Winnipeg offence still working out kinks as Blue and Gold go 2-0 to start season

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This article was published 01/07/2019 (2259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

By almost any measure, it’s a recipe for winning that looks unsustainable. The Blue Bombers managed 270 net yards on offence and gave up 440 in Thursday’s 28-21 win over the Edmonton Eskimos.

Winnipeg ran 41 offensive plays and collected 14 first downs while Edmonton piled up 29 first downs on 77 offensive plays.

However, at game’s end, it was a stout Winnipeg D, which forced Edmonton to turn the ball over three times on downs and limited the Esks to seven field goals that received most of the credit as the Blue Bombers rolled to their first 2-0 start since 2014.

“I just felt like we weren’t in rhythm on offence,” said all-star tailback Andrew Harris, who inexplicably lost the ball twice on fumbles and finished with 34 yards on 10 carries.

“Lots of two-and-outs, we made lots of mistakes and shot ourselves in the foot.

“Again, when you don’t get in a rhythm like that, it’s always tough to get into the flow of things. I think we only had 43 plays or 44 plays on offence and that’s not a common game. Usually in the high 50s, low 60s, and if you’re having a good game, you’re in the 70s or 80s.”

An inability to control the ball and the clock (Winnipeg had two drives of six or more plays while Edmonton racked up six drives of six plays plus and won the time-of-possession battle 36:20 to 23:40) helped to make extra work for the Winnipeg defence.

Star wide receiver Chris Matthews, playing his first regular-season game for the Blue Bombers since leaving for the NFL six seasons ago, said he wasn’t concerned.

“We weren’t as flashy as everybody wanted to see it, but we got the win — that’s all that matters, you know?” Matthews said. “We did a lot of good things, we messed up a lot, but time goes on. We’ll get better.”

Matthews was expected to give the offence a big downfield threat and that almost materialized when he hauled in a 47-yard completion in the first half from quarterback Matt Nichols. The play, called back when lineman Cody Speller was flagged for holding, also resulted in Matthews leaving the game briefly after he lost his helmet and went crashing head-first into the turf.

“I guess it did rattle me because I did take a knee for a bit,” said Matthews, who finished the game with two catches for 16 yards and tipped another pass that went directly to Edmonton defender Brian Walker for an interception. “But after that, I was fine. I didn’t feel anything until after the game, and that’s the usual wear and tear.”

Nichols accepted blame for a handful of mistakes, but admitted no major concern about a passing attack that has a modest 384 yards in two games.

“I can speak for myself, specifically — it was one or two throws and one or two reads and all of a sudden, it’s that simple, where it doesn’t feel like your best game based on four plays,” Nichols said. “Even though the rest of the game (was) pretty on point with my reads and throws. Always want to limit that to one, two or zero (plays) that you’d rather have back. It was nothing drastic.

“Didn’t turn the ball over… other than the one tipped one. Even that, I felt like I was on the right read, just barely missed a little high.”

Nichols said getting Matthews firmly entrenched in the offence after he missed most of training camp and a Week 1 victory in B.C. with an undisclosed injury is only a matter of time.

“Last week… he only had about three days of practice with the first offence so it’s hard to design a ton of stuff for him,” Nichols said. “At the same time, everybody’s probably talking a little bit different if the big one stands and he’s got 60, 70 or 80 yards.”

Matthews is prepared to be patient.

“It’s going to take time, but we work every day,” Matthews said. “We come out here, try to get extra running in, extra throws in. In practice, of course you’re going to get that timing in, so as games go on, we can only get better, right? Everything looks different when the game is going. Everybody’s running around a lot faster, nobody’s stopping and not tackling you. Things just look a lot different.”

Winnipeg’s offence wasn’t without a big-play threat. Newcomer Lucky Whitehead scorched the Esks for pass-and-run TDs covering 41 and 75 yards, giving rivals such as their Week 4 opponents in Ottawa plenty to worry about.

“We want to be a team where you can’t just double one person and it shuts the whole offence down,” Matthews said. “I feel like that is exactly where we are at right now — is anybody that’s on the field now, you can’t double anybody because the next person’s going to go off. We try to make sure the defence is getting different looks from us by our waggles and how we change up personnel.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14