Game Day / 3 Keys to Victory

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/09/2009 (5926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

1. MR. REID GOES TO SASKATCHEWAN

The Bombers’ league-worst passing game remains a work in progress — at this rate it’ll make Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel seem like a weekend project — but what this crew does exceptionally well is pound the football. And the temptation to continue to do the smash-mouth thing against the Roughriders is only going to grow after a quick glance at the CFL stats: Saskatchewan ranks fifth in yards rushing allowed per game (120.5) and looked particularly vulnerable earlier this summer when Montreal’s Avon Cobourne — a physical clone of the Bombers’ Fred Reid — ate them up for 146 yards and two scores. What the Bombers did against the B.C. Lions before the bye — Reid set a club record for 260 yards while Yvenson Bernard cracked the century mark — was certainly an eye-opener for the rest of the CFL. Question now is, can they repeat it consistently when defensive dozens are prepping for it week in, week out.

"We’re going to push for 300 this week," Reid told a scrum here on Saturday. "Every week it’s a new goal. We’ve got to keep going up, we can’t go down. No reason why we can’t do it every week."

2. COME TO LIFE, AERIAL ATTACK

Let’s state the obvious here: As dandy as the ground game is, the Bombers’ passing attack has been icky. Winnipeg’s league-worst 153.6 yards passing per game is almost a full 100 yards behind the next-best team, the Toronto Argonauts (252.9 yards per game). Bomber starting QBs Stefan LeFors and Michael Bishop have combined for an embarrassingly low efficiency rating of 54.71 and have completed just 46.4 per cent of their passes. And as much as head coach Mike Kelly wants to play the smash-mouth game in the second half of the season, quite clearly the Bombers must breathe some life into their passing game or they’ll continue to be an easy team to defend. No one is asking Bishop to light up the skies the way Ricky Ray, Henry Burris and Anthony Calvillo do, but the Bombers have to find even a smidgen of offensive balance in order to be seen as a threat offensively.

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3. WHAT THE…? WHO THE…?

Saskatchewan’s defensive scheme, under the tutelage of co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry, could best be described as "unorthodox." In fact, as the Bombers headed west on their six-hour bus ride Friday, head coach Mike Kelly had all eight of the Riders’ games on a DVD to further study en route. Little wonder, since the Riders arguably offer up more looks and formations than any other CFL defence. That means the Bombers, particularly the big eaters on the offensive line, will have to brace themselves for stuff they have yet to see on film. And it means the club will have to do a whole pile of adapting to those looks as the game progresses. The Riders love to overload one side of the line of scrimmage and their formations have been especially effective in springing Stevie Baggs and John Chick off the edge. They entered the week tied for first in quarterback sacks and ranked first against the pass. But, for all their trickery, this rather juicy stat shouldn’t be overlooked: The Riders are dead last in points allowed (32 per game).

Check out a video version of Ed Tait’s three keys at winnipegfreepress.com.