RB Harris is running: running at the mouth

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This article was published 13/09/2014 (4036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — B.C. Lions running back Andrew Harris has provided some fodder for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers bulletin board heading into the teams’ game at BC Place tonight.

The Winnipeg native was quoted in Friday’s edition of the Vancouver Province saying he thinks the Lions could rush for 250 yards against the Bombers, who have a porous run defence — surrendering over 800 yards on the ground in the last five games.

“I know it sounds ridiculous but I really think we have the potential to do this,” Harris told Province football writer Lowell Ulrich, adding he hopes his bold prediction fires up the beleaguered Lions offensive line.

‘When you put it out there (in public) it means a little more and puts pressure on them. It’s going to put a little fire under their asses’

— Lions running back Andrew Harris

“When you put it out there (in public) it means a little more and puts pressure on them. It’s going to put a little fire under their asses.”

Asked to expand on his comments Friday morning following the Lions walk-through at BC Place, Harris wasn’t taking anything back, but did clarify his intention in making such a bold prediction — the Lions haven’t rushed for 250 yards in a game in five years — was to motivate his own team, not disrespect the Bombers defence.

“It has nothing to do with them. No matter who we were playing, I’d have said that,” Harris told reporters. “It’s just a mindset about us. I’m not worried about the Bombers. It’s not about anyone else except for the guys on the (B.C.) offence contributing to the run game.”

The Lions haven’t scored an offensive touchdown in two games and Harris has seen his yards from scrimmage plunge from an average of 111.6 per game in the first seven games to just 55 yards per game in the last two.

Harris isn’t the only member of the Lions who thinks B.C. could have a big game on the ground tonight. “It’s about us — it’s never about another team… If we execute, I’m backing that up — we can go for 250,” said Lions linebacker Solomon Elimimian.

Lions QB Kevin Glenn was also unconcerned about what effect Harris’s comments might have on the Bombers. “They’re coming out here to beat us anyway — they don’t need extra motivation as far as that is concerned,” said Glenn.

So what do the Bombers think about Harris’s bold talk?

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“My mother always told me to think before you speak,” said Bombers linebacker E.J. Kuale Friday.

Advised by reporters Harris insisted he was just trying to rally his team, Kuale responded: “Yeah, he needs to let me know how that works out.”

Told of Harris’s prediction, Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea just smiled.

“It’s always good to have goals,” he said.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek