Offensive upgrade needed

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This article was published 25/08/2021 (1477 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 2-1 Blue Bombers badly need to upgrade their offence if they plan to add a win to their total in Sunday’s Week 4 meeting with the 1-2 Calgary Stampeders.

Winnipeg, 30-23 losers to the hometown Toronto Argonauts in Week 3, was flattered by the score.

The Argos dominated in time of possession (39:46-20:14) and controlled the game with a 27-12 edge in first downs and held the Bombers’ once vaunted running game to a meagre 32 yards.

Toronto, meanwhile, piled up 149 yards on the ground out of its total of 459.

“Credit to Toronto,” said veteran Bombers offensive lineman Pat Neufeld after Wednesday’s practice. “Their D co-ordinator and the players they have obviously executed their game plan, which was to take away the things we do well and kind of flattened us out in the run game a bit.

“But we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as an offensive lineman… We look more inward and we have to do a better job of being physical and sticking on our blocks and finding the right guys to block so we can get the run game cracking.”

Quarterback Zach Collaros, who lost for the first time in seven starts since being acquired from Toronto in October of 2019, said the poor offensive production didn’t have a specific cause.

“It was a combination of things,” said Collaros. “Obviously before the game one of our main goals was to… stay on the field and get first downs (and) be efficient on first down so you can make it second-and-manageable situations, right? And we just didn’t do a good enough job of being productive on first down. That starts with the quarterback. I have to throw more accurate passes (and) get us into the right looks for certain things.”

Winnipeg’s offence started Week 3 with two-and-outs on their first and third possessions. A second drive was snuffed out with an interception on the second play.

“You can’t let those things compound into something worse… and so it’s something that we’ll learn from,” said Collaros. “Obviously, you never want to start a game with with three or four two-and-outs and have as many two-and-outs as we did. So, if that does happen… we can’t get frustrated about it.

“We have to get back to the bench and (decide), ‘What’s our next first down call? What’s our next second and medium call? What’s our second-and-long long for that situation?’ And just execute.”

Time of possession isn’t one of head coach Mike O’Shea’s favourite metrics but said he wanted the offence to move the ball better.

“People would argue first-down production is a pretty important stat, not one that we’ve tracked in terms of comparables to wins and losses but we certainly want to be better than we were — there’s no doubt about that,” said O’Shea.

Adding an all-star running back to the mix could be a good tonic for what ails the Bombers offence.

Andrew Harris, the man who has won three consecutive CFL rushing titles, hasn’t played a down this season due to a calf injury suffered training camp. He was fairly active during Wednesday’s workout, getting some first-team reps when second-year man Brady Oliveira wasn’t carrying the ball.

“The closer he is to… being ready, the better off we’re going to be,” said Neufeld. “He’s a phenomenal player, one of the best ever do it, so you know any chance we’re going to get Andrew back, the sooner the better.”

Oliveira has followed a 126-yard rushing output in a Week 1 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats with games of 29 and 28 yards.

Though it seems unlikely Harris would be rushed into the lineup Sunday, never say never.

“He was limited today,” said O’Shea of Harris. “We’ll see tomorrow.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14