The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to trying to secure a home playoff game.
Either risk further injury in going for it all against the Calgary Stampeders on Friday, or play it safe by sitting out some of their nicked up players in order to rest up for the West Division Semifinal.
The Bombers returned to the field on Tuesday to prepare for their regular season finale. It was a closed practice but the Bombers intend to sit out quarterback Matt Nichols against the Stampeders. It appears head coach Mike O’Shea is unwilling to risk Nichols re-aggravating his suspected calf injury to ensure he’s at full health for the playoffs.
“That’s the way it looks today. Once again we re-evaluate every single day,” O’Shea said. “I just think as it stands right now, we’re checking in on him every day, as we do any guy that’s nicked up at this time of year. We keep on gathering more information as the week goes along.”
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Who will start in Nichols place is now the big question after both backup Dominique Davis and third stringer Dan LeFevour struggled in the loss to the B.C. Lions.
“You guys will know soon enough,” O’Shea stated.
“How soon?” CJOB’s Bob Irving asked.
“Tomorrow probably.” O’Shea said. “We’ve got a good idea but I think that’s what practice is for right. We need to keep on working in practice and see how everything looks.”
Reading between the lines it sure sounds like O’Shea is leaning towards going with LeFevour as his starter, with his experience probably giving him a slight edge. But going with his third stringer over his season long backup would be unusual to say the least and would say a lot about his confidence in Davis moving forward.
“I think he still has the opportunity to play this game. I really do,” O’Shea said. “We got another day of practice and we’ll see how it goes, but Dan’s also had more starts and some more success in this league as a starter.”
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As for injured running back Andrew Harris, he seems to be progressing well after getting laid out by the Lions.
“He ran around today,” said O’Shea. “We’ll see tomorrow.”
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The Bombers offence just hasn’t been the same since losing running back Timothy Flanders to injury but Flanders hopes to play this week after missing the past three games.
“It felt good, it felt real good,” Flanders said. “I feel like I’m still in shape. So everything went as planned. I’m just happy to be back.”
The Bombers face the Stampeders on Friday to close out the regular season and either a win by the Bombers or a loss by the Edmonton Eskimos to the Saskatchewan Roughriders would secure the Bombers’ first home playoff game since 2011.
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