WINNIPEG – While many have long since given up on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers playoff chances, a loss to the B.C. Lions on Saturday night will almost certainly mean the club will miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.
With the Bombers trailing the Lions by two points for the final playoff spot, a win by the Leos would give them a four point lead on Winnipeg with only three games remaining for the Bombers. The Lions and Montreal Alouettes also have a game in hand in the race for the final playoff spot.
The Bombers won their first meeting of the season against the Lions with a 23-13 victory back on July 30, meaning a Bombers win on Saturday would give them the tiebreaker in the event the two sides are tied at the conclusion of the regular season. But if the Lions win by more than 10 points, B.C. would hold the edge in the tiebreaker, forcing the Bombers to have to win all of their remaining three games just to have a chance.
It’s a whole lot of ‘ifs’ for a franchise that has just four wins in their first 14 games of the season and is currently mired in a three game losing streak. The Lions with a 5-8 record haven’t been much better and ended a three game skid last week with a 46-20 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Bombers had Drew Willy at quarterback in their win over the Lions earlier this season but this week Matt Nichols will be making his fifth consecutive start in the blue and gold. Each week Nichols has had more and more success as he gets more comfortable with his receivers and the play book.
“It’s all old hat now.” Nichols said. “I feel like I know everything and where everyone is going and where all my reads are. So right now it feels like I’ve been in this offence for a long time.”
Quarterbacks usually get a full training camp to learn the offence and build familiarity with the receivers. Camp is three weeks long with only two exhibition games. Nichols has been with the team for the past five weeks and now has four games under his belt with the Bombers, so there’s no more excuses.
“You go through a training camp with a group of guys and you know, you throw that many passes to them you develop that rapport, right.” Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said. “You can see it build through training camp with our guys, with our receivers and our quarterbacks. So you know, he didn’t have the benefit of that and he’s getting that as his practice time increases.”
Last week against the Edmonton Eskimos Nichols threw for a season best 320 yards and that was against the leagues top ranked defense. The Lions have been giving up an average of 28 points per game. That’s third worst in the CFL with only the Bombers and Roughriders giving up more points per game.
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