After rough start Nichols finds his niche in second half

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This article was published 03/10/2015 (3748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Matt Nichols Saturday night.

Just ask him.

“That was probably the worst half of my life, followed by the best half of my life,” the Winnipeg Blue Bombers QB said Saturday night following his team’s 24-23 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos.

Nichols mustered just 81 yards passing in the first half against a stifling Edmonton defence but found his rhythm in a big way in the second half with 239 yards passing and 1 TD against his former teammates in Edmonton.

But in the end, even all those passing yards — and a Herculean performance by the Bombers defence — wasn’t enough on a night Bombers kicker Lirim Hajrullahu missed four field goals and a convert.

And so on a night that was the best and worst of times for Nichols, it also ended on another superlative.

“Those are probably the two worst losses of my life back-to-back,” said Nichols, referencing the loss to Edmonton in tandem with another heartbreaking loss a week earlier to the Calgary Stampeders in which the Bombers were victim of a late blunder by a CFL official.

Nichols had made no secret of the fact that he desperately wanted to hang a loss on the Eskimos, who traded him to Winnipeg last month for nothing more than a conditional draft pick.

And Nichols — who beat Winnipeg earlier this season as the Edmonton starter — also had the chance to make a little history Saturday night. With a win over the Esks, Nichols would have become just the second CFL quarterback ever to beat both teams he played for in a single season.

But Nichols said he knew he was in for a long night when he spoke to Edmonton head coach Chris Jones prior to the game and was advised the Eskimos defence was going to look nothing at all like the defence he saw in practice while he was still in Edmonton.

“He told me he had eight or nine wrinkles for me,” Nichols laughed. “They were just doing some weird things. And I was going through three or four reads and there was nobody open.

“But late in the third quarter, we kind of figured out what they were doing…and we had some big plays in the second half.”

Nichols finished the game 22-39 for 320 yards and 1 TD.

Full credit for this one must also go to the Bombers defence, who were on the field for over 21 minutes in the first half alone — and over 28 minutes through the first three quarters.

While the numbers weren’t pretty — the Eskimos offence rolled to 25 first downs and 404 total yards — the Bombers defence on this night was once again of the ‘bend-but-don’t-break’ variety, keeping their team in the game and giving themselves a chance to win right to the very end.

It was all small consolation, however, as the Bombers fell to 4-10 and now face the daunting prospect of playing three of their final four regular season games on the road, where Winnipeg is just 1-5 this season. The Bombers play next in Vancouver next Saturday against the B.C. Lions, who were 4-8 and in action last night against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was asked if he might add a new kicker to the roster in the coming week.

The Bombers have had American place-kicker Sergio Castillo (5-11, 195, West Texas A&M) on their practice roster since Aug. 28 and he has demonstrated  a consistently strong leg during practices over the last five weeks.

“Yeah, I won’t comment on that. We’ll have to figure it out. Kyle and I will sit down with the roster.”

But can he stick with just Hajrullahu, who also missed a game-tying 50-yard field goal as time ran out against Calgary?

“Lirim had a bad day. Obviously we have to look at how we’re going to win games going forward. But at first glance, you know, he had a bad day. He was kicking over 80 percent before this.”

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek