It’s early in the practice week — way too early — to come to any concrete conclusions or make any bold proclamations.
Still, Day 1 of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers work week leading up to Saturday’s matchup with the Stampeders in Calgary did offer some encouraging signs and developments for a club now 4-3 and trying to keep pace with/hunt down both the 5-3 Stamps and Saskatchewan Roughriders, who are rolling along at 7-1.
First and foremost, quarterback Zach Collaros was back at the helm after missing last week’s win over the Toronto Argonauts and not finishing either of his two starts before that. Stanley Bryant was also back at the left flank after missing the last two games, while Dillon Mitchell was getting a lot of looks in certain offensive packages with the starting unit.
The Blue Bombers did not issue an injury report Monday afternoon, but Collaros took the normal amount of reps and when head coach Mike O’Shea was asked if the club’s QB1 was ‘trending towards playing’ offered this:
“With these type of things, we’re always going to check in with them after practice, check in with them again in the morning and then trust the player and Al (Couture, head athletic therapist) and his staff — the best in the league — to let them work.”
The update on Bryant from the future hall of famer himself: “Great. Feeling great and had a great practice today so I’m feeling fine. We’ll see how the week goes.
“(Not playing and watching from the sideline) was a very different perspective. I’ve never missed that much time before in my career. So, it was just sitting back and kind of like being in coach mode and trying to help guys out seeing things from a different point of view. I helped on the sidelines as much as I could.
“It was cool but not something I’m ready to join yet.”
Seeing Mitchell get some work with Collaros & Co. — usually with Keric Wheatfall moving inside to slotback — is a noteworthy development given the former Edmonton Elks receiver has yet to dress for a game this year and last week was moved to the practice roster.
O’Shea, not surprisingly, was non-committal when asked about Mitchell running with the starters.
“We had a lot of people running a lot of different things,” he said. “We had a different day today; practice was structured quite differently if you count the reps and the way we did it. But Dillon’s a good football player.”
Mitchell, meanwhile, continues to be upbeat and refuses to say anything negative about his situation or the organization — quite the opposite, in fact.
“I’m feeling great. Super great. This is a beautiful town, beautiful city,” he said. “I love Winnipeg. I feel like this has been a great experience for me. As much as everything that has gone on, that’s strictly internal.”
Asked by CJOB’s Derek Taylor what fans might see if he gets into action this weekend, Mitchell added:
“I hope people get to see a win from us, first off. And then, being a player, you want to go out there and play well, you want to go out there and play for your brothers and teammates and make them proud.”
As for the waiting for his opportunity after putting up solid numbers before signing here as a free agent this winter, Mitchell again praised the situation around him.
“My attitude is always positive, so I wouldn’t say anything that happened has been waiting,” he said. “Those things are between me and the office people. It’s a collective team effort and if you know how to play your part, you wouldn’t be upset. It’s a unit thing and I’m a big guy in making sure all of my teammates understand I’m a great person.
“… Being a part of the locker room, there are a tremendous amount of great people, and you don’t get that everywhere in the CFL, you don’t get guys that care about their teammates. Being able to be surrounded by leaders… from my experience playing in another place it’s the consistency of making sure that no matter if it’s wins or losses we still come to work the same way every day. It’s just great to be around guys who care about football.
“Right now, I’m just focussed on making every day great and having a great practice every day.”
FYI: More news on the injury front — DB Redha Kramdi, DT Cameron Lawson, DB Jamal Parker, Jr., DB Enock Makonzo and receiver Dalton Schoen all did not practice on Monday while DB Evan Holm was excused from the session. Meanwhile, DT Jamal Woods, LS Mike Benson, OL Micah Vanterpool were all back in full gear.
TALKING POINT: Armchair QBs across Bomberland have been asking about what happened on Chris Streveler’s third interception in last Friday’s win and the circumstances behind it.
Just to recap, the Blue Bombers led 37-31 and were 1st & 10 on the Argos’ 14-yard line with 2:56 left when Streveler’s pass attempt to Jerreth Sterns was intercepted in the end zone by Tarvarus McFadden.
The play call — a pass instead of a run — and the riskiness behind it when a field goal would have put the club up by nine, was brought up with offensive coordinator Jason Hogan after Monday’s practice.
“Based on our film work, our prep, we felt comfortable with it,” he said. “It’s 1st & 10 but we felt comfortable understanding we’d probably get man coverage. We got the look for it and at that point in time they’re also loading the box a little bit so at times you’ve got to make them pay if they’re going to play man coverage and load up the box to try and take the run away. You’ve got to take some shots.”
Hogan said the TD would have been the ‘kill shot’ and given the team even more momentum. As it was, the Argos did get three more possessions as Winnipeg went two and out on its next two possessions and then added a Sergio Castillo field goal with 38 seconds left.
“Defence tries to go zero-one-three (holding an offence to zero, one or three points and not surrender a touchdown),” said Hogan. “We try and go six-three. That’s the mindset behind being in the red zone and trying to take shots when we need to and when they’re there.
“We felt that was the right time. We got the man coverage, the ball was not placed in the right area and we paid for it, unfortunately.”