Ticats ground Harris, Bombers’ running game

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This article was published 07/10/2017 (2927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tailback Andrew Harris had 26 yards on five carries, his lowest rushing output of the 2017 season Friday.

Those numbers were indicative of a glaring deficiency in the Winnipeg offence. The Blue Bombers struggled to move the ball consistently again a resurgent Hamilton defence and the Tiger-Cats went on to hammer the Blue Bombers 30-13 before 26,205 fans at Investors Group Field.

“We just couldn’t find a way to get things going,” said Harris, whose team rushed for a combined 57 yards. “Their offence did a great job staying on the field and our defence played well, just offensively we couldn’t sustain drives and get points. That’s it, they punched us in the mouth and we couldn’t respond.”

Harris, who added 65 yards on four catches, was asked about his meagre workload.

“They’re a team that brings a lot of pressure, so I mean, I was asked… to block a little more this week and I felt I let us down in that aspect,” said Harris. “But across the board, we just gotta be better. This is a tough league and you can’t look at other teams and what their records is. Every week in this last five, six weeks are going to be tough games and Hamilton just came out today and played better than us…

“Sometimes the punch is a little harder. I mean, Hamilton played great today. They were nasty on defence and stingy on defence all game. There offence did a great job. They made some plays when they needed to and we couldn’t respond. This is football and you have bad days. Today wasn’t our best.”

Harris has 819 rushing yards and 783 yards receiving in 14 games this season. He is on pace for 1,053 yards rushing and 1,006 yards receiving in his bid to become the first running back in league history to reach 1,000 yards in both categories in the same season.

Watching No. 1 quarterback Matt Nichols leave the game with an injury to his throwing hand was difficult to stomach.

“It’s tough,” said Harris. “This guy loves his team and loves his teammates and puts it out there every week. To see a guy like that go down, it’s tough. I’m hoping it’s not a long-term thing and just a game thing. He’s our leader, man, so any time (you lose) a key player, a guy you look to to make plays and an impact player, it’s gonna be tough on you. I felt Dom (backup quarterback Dominique Davis) did a good job going in there and controlled the atmosphere pretty well. We couldn’t get enough plays to get the win.”

Harris was ready to forget the loss and look ahead to next Saturday’s game against the B.C. Lions.

“We’ve just gotta flush it,” said Harris. “Put it in the rearview mirror and keep moving. We live to see another day and we’ve gotta go back to work tomorrow and on to our next opponent. There’s still a lot of football left and a lot of things could change for the playoff picture. This is hopefully a wakeup call for us.”

The Blue Bombers are 10-4 and second in the West Division, five points behind the front-running Calgary Stampeders. Is top spot out of their reach?

“That’s out of our hands really,” said Harris. “We’ve gotta control what we can control and that’s win every game. Whatever happens, happens. For us, we gotta keep the course and stay focused on what the Bombers are doing.”

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