All the numbers have been crunched, the Xs and Os analyzed and over-analyzed. The hype videos are rolling, and the trash talk between the Canadian Football League’s two most-rabid fan bases is about to be cranked up to 11.
Yes, t’s just about time for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders to climb into the Princess Auto Stadium ring and go toe-to-toe in the Western Final with the count down to the 5:30 p.m. start already underway.
If you missed our Game Preview, it can be found here, and what follows are five talking points that emerged from Friday’s Blue Bombers media availability before local and national media…
1Cool question from Paul Friesen of The Sun when he put it to a few of the Blue Bombers at the podium what the club had ‘going for it right now’ with the four remaining teams in the CFL playoffs all essentially even in talent.
Willie Jefferson said it was the team’s veteran leadership. Nic Demski pointed to the home crowd and Brady Oliveira suggested it was the team’s resiliency and dedication to honouring teammates.
And this from Zach Collaros:
“Everybody would say this about their team, but it’s just our love for each other, the belief in each other, the belief in what our plan is. And understanding that we’re going to go out there and lay it on the line for each other.
“It’s not always great systems. It’s not always great players. It’s great teams that win games like this. Obviously, Saskatchewan’s a great team with a bunch of great players and I really enjoy watching their offence and I really enjoy watching their defence when we’re not playing them. It comes down to the best team and I think the guys in our locker room to a man would say the same thing — it’s our love for each other and the belief in what we’re doing.”
2A narrative that continues to be frustrating some Blue Bombers fans, even though the defence ranks first in so many important categories: why the prevalence of three-man defensive fronts while dropping players back into coverage rather than rushing four or blitzing more?
Great answer on that from Willie Jefferson:
“We just want to play defence. We want to play together, play fast, physical and we want to get off the field on second down and if taking a defensive lineman off the field and putting an extra DB or extra linebacker on the field helps, then we can do that.
“We feel we can get to the quarterback or make it hard for quarterbacks to find their targets fast or be effective, with three (man rush).
“(Roughrider QB Trevor Harris) is the key to that offence. If we can get to him, make it hard for him to find his targets early, if we can knock some balls down and get him moving around and not be able to nickel and dime us down the field we can have a good game.”
3A question put to the Blue Bombers players at the media availability: ‘What’s harder, getting to the top or staying on top?’
And it was Collaros who put the hammer down on that:
“We haven’t finished the way we wanted to finish the last two seasons. So, there’s that. What makes this game great — what makes any job great — is you’re competing against yourself every day to one-up your preparation. That’s what is the most fun about it — you can’t rest on your laurels and, again, we haven’t finished the way we wanted to the last two seasons so I wouldn’t say we’re on the top of anything.
“But it’s been a really fun ride because the expectations are high in that locker room for each other and individually the expectations are high for ourselves, so that’s what makes it fun in bringing that all together and trying to win the whole thing.”
4Funny quote from Collaros, when asked about his rushing totals this year — his 168 yards along the ground are his highest since 2014, when he rushed for 328 — and the impact of that.
“I’ve had to scramble to run a little more, more than scramble to pass which is obviously what you want to do to create explosives that way,” he said. “I think teams play a bit differently than they have in previous seasons. You’re seeing more variations of match coverage, four-down rushes, three-down rushes and linebackers dropping to depth so those things all factor in.
“I used to be athletic, so…”
Finally, Jefferson sat down at the beginning of his media session alongside teammate Nic Demski and brought out a Black Panther action figure, with his image taped over the face.
Here’s the what and the why behind that: it turns out the defensive coaches honour players who don’t miss practice during the year with… ah, let’s let Willie tell it…
“This if my fifth year being with the team but also my fifth year of not missing a single day of practice. We usually get Iron Man (action figures) but since this is my fifth year, I’ve got so many Iron Mans I told Richie (Hall, defensive assistant) I wanted something different so he chose to give me Black Panther.”
Jefferson said there were a dozen guys on defence who didn’t miss a practice and included among them were Owen Hubert, Tanner Schmekel, Michael Ayers, Shayne Gauthier, Terrell Bonds and Jake Thomas.
It was also the fifth year Thomas hadn’t missed a practice, so he was saluted with an Incredible Hulk action figure.
Asked if he was going to take his Black Panther action figure onto the field today, Jefferson said:
“It’s going to stay in my locker until we finish doing what we’ve got to do.”
