Replacements for injured Bombers coming up aces

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This article was published 10/09/2016 (3309 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Crippling injuries are supposed to sink football teams — any sports team, really.

For the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to be 7-4 and sporting a six-game winning streak after defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 17-10 Saturday afternoon at Investors Group field, the trend, as it were, is being bucked.

The contest featured what the Bombers have become accustomed to: a starter succumbing to an injury, requiring a replacement to step up.

Usually, that replacement’s job is simple: don’t screw up. But backups and starters are interchangeable words for this Blue Bombers team.

They’re synonymous, despite where each player begins the game, and it’s an all-encompassing mentality the team has fostered and nurtured since Day 1 of training camp. 

“It shows we’re paying attention,” said Tony Burnett, as good as an example as any on the team that, in fact, the system works.

Burnett, a second-stringer at linebacker, entered the game after Ian Wild was forced out with an upper-body ailment. The 26-year-old made an immediate impact, swatting down two Darian Durant passes on back-to-back-plays.

“At the end of the day, I didn’t wake up today being able to go in and make plays. I practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and that made me be able to go out there and make plays,” Burnett said.

Burnett said the biggest emphasis this team has put on itself, simply, has been to be ready.

“Be a professional — it’s our jobs,” he said. “If you want to keep your job, be professional about it so you can keep your job.”

Head coach Mike O’Shea said it comes down to players knowing their roles. Every 46-man roster on game day buys into the system, ditto for those on the practice roster and even the injured guys. Everyone has a role. Everyone makes a difference. Every player, hand-picked, has the character O’Shea has preached day in and day out since arriving in Winnipeg in 2014. 

“They come to work every day. It doesn’t matter where they see their name on the roster,” O’Shea said. “They’re coming to work and the coaches are coaching them every day to trying to make everyone better.

“It’s not just this week. It’s been a pile of weeks early on where guys were rolling in and out and we’ve done well with it that way.”

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Bombers pivot Matt Nichols had to contend with the loss of running back Andrew Harris and receiver Ryan Smith Saturday.

“Julian (Feoli-Gudino, who replaced Smith) came in and made a few big catches and moved us right down the field,” NIchols said. “Pascal (Lochard, who replaced Harris) came in in the backfield, really his first solid game action and picked up a few blitzes, had a few nice runs and really did a few nice things for us.

“Often it’s cliché — the next man up — but we’ve been living it this year.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.