Brohm half-decent with prep

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This article was published 05/09/2015 (3989 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you held Mike O’Shea down on the ground — good luck with that — and injected him with truth serum, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach would admit Brian Brohm is not his first choice to start Sunday in Regina.

But Brohm will be O’Shea’s starter nevertheless, the last man standing in an ugly process of elimination at Investors Group Field this week in which the better options were hurt (Drew Willy, Robert Marve) or had just gotten off a plane from Edmonton and didn’t know the offence (Matt Nichols).

If that sounds like something less than a resounding vote of confidence in the man you have entrusted to lead your team to a badly needed victory in the most hostile stadium in Canada, well — to paraphrase former American defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld — you go into battle with what you have, not with what you wish you had.

So there was O’Shea at Investors Group Field Friday, doing his best to convince the assembled intelligentsia he had every confidence in a man who has zero touchdowns, four interceptions and a mind-bogglingly low 32.0 QB efficiency rating.

“I think he showed in practice this week his command over the playbook,” O’Shea said Friday afternoon following his team’s last full practice in advance of travelling to Regina.

“I’ve said all along that when Brian was given the opportunity to have a full practice week last year against Calgary, he threw for a 61 per cent completion percentage and a decent number of yards before he got hurt.”

Brohm was 14-for-23 for 194 yards, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions in his only other CFL start, Oct. 18, 2014. The Bombers were trailing the Stampeders 23-7 when Brohm left the game with a broken thumb.

Still, it does bear noting that as bad as Brohm’s numbers are this season — 28-of-56 for 242 yards, with zero touchdowns and four interceptions — all of that came in relief appearances. This is the first time Brohm has had the luxury of working with the first-team offence all week in practice and he says that is a huge boost to his confidence heading into Regina.

“It definitely helps a lot,” Brohm said Friday, “just to be comfortable with the playbook, with the timing, with the receivers. It’s going to be fun.”

While Brohm has become a bit of a pinata for fans this season — his abject futility at times has seemed like the living embodiment of all that ails this once-great franchise — Brohm’s teammates insist he has their confidence.

Slotback Nick Moore, who’s a straight shooter in most things, says Brohm works like a dog on the field and off of it, and it’s up to the rest of his teammates to step up their game.

‘When Brian was given the opportunity to have a full practice week last year against Calgary, he threw for a 61 per cent completion percentage and a decent number of yards before he got hurt’

— Mike O’Shea on Brian Brohm

“I feel the whole offence has to pay more attention to detail this weekend. The whole group has to turn it up a bit so we can pick him up,” said Moore. “One thing nobody sees with Brohm is he’s a student of the game.

“Yesterday, I went to chapel. That’s at three o’clock and our day is over at 1 p.m. And when I got out of there at 3:45, Brian was still in the team meeting room looking over film and going over plays with Matt (Nichols).”

Then there’s the matter of Nichols, who was acquired midweek in a trade with the Edmonton Eskimos.

O’Shea has decided his new QB is not ready to start. But Nichols is expected to make the trip to Regina and dress on Sunday, suggesting he would be available to come in if needed.

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