Big plays costing Big Blue big time

Marquise Bridges owned it — plays like that just can’t happen.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ second-year cornerback found himself in no man’s land in the third quarter of last week’s contest against the Calgary Stampeders as he helplessly watched the ball sail over his head.

“I strapped the original route and I was on it, and I didn’t know what was going on in the back end, and with the quarterback, and (receiver Damien Alford) slapped me by to come back, and when he came back to the ball, I turned to see what was going on,” Bridges said.

Stamps quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. had climbed the pocket and then broke contain by spinning out to the right. For a moment, it looked like he might take off to the large patch of grass in front of him.

“I thought I was going to have to make a tackle, and he just chucked the ball up,” Bridges said.

The highlight-reel heave from Adams Jr. travelled 42 yards into the waiting arms of the rookie Alford, who had his second long touchdown of the night and pushed the Stamps’ lead to double-digits.

“They got chemistry going right now, and that was one of those plays where you can just see that they clean, see that they clicking at the moment,” Bridges added, “but at the end of the day, it’s still unacceptable on my end, and I just got to stick to hitting my target on the defence and trusting my teammates doing everything that they supposed to do.”

The play was a microcosm of life lately for a Bombers’ defence that has allowed seven explosive plays (passes of 30-plus yards and runs of 20-plus yards) in the last two games.

They have conceded 15 big plays through five contests, a trend that needs to slow down if this team is going to get back on the right track.

“Concerning in the sense that that’s always the focus of any good defence, is to limit the big plays,” said defensive co-ordinator Jordan Younger, whose unit conceded 39 big plays in 2024. It is on pace to allow 54 this season.

“Attention to detail, understanding of opponent tendencies, understanding of our tendencies, what we’re showing them— we’ll keep working at it.”

The theme on defence this week has been improving communication. It’s been the overwhelming explanation by players and coaches for why there have been so many missed assignments and breaks in coverage.

Communication is paramount in Younger’s scheme. Without it, there are bound to be lapses at every level because of how plays are called.

“There’s two main philosophies,” Younger said. “You go out there, you call the defence, and you just run it no matter what the offence does. My philosophy is that puts you at a disadvantage, play-calling-wise. You’re not in a position to defend what they’re doing.”

The other option, which Younger abides by, is calling a play then allowing players the freedom to make any necessary audibles on the field, depending on the offence’s formation. This read-and-react approach puts the Bombers in a more favourable position to defend on every play, but only if the message is relayed to all 12 players from the time the offence breaks the huddle to the ball being snapped — about seven seconds.

“We’re good at that,” Younger said. “Going through a little bit of a rough patch these last few games, I’m not concerned about it in the sense that the system has rules to take care of that. We just got to be sharper and understand those rules.”

There are several changes the Bombers are working through early on.

Bridges is in his first season as a full-fledged starter at field corner, while boundary corner Terrell Bonds continues to come into his own in his second year. The man in the middle, Jamal Parker Jr., is a versatile defensive back playing his first season at safety.

Bridges noted the back-breaking plays in recent weeks, though painful in the moment, are the nature of the job and part of the learning curve for young players.

“I mean, it’s a long season, and we get to learn about ourselves throughout the season,” he said. “The same thing that they’re watching on film, we get to watch, and we get to grow too. So that’s how we clean it up, man.

“We get those lessons, bump our head a few times, but at the end of the day, man, we got to grow and just make sure we keep levelling up from where we were. And that’s for everybody that’s been here for years, and everybody that’s new, we all got to continue to elevate our game.”

There’s a consensus is this unit isn’t far from where it wants to be. Bonds offered up some reason for optimism.

“I think we’ve done a good job of getting off to fast starts,” he said. “I mean, last game, we kind of didn’t, but throughout these first five games, we got out to a fast start. We kind of hit a low area around the early third quarter, give teams a chance to get back in games, but I think we just got to continue to work on finishing.

“Coach Osh (Mike O’Shea), Coach JY, they’ve been making that emphasis in practice — finishing plays and competing as hard as we can as if it were a game day.”

Indeed, there is no time for hanging heads or finger-pointing. If anything, Bridges explained, now is the time to pick each other up.

Maintaining confidence is key.

“You’ll never lose that, because if you lose confidence, man, you lose a job, you lose the fun of the game,” Bridges said.

“For me, man, it’s easier because my teammates pick me up. I’m not perfect in that instance at all. I mean, I put my head down sometimes, and I’m my biggest critic, but I always had these guys around me to pick my head up whenever it’s down.”

Bryant ruled out

The Bombers have ruled out left tackle Stanley Bryant for Saturday’s contest against the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field (6 p.m.CT).

Bryant, who missed last week’s game, did not practice for the second week in a row as he deals with an ankle injury he sustained in Week 5.

Second-year American offensive lineman Micah Vanterpool is slated to play left tackle for the second week in a row.

The club will release its full depth chart for Week 8 today.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam