Mainor makes case for full-time job

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This article was published 15/08/2011 (5196 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The most feared defensive line in the CFL should only get even better when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers return to the field next week after a bye week, rested and expected to finally be healthy.

And one of the toughest decisions Bombers management is going to have to make after the bye has been forced upon them by the stellar play of Kenny Mainor.

The rookie Bombers defensive end started the season on the practice roster and only got to play when Jason Vega — who was expected to hold down the end position opposite Odell Willis this season — sprained his knee in Week 3.

Vega’s back now — he had a sack and a forced fumble in a 30-17 win over the B.C. Lions Saturday night in his first game back — but the Bombers are going to have a very tough time suddenly shedding Mainor, who has made the very most of his opportunity.

With two more sacks against B.C. Saturday night, Mainor now has six sacks in just four games and is second in the CFL only to Odell Willis, who leads the league with eight.

With Willis having locked down one end position, figuring out how Vega and Mainor are going to share the other is one of several decisions — all of them the kind football teams love to have — that the Bombers are going to have to make with a whole bunch of players expected to return to the lineup from injury after the bye.

Both defensive tackles Doug Brown and Dorian Smith are expected to be back for the Bombers’ next game, Aug. 26 versus Hamilton at Canad Inns Stadium. And highly-touted Canadian receiver Kito Poblah — who was a starter before he hurt his knee in Game 1 — should also be back after the bye, or soon afterward.

Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice said Saturday night that his team came out of the B.C. game healthy.

 

Bruce, Reth…whatever

AND in the end, Arland Bruce had the same old name — and didn’t do much to add to it.

A tumultous 10 days that saw the flaky Bruce traded to the B.C. Lions from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and then promptly announce to the world that he was changing his name ended with a measly four-catch, 34-yard performance against the Bombers at Empire Field Saturday night that was decidedly more of a whimper than a bang.

The Bruce sideshow was also kind of boring. After declaring earlier in the week that he was renouncing ‘Bruce’ as his “slave name” and taking on a new handle — Runako Reth — Bruce played Saturday night with the same old name — Bruce — stencilled on his back.

 

Only in the CFL

HERE’S a scary thought:

If the CFL season were to end today, one of the Toronto Argonauts, B.C. Lions or Saskatchewan Roughriders would make the playoffs.

All three clubs lost again last week and are tied for dead last in the league with 1-6 records. The Argos and Riders meet this Thursday in just one of two CFL games scheduled. B.C. plays Edmonton in the other on Friday.

You know how everyone — Bombers field boss Paul LaPolice especially — likes to drone on about how much parity there is in the CFL?

Yeah, not so much this year.

 

Baggs brags

THEY don’t meet for almost two weeks, but there’s already an interesting little backdrop to the Bombers-Hamilton Tiger-Cats game at Canad Inns Stadium Aug. 26.

Hamilton defensive end Stevie Baggs had a message for Bombers defensive end Odell Willis during the TSN broadcast Saturday night.

“Odell Willis, you can hear this,” Baggs told TSN. “I am still the best defensive end in this league. You’re playing well right now. But Steeltown, we gotta do our talking on the field. We’ll see you soon.”

Willis leads the league in sacks with 8 — Baggs has two — but Willis had his six-game streak with at least one sack snapped Saturday night agsainst.

 

Brink always coming up short

BOMBERS backup quarterback Alex Brink has found an interesting niche for the Bombers since former No. 2 Joey Elliott was knocked out for the season with a knee injury in Week 3.

Offensive co-ordinator Jamie Barresi has been using Brink to pound the ball up the middle on short yardage situations and the result is the little-used backup is second on the Bombers in TDs scored right now with three.

Brink had one-yard and two-yard plunges against the Lions, who were already more familiar than they wanted to be with the Bombers backup. Brink, remember, engineered the game-winning TD drive against the Lions in Week 5 after Pierce was knocked out of the game with what the team described as a calf injury.