Blue need more from ground attack

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This article was published 26/09/2014 (4085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s no time like the present for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ ground game to get some traction.

With quarterback Drew Willy trying to bounce back from a shoulder injury that didn’t allow him to complete the team’s latest outing and lingering questions about the effectiveness of the team’s offence, a running attack might solve many issues when the Bombers take to the turf at Investors Group Field Saturday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“It’s going to be real key and real fun,” Winnipeg running back Nic Grigsby said after Thursday’s practice. “Our guys know we have to pick it up. We have to step up.”

Winnipeg’s ground game has exceeded 100 yards in a game just twice this season, and one of those occasions was the schedule’s opening week against the unsuspecting Toronto Argonauts.

The 6-6 Bombers, who have lost three in a row, have sputtered at times with offence in general. It’s been eight weeks since they’ve played the 4-7 Ticats, a 27-26 last-play victory at the end of July that represented the team’s second-best offensive night of the season, with 396 net yards that night at McMaster University.

Grigsby was one of the heroes of that victory, catching a two-yard TD pass from Willy with no time remaining on the clock.

It’s not his only memory from that night in Hamilton.

“Their speed and they are physical,” Grigsby said of the Tiger-Cats defence. “They’re one of the most physical defences we’ve played against, I feel. They’re playing trying to get up into first place over there so they’re going to give us their ‘A’ game.

“We know we’re still in this thing, too, so this is going to be a good one.”

Grigsby cracked a rare smile when asked about the team’s first bye week so late in the schedule.

“It was real good for all of us,” he said. “Just to get away… we’ve been here 12 weeks straight. That’s guys playing a whole college season and even in college, you have a bye week.

“We went out, we were grinding. Guys played through injuries, guys had injuries, and it was a good week for us to get away. And everybody’s keyed and focused this week, so it should be fun.”

Grigsby didn’t specify, but hinted he was among many who were nursing injuries.

“You know, yeah, you know how it is,” he said. “It’s tough on our bodies through one week of football. Imagine 12 weeks straight.

“Doing the little things like blocking, running the ball, those guys, they come down and hit.

“It was good to be able to get freshed up a bit.”

With the bye week, Grigsby fell to second in the CFL’s overall rushing chart, now behind Montreal’s Brandon Whitaker (695-647).

“If it comes, it comes,” Grigsby said, indicating he’s not worried about it. “I’m going to be doing whatever I can to help the team.

“I wish I had more carries but that’s the way the game goes. We get down early, we put ourselves in that position that we can’t run the football. We have to do a better job as a team to get stuff together and the running game will come.”

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The Bombers sagged to their worst offensive day all season in their most recent loss in B.C., when backup quarterback Brian Brohm relieved the injured Willy before halftime but Winnipeg ended with just 144 yards of offence.

“Football teams face this all the time, injuries and backups,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “The roster’s always fluctuating due to injuries.

“I’m quite confident in Brian Brohm. That’s why he’s on the depth chart as No. 2, so he can play and come in and win a game for us.”

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Hamilton quarterback Zach Collaros was out with a concussion the last time the teams met in July.

O’Shea has some experience with Collaros. Both were in the Argos organization last season, O’Shea as a coach and Collaros as a backup quarterback.

“I think he’s demonstrated his intangibles, fiery competitor, never gives up on a play, moves extremely well and every elusive in the pocket, likes to win,” O’Shea said. “Sounds like our guy.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca