Liegghio’s heroics no surprise to Blue and Gold teammates

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This article was published 07/09/2022 (1123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After two backbreaking misses to cost the Blue Bombers their Week 10 matchup against the Montreal Alouettes, Marc Liegghio stood in front of reporters and assured it would be a different story the next time he had a chance to win a game.

A lot of people may have lost faith in the second-year Canadian kicker on that night, but it turns out he was right. And his holder, Dakota Prukop, and long snapper, Mike Benson, want to remind everyone of that.

After all, Liegghio, who drilled a career-long 55-yard field goal in front of 33,000 fans in enemy territory at Sunday’s Labour Day Classic to give the Bombers a 20-18 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, isn’t exactly the type of person to stick out his chest and say ‘I told you so.’

“I’m not trying to preach here, but maybe that’s a little lesson for people that want to hop off bandwagons too quick and talk about things they don’t really know,” said Prukop, who’s also the team’s third-string quarterback.

“Being a kicker is an extremely hard, high-pressure job. Great kickers miss all the time. It’s just a part of the deal. But the fans really got a taste of resliency. He’s someone who knows his teammates have his back and when you’re in that environment, all you want to do is make the next one because you know they have your back and you want to pay that back.”

Prukop urges those who called for the Bombers to find a new kicker after the Montreal game to change their tune. He didn’t like that there were fans out there who wanted to give up on the 25-year-old after one tough game.

“They need to take a lesson learned there because that’s not how we treat each other on our team and we don’t expect our fans to treat our teammates like that either,” Prukop said.

“… The way we talked about those missed kicks is that we never should’ve even been in that situation. Yeah, everyone wants to tie it down to the last play or whatever, but let’s go back and look at what happened in the third quarter or the fourth quarter that put us in that situation.”

Although the long make in Regina may have caught some people by surprise, Liegghio’s field-goal unit fully expected the ball to sail through the uprights. They saw how Liegghio carried himself after his botched kicks against the Als and knew he was capable of moving on.

Benson, a Winnipegger in his ninth CFL season, has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to kickers in this league.

“It’s not the first time for me where a kicker has missed a field goal and everyone is overly critical on it. I think the big thing for him is his ability to go to the work-week upcoming and be able to improve on his mistakes and not dwell on them. He has an ability to allow himself to grow as a kicker and as an athlete in this league and not sit on things especially when people around him are being critical,” said Benson.

“He handles it like a 10-year vet and that’s something that’s pretty admirable about Marc and his work ethic. He doesn’t let all that outside noise bother him, even if he is young. Honestly, it feels like he’s been around for eight years. He just gets back to work and doesn’t let the outside noise affect him.”

Liegghio is three-for-three on field goals and has converted all six of his extra-point attempts since the Montreal debacle. He’s now 22-for-26 on the year for an 84.6 conversion per centage. Calgary’s Rene Paredes leads the league at 89.5 per cent.

“He just learns from his mistakes and that’s what he’s been doing,” Benson said.

“That’s what he’s been showing and that’s why he’s been one of the best this year.”

But the game-winner wasn’t the only crucial play Liegghio made on Sunday. With the Bombers trailing 17-7 in the second quarter, it looked like Riders linebacker A.J. Allen was about to block a punt before Liegghio juked out of the way and calmly booted the ball 49 yards down the field.

“I wasn’t surprised. He’s a really good athlete,” said Prukop.

“He’s always working out and to do an athletic thing like that really saved our butts on special teams.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31