL in rushing last season with 1,035 yards. He also rewrote history by registering 105 receptions, the most of any tailback in a season.

Despite the belief that at 31 years old he would be hard-pressed to top that kind of production in 2018, Harris seems on a mission to lead the CFL’s ground game for a second straight year. If successful, he’d be the first Bomber to do so since Charlie Roberts in 2005-06.

Through five games, Harris leads the league with 449 rushing yards — 53 more than the Calgary Stampeders’ Don Jackson — and is on pace to hit 1,616 yards by year’s end. His average of 6.6 yards per carry is also a career-best.

“He’s such a relentless, dynamic player, where he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t go down on first contact,” Bombers left guard Patrick Neufeld said. “You’ve seen time after time when there’s guys wrapping up on him, he keeps his feet going and we get an extra four or five yards. He just has a nose for the end zone. He just gets the ball in the end zone. He’s a tough dude, a tremendous leader on our team, by way of example on the field and vocally.”

Winnipeg is averaging a whopping 171.1 rushing yards per game — the highest rushing average of any club since 1991 — and its 6.7 yards per carry, if maintained, would be the best in CFL history.

FEEDING THE TROOPS: besides Harris, there hasn’t been a whole lot of consistent production from the star members in the offence.

Darvin Adams leads all receivers with 245 yards on 13 catches but has just two touchdowns. Weston Dressler and Nic Demski each have a team-high 18 catches, but have registered a mere 202 and 123 yards, respectively, with a combined two touchdowns. Drew Wolitarsky, who has just eight receptions for 136 yards, leads the way with three scores. And Adarius Bowman is without a touchdown so far, reeling in nine catches for 95 yards.

That doesn’t appear to be a problem, however, according to quarterback Matt Nichols, who dismissed questions about his own personal challenge with feeding so many key players in the lineup.

“It’s honestly not a thing that we worry about here. I think we have veteran guys that have done great things in their careers and, obviously are very dynamic. But everyone also is friends with one another and wants the other guy to do well, also,” Nichols said. “Everyone in our unit, they want to do whatever it takes to win the football game and I don’t think anyone has any kind of selfish feelings on wishing they had the ball more or whatever. For us, we just want to win football games, so no one cares about stats or catches or touchdowns or anything like that. We’re just trying to win.”

CHANGE OF SCENERY: Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea played 12 of his 16 CFL seasons with the Toronto Argonauts, winning three Grey Cups (1996, 1997 and 2004) over that stretch and capturing a fourth title as the special teams coach in 2012.

O’Shea has witnessed a lot of change for the football team over the last two decades, but nothing has been more stark than the how much the city has grown.

“The first time I would have played at the Rogers Centre — the Skydome at the time — you would turn the corner on the highway way the heck down there and you’d see the roof from 20 miles away and now you can’t see it until you basically drive up onto it,” O’Shea said. “The cityscape has definitely changed. The football side, there’s still a number of diehard Argo fans and historically it’s such a proud franchise, the oldest pro franchise in North America — 140-odd years and lots of championships, including the one last year.”

There’s something about people’s knowledge and love of the Argos here in town, but sometimes it gets drowned out with a lot of other noise around it.

ISSUES IN THE END ZONE: BMO Field has one glaring weakness and this time we’re not talking about the team that plays on it every other week. With the whole field made up of mostly natural grass, it’s hard not to notice the north end zone covered in artificial turf.

For a professional sports league, having such a discrepancy is not only dangerous but truly bush league. And players agree.

“It’s pretty much carpet. They call it turf, but it’s pretty much carpet,” Bombers receiver Weston Dressler said. “I don’t think there’s any shoe in the world that you could wear on that and on the grass that’s gonna be good for both.”

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie has addressed the issue with the team but has yet to come up with a way to fix it.

“I don’t know what the circumstances are or fully understand why it has to be like that, but it could be better,” Dressler said.

INJURY UPDATE: Bombers strong-side linebacker Chandler Fenner will miss a second straight game with a lower-body injury. Fenner seemed to be close to returning to the lineup for last week’s game against the B.C. Lions.

Maurice Leggett is expected to once again fill in for Fenner.

Defensive back Brandon Alexander will draw back into the lineup after missing the last three games but isn’t set to return to his starting halfback position.

Running back Kienan LaFrance, who missed last game with a lower-body injury, will also play against the Argonauts.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton