Matthews likely to make season debut against Edmonton

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This article was published 24/06/2019 (2314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wide receiver Chris Matthews practised for the second consecutive day Monday, and it’s now a good bet the 29-year-old will be in Winnipeg’s lineup Thursday night against the Edmonton Eskimos.

But Matthews, who missed almost a month with a lower-body injury, will be facing close scrutiny from Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea before he returns to active duty.

“He looked good again today, for sure,” O’Shea said. “As always, we’ll wait until we have to declare our roster (on Wednesday).”

Passing grades

Blue Bombers O-line coach Marty Costello had one of the club’s most important jobs in training camp, tasked with getting an O-line with three inexperienced starters ready for Week 1.

Costello seemed pleased with the early returns after centre Michael Couture and guards Geoff Gray and Cody Speller, all Canadians, debuted with veteran American tackles Jermarcus Hardrick and Stanley Bryant.

The unit gave up two sacks in the win over the B.C. Lions but was dominant in the run game.

Couture’s job description includes making protection and alignment calls before the ball is snapped, and Costello was impressed.

“Every game there’s some things you want back, there’s some things you look at and go, ‘OK, I could’ve called this better; I could’ve called this differently for the sake of the group,’ but overall, he did really good in terms of taking control,” Costello said. “(He) put us in the right spot, had the guys believing he was putting them in good spots.”

Speller, an undrafted free agent in his second season in the CFL, was also getting kudos. 

“Good things happen when you work hard,” Costello said. “That’s all Cody’s done from the time I first met him and it doesn’t matter to me where you get drafted, when you come in and work and you keep working and you care and you’re a good person and you’re committed to your craft, you’re going to get better. And that’s what Cody has done.”

Tough to figure

The Lions rushed the ball only four times for four yards against the Blue Bombers in Week 1. Those numbers were low even for the pass-happy CFL.

“I’m not sure if that was part of the game plan or the game flow,” Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill said. “Ultimately, when you run the ball four times, you become, essentially, one dynamic. You don’t have those two to play off each other. I guess with Edmonton, it’s completely opposite (with) what they like to do. Edmonton likes to run the ball and play the pass off of it, right?”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14