Carrying the load

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/10/2011 (5093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He was third on the season depth chart, but the numbers from last Friday night suggest Chris Garrett performed at running back every bit as well as the man who held the starting job for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this season, Fred Reid.

Garrett, who was pressed into action against the Montreal Alouettes after Reid and backup Carl Volny both tore their ACL’s against the Toronto Argonauts a week earlier, posted one of the best performances by a Bombers running back this season.

Now, in one sense, that is damning Garrett with faint praise in a season that saw Reid struggle mightily to regain the form that won him the CFL rushing title in 2010.

But in another sense, Garrett’s performance in a losing effort against the Als is worthy of singling out if for no other reason than it was delivered by a man who didn’t even make the opening day roster and who remained a castoff until a pair of freak injuries to Reid and Volny — the freak part was that they came in the same game — gave him an opportunity to shine.

And shine Garrett did, running for 76 yards and a critical fourth-quarter touchdown in his 2011 CFL debut.

Now, those numbers aren’t going to have anyone forgetting Reid just yet. But in the context of the 2011 season, they seem to suggest the Bombers haven’t given up a whole lot in replacing Reid with Garrett right now.

Consider:

— The 6.9 yards per carry that Garrett averaged against Montreal is better than Reid was able to muster in any of the 12 games he started, and much better than the 4.2 yards Reid was averaging when he went down;

— The 76 yards Garrett collected was more than Reid ran for in 7 of 12 games this season;

— Garrett’s 32-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter was the second longest run by a Bombers running back this season, taking a back seat only to Reid’s 47-yarder a couple of weeks ago in Montreal;

— Garrett’s rushing TD represents one-quarter of the touchdown production in 2011 by Reid, who collected just four rushing TDs all season.

All of which is not to pick on Reid now that he’s down. Reid clearly struggled in 2011, but he never took off a down and never quit trying to get better. What’s more, if anyone on the Bombers roster the past couple seasons has earned the benefit of the doubt, it was Reid.

The question now is can Garrett repeat Friday’s performance — and maybe improve on it — Friday in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats?

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“I feel like there were definitely some things I could do better — in the run game, pass protection, all of it,” said Garrett, a 24-year-old Ohio University product. “I think I can just get better all around.

“It was really unfortunate what happened to Fred and Carl, but this is the business we are in. It’s my job as a backup to pick right up where they left off and so that’s kind of where I started from.

“All I did was pick off the holes the offensive line generated for me. That last one, the long one for the touchdown, that was just a really good blocking scheme.”

In the end though, it was the one rushing yard the Bombers couldn’t generate to get the win Friday night that will define the Montreal game.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca