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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/10/2008 (6562 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FRED REID says he’s going to get a dog too — but it’s more likely to be a pit bull than a min pin.

In any event, it’s going to be a lot bigger than the miniature Doberman pinscher named Me-Me owned by teammate Joe Smith, the other half of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Thunder and Lightning rushing tandem.

In a brilliant display of running that hasn’t happened in at least 21 years, both Reid and Smith surpassed the 100-yard rushing barrier Friday night in a dramatic 25-16 win over the Toronto Argonauts.

“It’s a one-two punch,” said Smith, who finished with 12 carries for 101 yards and a critical, late TD to go along with Reid’s 107 yards on 15 carries as the pair had their best game together since Smith’s acquisition from the B.C. Lions.

That’s 208 yards along the ground on 26 carries for the pair of Americans, who are substituted in and out to provide the change of pace head coach Doug Berry wants. The club was still searching the record books late Friday but this hasn’t happened since at least the 1987 season.

“It keeps the defence honest and it keeps them on their toes,” Smith said of the double whammy attack. “They don’t know what’s going to happen. They don’t know if we’re going to throw the ball to Fred out of the backfield, they don’t know if we’re going to hand the ball off to Fred.

“And they don’t know whether they’re going to do the same thing with me.”

Smith is quite the character — and as he talked Friday night in the Bomber locker-room, Me-Me pranced around nervously back on forth on his lap, licking his face and sniffing the tape recorders held by reporters.

“Man, the O-line were firing off on the D-line,” Smith said. “They couldn’t stop us. They blew ’em away. The holes were there all night. It’s all on those guys and the receivers that were blocking downfield. They did an outstanding job and we just do what we’re paid to do: Find the holes.

“And they were there — big enough for grandparents to run through.”

It was Berry who nicknamed the duo Thunder (the bigger Smith) and Lightning (Reid, who’s considerably smaller).

“I think I’ll do for the Lightning,” Reid said. “Joe, he showed that Thunder side tonight when he was determined to get in that end zone, that was big. That’s what Joe can do for us. It’s real sweet.

“They can’t stop us on the ground. Just hand us the ball, that’s all. (Glenn) went back to us later on and me and Joe, we just pounded them out. I thought they were going to bring more people up but they didn’t do that, and we just grounded it out.”

chris.cariou@freepress.mb.ca