When will Freddie find his groove?

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This article was published 08/09/2011 (5468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Running back Fred Reid insists it’s not bothering him.

A hot topic among the Winnipeg Blue Bombers faithful continues to be the running game, a segment of the offence that has yet to really find any legs this season. With apologies to rookie Carl Volny (who has only had two carries), Reid is the only option the Bombers keep in the backfield, so naturally, the questions on what is happening — or what isn’t happening — start with him.

“I’m not frustrated about the season at all,” Reid said after practice at Canad Inns Stadium Wednesday. “I know we need to get better but we’ll just keep working at it.”

Nine games in, Reid has carried the ball a whopping league-high 149 times for 585 yards, good for third among CFL leaders. He’s put up 115 combined yards in his last three games and his yards per carry average is under four (3.9), a figure well south of both his career average (6.3) and his 2010 production (6.6), when he claimed the rushing title with 1,396 yards.

He’s struggled to find his groove, yes, but there are other factors to consider.

The Bombers like to point to the drop in the overall run production across the league when the subject of Reid comes up. The argument has some merit. Run attempts by team per game have fallen into the low 30s and individual 100-yard games — the accepted benchmark for success — have dropped off considerably. When Hamilton’s Avon Cobourne ran for 102 yards against Montreal on Monday, it snapped a streak of 13 straight CFL games without a centuryyard man.

The counter to this point looks like this: The CFL’s leading rusher, Montreal’s Brandon Whitaker (102 carries for 670 yards) is on pace for 1,340 yards. A league-wide drop in rushing statistics doesn’t absolve the Bombers run game — not when others are finding slightly more success on nearly 50 less carries.

“It’s not just Fred Reid — it’s the offensive line, it’s everybody. It’s the play calls,” head coach Paul LaPolice explained. “We all look at this stuff after every game and analyze what we can do better. It’s a collective thing and we’ll keep doing it.”

Reid says he’s healthy. The legs feel good, he adds, and he hasn’t had any nagging issues despite the heavy and hard workload he’s getting. He also takes issue with the suggestion that he’s lost a step in his fifth CFL campaign, or that he’s not popping through the holes at the line of scrimmage before they close.

“Maybe (people) are seeing things different because they’re watching on TV and I’m actually in the action, but I see what I see and I go with that,” said the 29-year-old, who signed a contract extension earlier this season. “I’m not doing anything that I haven’t done before.”

Just based on the responsibility assigned to it, the offensive line assumes some of heat for the run game woes. That is a football constant. The problem in singling out this Bombers unit is that some coaches say the group is playing as well or better than last season, depending on who you talk to.

As for the play calling, LaPolice isn’t interested in having a one-dimensional offence. He is committed to the run (thus the large number of attempts) to set up the pass and insists his offensive plan is adjusting continuously. The Bombers have packages that put the run-pass control in quarterback Buck Pierce’s hands — leaving the decision to run or throw the ball to him should a defence give an unexpected or overloaded look at the line.

Some of those schemes remain, as illustrated by what happened in Regina Sunday, a work in progress.

Reid, meanwhile, is just going to keep hammering away.

He was reminded of his last Banjo Bowl Wednesday, where he rushed for 148 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-2 romp over Saskatchewan. He even broke a little smile when asked about the contest.

“Hopefully, I can have a big game like that this week,” he said.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca