Bisons look to run wild against Rams

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This article was published 29/10/2024 (660 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What happens when the Manitoba Bisons, owners of the conference’s best rushing attack, and the Regina Rams, who boast the stingiest run defence, lock horns in Canada West university football semifinal action Saturday?

Something has to give.

The 7-1 Bisons, who earned first place in Canada West and the right to host playoff games through to the U Sports national semifinal, are expected to employ their bruising ground game against the Rams, who grabbed fourth place with a 3-5 record.

Game time is 2 p.m. at Princess Auto Stadium.

Breydon Stubbs, who skewered the UBC defence for a career-high 244 yards and four touchdowns in last Saturday’s 51-38 win over the Thunderbirds, is the go-to man but the Bisons also have reserve backs Noah Anderson and Shakur Harris to supply a change of pace.

Stubbs is up to 937 yards in eight games while the Bisons average 252 rushing yards per game.

“I’d say he’s a lot more physical and he’s getting a lot more rushing attempts,” said Bisons QB Jackson Tachinski of Stubbs’ punishing running style. “He’s had a lot more time with the ball in his hands and that’s been allowing him to get into more of a groove.”

Tachinski, a sneaky fast 6-4, 215-pounder, is no slouch in the running department himself. He’s currently fifth in the conference with 570 yards on 71 carries.

“He’s fun to watch as long as you’re not playing him,” said Regina head coach Mark McConkey Tuesday.

The Rams, holding conference opponents to 124.1 rushing yards per game, will counter the Manitoba attack with defensive linemen Tarick Polius, Toryn Swystun-Bernes and Jacob Dakiniewich and star linebacker Cameron Mah.

“They definitely do some different things,” said Tachinski. “They run a lot of three down linemen with a lot of linebackers and secondary, so they can blitz a lot, they can send them back in coverage. They try to mix things up. They try to make you guess every play.”

In their only regular-season meeting on Sept. 28, the Bisons ran for 217 yards, including 121 from Stubbs, in a 22-13 win over the visiting Rams.

“They ran pretty well on us last game and so they got their way the last time we played them,” said McConkey. “(Tachinski) did throw. They’re just well-balanced. They do it all really well.”

Finishing drives Saturday will be an even bigger priority for the hosts.

“We actually had a pretty good day against their defence (on Sept. 28) — we just couldn’t score a lot of points…,” said Tachinski. “The biggest thing for us would be our red-zone offence and trying to be really efficient and trying to get touchdowns all the time. That’s the key for this week.”

The Rams lost starting quarterback Owen Sieben to a concussion in Week 1, replacing him with Noah Pelletier. Pelletier rallied Regina to a 29-22 win over the Alberta Golden Bears last Friday to wrap up a playoff berth while getting a lot of help from running back Christian Katende.

Katende, elevated to a starting role earlier this season, finished with 228 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.

“He’s very physical,” said Bisons defensive co-ordinator Stan Pierre of Katende. “He’s not (star Alberta running back) Matthew Peterson but I see some of the same problems — hard to tackle, gets vertical and he’s shifty in the hole. He’s gonna be a great challenge for our guys for sure.”

Manitoba has some key personnel concerns with the status of injured starting defensive backs Nick Conway and Jake Nitychoruk uncertain for Saturday.

“Listen, do I have confidence in our kids? Absolutely,” said Pierre. “But I’ve been in enough of these games to know, on either side, that anything can happen.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca