Time to finish the way they started

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

The team has lost four of their last five games, the quarterback’s still a bit banged up and they’ve got to play the next two games on the road, including this Friday in Hamilton against the division rival Tiger-Cats.

In other words, we’ve got them right where we want them, reasons Winnipeg Blue Bombers pivot Buck Pierce.

“We’ve overcome adversity (before),” said Pierce, who returned to the practice field Tuesday at Canad Inns Stadium after sitting out his team’s 32-26 loss last Friday to the Montreal Alouettes with sore ribs. “We’ve won on the road when we had to. We picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off.

“The last game might have been a little microcosm of our season. We fell behind, we picked ourselves back up, got dusted off and rallied together and made a game of it. Obviously we need to finish and that’s something we’ve done well in the past,” Pierce continued.

“We need to get where we were, get back to understanding that we are 8-5 and we do have the best record in the league and we are a team to be reckoned with.”

Simple, see.

The reality, of course, is much more complex. And Pierce, of course, knows that. But it all begins — as it always has this season — with the health of the team’s starting quarterback and on that front, there was decidedly good news on Tuesday.

“I feel good. I feel fine,” said Pierce, who led the Bombers first-team offence throughout practice on Tuesday. “It’s sore a little bit, but I feel good… I feel a lot better today than I did two weeks ago…

“I’m very confident in my body right now and how I feel.”

Pierce appeared to move comfortably throughout practice and seemed to have no difficulty throwing to all areas of the field.

Watching last Friday from the sidelines gave Pierce a new perspective on a team for whom he has started every game but one this season. He says the recipe for the loss was familiar.

“We haven’t played our best football the past five weeks,” said Pierce. “We just haven’t executed, we haven’t put things together, we haven’t finished, we’ve turned the ball over. We’ve done the things that lead to losing. We understand what we have to do to win. We just have to go out and do it.”

Pierce did not have one of his favourite targets, slotback Terrence Edwards, to throw to on Tuesday. Edwards is being bothered by a hamstring pull and got the day off, but Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice said the CFL all-star would return to practice today.

Also taking Tuesday off but expected to return today is defensive back Alex Suber, who LaPolice said is being bothered by a sore neck.

Meanwhile, defensive back Johnny Sears, who has missed most of the season with an ankle injury, auditioned with the first-team defence on Tuesday at weak-side linebacker in place of Merrill Johnson and LaPolice said he is considering inserting Sears into the starting lineup for Friday.

Punter Mike Renaud also continued his audition on Tuesday, although in Renaud’s case it is an audition to keep his job after the Bombers traded on Monday with the Saskatchewan Roughriders for veteran punter Jamie Boreham.

Boreham did practise holding the ball for placekicker Justin Palardy, but Renaud did all the punting on Tuesday. He showed good form on a couple of towering punts, but LaPolice was lukewarm when asked about Renaud’s performance after practice.

“He had a couple really good kicks and then he had a couple that were kind of short,” LaPolice said. “We’ll keep watching him… We’ll do more punting (today) with Jamie punting and we’ll make our decision after that.”

Renaud said he feels he’s kicked better since Boreham arrived. “Sometimes it’s what you need — a reality check,” Renaud said. “It puts everything in perspective. Once you realize how close you are to having everything you have taken away from you, then you don’t want to let that happen.”

LaPolice said he’s been impressed with Boreham’s kickoff abilities, noting he landed a couple inside the 10-yard line. That’s an upgrwade on Palardy’s kickoffs and LaPolice said he would consider using Boreham to also do kickoffs, but he’ll first have to win the punting job from Renaud.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca