Kickoff: Saturday, July 27th, 6 p.m. CDT; BMO Field, Toronto, Ont.
TV/Streaming: TSN 1, CBS Sports Network; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB
Streaks: Wpg: 1L; Tor: 1L
Road/Home: The Blue Bombers are winless on the road this year at 0-3; the Argos are 2-1 at home.
Scene Setter
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are under the microscope for a number of reasons, the most obvious being their injured-riddled and disappointing 2-5 start to the Canadian Football League season.
To that end, the why behind the first seven weeks and the how-to-fix-it solutions are plastered all over this website and below, too, as part of our weekly Game Preview.
Still what gets lost sometimes in a start like this are some cool moments for players and their families.
Case in point, we give you Blue Bombers defensive end Owen Hubert — who will be playing in front of friends and family Saturday night at BMO Field in Toronto against the Argonauts for the first time as a professional.
“There will be quite a few people there,” began Hubert. “It’s going to be pretty cool. How many people, I’m not sure and so that will be a bit of a surprise. I’m not sure who all is coming, but it will be fun to see so many faces up in the stands and also on the field afterward.
“All those people mean so much to me in their own unique way. It will be former teachers, coaches, friends from my childhood and from university as well, perhaps teammates from McMaster, relatives… so many people who have supported me, have been interested in my journey and have played a big role in it until now.
“I can’t wait to see them.”
An eighth-round selection by the Blue Bombers in this year’s CFL Draft — he was actually the second-last player chosen — Hubert’s road to a moment like this has Hallmark Movie of the Week written all over it.
Born in Champaign, Illinois, Hubert grew up in Norwood, Ont. a town of about 4,500 a couple hours northeast of Toronto when his father moved the family there to take a job with the Canadian government in wildlife biology. He played six-man football for the Norwood District High School Knights — lining up at both quarterback and linebacker — as well as with the Peterborough Wolverines before his university days at McMaster.
Hubert made his first pro start a few weeks ago with the Blue Bombers D-line ravaged by injuries and still figures to get a ton of snaps with TyJuan Garbutt now healthy. His story — a transplanted American who came from six-man football, was the second-last pick in the draft and was starting a few weeks into his career — makes for a compelling narrative.
It’s also a narrative that doesn’t want to fixate on once the ball is put on the tee Saturday night.
“Internally I have an appreciation for it, for the story,” he said. “On the other hand, all that doesn’t matter now. I mean, Coach pointed out not too long ago that Coach Miller was an undrafted guy. I didn’t know that until a week ago. Everyone has their own, unique story. Half of me is thinking, ‘Yeah, let’s prove ’em wrong. Let’s give Winnipeg everything I’ve got and show them what I’m worth regardless of where I was picked.’
“At some point, though — and it’s what every team talks about — you’re not a rookie any more. At what point is a new guy not new anymore? I’d like to think I’m getting to the point where all this doesn’t now. Sure, it’s cool and fun to talk about, but we’re into this thing now and there’s no excuses, no time to talk about this any more.
“I’ve got to help this team get business done.”
Again, though, this is an engrossing tale potentially lost within the Blue Bombers 2-5 start. And it’s why so many people want to share in it Saturday. Hubert said his girlfriend works in ticketing for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and is using her connections to make sure the entire entourage has a seat for his homecoming.
“I texted one of my friends and said, ‘I can’t wait to breathe that Ontario air again.’ It’s not that it’s bad here at all or anything, that’s not what I mean,” he said. “It’s that Ontario is my home province, both for where I grew up and where I played university ball. It’ll be good to see the people that made it home for me up in the stands.
“I just hope everyone is behaving themselves and aren’t too much into the beverages.”
THE DEPTH CHART
The Blue Bombers have made three changes to the depth chart this week. On are DBs Marquise Bridges and Tyrique McGhee as well as LB Max Charbonneau. Off are LBs Kyrie Wilson and Brian Cole and FB Bailey Feltmate.
Wilson, Cole and Feltmate have been moved to the six-game injured list, joining FB Michael Chris-Ike, DT Miles Fox, DE Celestin Haba, WR Kenny Lawler, DT Cam Lawson, LB Lucky Ogbevoen, DB Jamal Parker, WR Dalton Schoen and WR Keric Wheatfall.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
1. Cut the Blue miscues
The Blue Bombers were -3 in the turnover differential in last week’s loss, the fourth time this year they were negative in that critical department — all of them losses. It’s not just the number, either, but where and when the turnovers occurred — the first an interception that took points off the board and the second coming inside Saskatchewan’s 30-yard line with less than three minutes left in the game.
Winnipeg has also taken the fourth most penalties in the league this year and last week in Saskatchewan finished with more penalties for more yards than their opponent for the fourth time in seven games this year.
Each mistake, each penalty can be so costly when the margin of error is so thin.
Chris Kolankowski
“You look at the games, they’re painfully close the ones that we’ve dropped,” said centre Chris Kolankowski. “It’s reinforcing that we’ve got to have supreme focus throughout the game, every single snap, and not lose focus for one play. I like to have tunnel vision and the O-line in the earlier games when we weren’t playing well, it was just one or two plays where someone would make a mistake on the O-line, myself included, and that would cost us in a big moment.
“Right now it’s reinforcing that throughout the whole team that you’ve got to pay attention and focus on the details every single snap of the game.”
2. Hello, old friend — The Janarion Grant Factor
Everyone in Bomberland must eventually move on from this, but for now watching Janarion Grant make magic for the Argos still hurts like a thousand wasp stings. The Argos didn’t add Grant until late May — after every team including the Blue Bombers took a pass on the veteran kick returner in free agency — and it could be argued he’s been as valuable as any addition this offseason.
The most-prolific returner in Blue Bombers history, Grant leads the CFL in punt return yards and average return with two scores and is second in average and yards in kickoff returns and has taken another to the house. Worth noting: three straight games with return TDs has happened only two other times in CFL history — by Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams in 1990 and Chris Williams in 2012.
For the record, Grant now has 11 kick-return TDs in 47 games and his mark of one score every 4.3 games is the best in league history.
Counter that with the Blue Bombers on their third return candidate in Kody Case after Myron Mitchell and Chris Smith and you can see why this topic has caused so much angst. Again, though, that ship has since sailed and now the Blue Bombers must figure out a way to contain their old friend Saturday night.
Blue Bombers special teams coordinator Mike Miller
“We’ve got to corral him in, we’ve got to get down in coverage and trust each other and swarm him,” said Blue Bombers special teams coordinator Mike Miller. “He’s got very good vision and he’s not afraid to squeeze it up there in tight areas and he catches a lot of guys off guard when they’re running up there in coverage. For him only being 157 pounds, he plays like he’s 250 and then moving at a fair click. That’s the big thing — he’s willing to hit it fearlessly AND he has the vision AND he has the ability to set it up and have that burst-away speed.
“That’s what he’s been doing for years. He hits vertical, he hits those lanes and he hits it fearlessly and he’s done that his whole career. You’re happy him on a personal level knowing him from being around here and being teammates with him. We’re going to respect him when we play him.”
3. Whatever it takes, O
It’s been a common refrain from Brady Oliveira this year and a theme often repeated by offensive coordinator Buck Pierce and his charges over the last few seasons — find a way, whatever it looks like, to be productive on offence.
Ideally, that is represented by a tasty pass-run balance but it won’t always look like that. Winnipeg’s attack was stuck in the muck last week, settling for three Sergio Castillo field goals and failing to find the end zone.
Brady Oliveira
Those struggles were outlined here earlier this week and while this game is being billed as a battle of the league’s two leading rushers — Toronto’s Ka’Deem Carey has 429 yards, Oliveira is at 415 — the reality is the Blue Bomber offence is missing some regular big-play production.
From the CFL stats department: at this point last year the Blue Bombers led the league with 15 passes of 30-plus yards. That number this year? Try five, which ranks second last.
“We’re at the stage now where we know what this team can be,” said Oliveira. “… The message has been, ‘Whatever it takes’ and it’s going to be different every single week.”
The Last Word:
“We’ve got to trust the process — same thing as the last few years even though we had a better record — win or loss. We trust that what we’re doing is the right thing,” — Blue Bombers centre Chris Kolankowski