Five storylines

By: Gary Lawless Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Saturday, Sep. 27, 2014

Five storylines to ponder before tonight's Hamilton at Winnipeg matchup:

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Five storylines to ponder before tonight's Hamilton at Winnipeg matchup:

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/09/2014 (4084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five storylines to ponder before tonight’s Hamilton at Winnipeg matchup:

1. WILLY OR WON’T HE?

Liam Richards / the canadian press files
Tiger-Cats quarterback Zach Collaros is 3-3 as the club's starter. When he's been injured, Hamilton has gone 1-4. — Liam Richards / the canadian press files Tiger-Cats quarterback Zach Collaros is 3-3 as the club's starter. When he's been injured, Hamilton has gone 1-4.

It’s been the question in Winnipeg all week and on Friday the Blue Bombers declared Drew Willy their starter in today’s game. Willy improves the home team’s chance of winning dramatically. Backup Brian Brohm is a complete unknown. Off the board, as they say in Vegas.

Willy has been struggling with a sprained shoulder injured in his club’s last game, a loss to the B.C. Lions. The bye week gave him a chance to recuperate to some degree and he’s been on the field throwing and taking reps all week.

The Bombers didn’t tip their hand until Friday morning. W

hen quizzed about Willy’s readiness, head coach Mike O’Shea said his QB was as healthy as anyone else at this time of year. Willy will likely take a pain-killing shot late this afternoon and then test out his arm and range of motion during the warmup.

2. THE STAKES

Couldn’t really be any higher for the Bombers. They go into the weekend with a 6-6 record sitting fifth in the West and one game back of the 7-5 Lions.

The top four teams in the East have four wins, making it very possible fourth spot in the West will earn a crossover playoff berth. The Bombers must try to keep pace with B.C. The Lions play the league-leading Calgary Stampeders and the odds suggest they’ll drop this game.

A Winnipeg win could pull the Bombers even with B.C. and increase their playoff probability by a large factor. Must-win? Maybe not, but it’s as close as it gets without being an elimination game.

3. Z IS FOR ZACH

The last time these two teams met Willy was the story for the Bombers as he drove his team down the field in the dying seconds and stole a win. Zach Collaros was injured at the time and watched from the sidelines.

This will be Collaros’s 15th career start but his first against the Bombers. Hamilton is 3-3 when Collaros starts and 1-4 without him.

Since returning from injury, he’s averaged 315 passing yards per game with a 73 per cent completion rate in four starts.

Collaros has been hot since coming back and has turned Hamilton’s season around. He makes the Ticats a threat in the East as they attempt to get back to the Grey Cup. Head coach Kent Austin was furious after the loss to the Bombers and he’ll want to keep the momentum going.

The Ticats have as much on the line as the Bombers and they’ll be looking to Collaros to make a statement that he can win a big game on the road.

4. THE NUMBERS GAME

After 12 games last season, the Bombers were 2-10 — their worst 12-game mark since 1998 (1-11).

If Willy indeed starts today, it’ll be 13 in a row, the most since Michael Bishop started 14 in 2009. Kevin Glenn started 30 straight during the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons.

Nic Grigsby leads all CFL running backs with 44 receptions and is on pace for 66 catches in 2014. The last Bombers running back to hit that height was Robert Mimbs in 1990, with a club record 71.

A team has come back to win when trailing after three quarters only six times this season and the Bombers have three of those come-from-behind wins.

Winnipeg was 0-12 in 2013 when trailing after three quarters.

The second quarter has been a problem for the Bombers over the last five games, as they’ve allowed 79 points, with double-digit points given up during the second quarter in four of the last five games.

In Winnipeg’s six wins they’ve been a plus-two in the turnover ration and in their six losses they have been a minus-10.

Willy needs just 23 yards to become the 14th quarterback in Bombers history to reach the 3,000-yard mark in a season. Willy is on pace for 4,465 yards which would rank eighth all-time in Bombers history..

Nick Moore has played in just two of the last six games. When he plays, the Bombers are 5-2 but are 1-4 when he is out of the lineup.

5. SLUMP OR THE SKIDS

The Bombers opened the season 5-1 but have since gone 1-5 and are losers of three straight.

Head coach Mike O’Shea has managed to keep a positive vibe in Bomberland and no one has thrown in the towel on the season. O’Shea has his players still committed to winning and doing the things each day they need to do to get better.

The bottom line with this team is it is incomplete and the early record was as much a function of their schedule as it was their play. At 6-6, the Bombers’ record is now a more realistic reflection of who they are as a team. A win today would go a long way to keeping this team in the playoff picture.

A loss puts the Bombers in danger of having meaningless games to play down the stretch.

This game will go a long way towards setting the table for the stretch run.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @garylawless