http://www.bluebombers.com/2016/07/24/matt-nichols-to-start-thursday-in-edmonton/

 

Ed Tait

@EdTaitWFC

 

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will make a quarterback change this week as Matt Nichols steps behind centre in favour of Drew Willy.

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea will make the move official after practice on Sunday and in advance of this week’s game in Edmonton against the Grey Cup champion Eskimos.

The Bombers are 1-4 to start the season and the change is part of an attempt to spark an offence that is struggling to find some consistency, having been kept to under 20 points in three of the five games.

Nichols came off the bench with 8:53 remaining in the Bombers’ 33-18 loss to the Calgary Stampeders last Thursday, and promptly led the club to its only touchdown of the game with an 18-yard strike to Weston Dressler that was followed up with another completion to Dressler for a two-point convert.

The 29-year-old Eastern Washington product finished the night nine of 15 for 88 yards with the one TD and no interceptions.

Willy, meanwhile, was 23 of 33 for 234 yards with no touchdowns and one critical interception – returned 34 yards for a score by Joe Burnett – that prompted the in-game switch to Nichols.

O’Shea said immediately after the Stamps’ game he wanted to consult with his offensive staff and watch film before making a decision on who would get the start. But he did say this about Willy’s pick six:

“He tried to force that ball in there on that touchdown… he’s trying to make plays, right? He also had some good throws. He threw that one down the sideline to Darvin (Adams). He made some plays and then he had one where he wants to have it back because he’s trying to force the ball in there.

“You can’t fault him for trying, though.”

Nichols was acquired from the Eskimos last September for a seventh-round draft pick after Willy was injured in a loss in Hamilton and following the ineffective play of both Brian Brohm and Robert Marve.

He was 2-5 as a starter in Winnipeg, while the Esks were 5-2 in games in which he started before the trade. He finished last year with 3,245 passing yards with 19 touchdowns against 17 interceptions.

Thursday’s game will be his 20th in his career as a starter.

Willy, meanwhile, has put up decent passing totals – albeit somewhat misleading. His 1,473 yards is among the CFL leaders, but a good chunk of his totals have come late in games and with the Bombers well behind on the scoreboard.

He is now 12-21 as a starter. The Bombers are 11-18 in games in which he has started, but just 2-10 when he has not been available.

More updates to follow late after practice on bluebombers.com.

 

Edited July 24, 20169 yr by Throw Long Bannatyne

The elephant in the room is the almost complete lack of a vertical passing game.  Teams are stacking the LOS, which is why Harris has had so little success.  If they can't force the Esks D to back off, we will see more of the same.

 

Bombers played pretty good against the ESKs for at least a half the last game they played, if they can match that effort and actually put up some points on the board, then... who knows what happens. ESKS D looks pretty fragile, no doubt they will come out next week all fired up but that can either backfire big time or work big time... not sure. Esks are definitely a very good team on O, i think their D is very suspect tho and if our D shows up and keeps Edmontons O off the field for more than half the game, the Bombers have a shot here. 

In Edmonton, I wonder what the point differential is for our last 5-6 games at Commonwealth.  Hopefully Nichols has a big day

1 hour ago, Westy Sucks said:

In Edmonton, I wonder what the point differential is for our last 5-6 games at Commonwealth.  Hopefully Nichols has a big day

Last 5 games at Commonwealth:

3-32... -29
9-41, -29, added to  -32 = -61
7-25, -18, added to -61, = -79
10-42, -32... added to -79, = -111
10-24, -14, added to -111  = -125

Last 5 trips to Edmonton are 5 losses with a combined point differential of -125.  Meaning we've lost, on average, by 25 points in Edmonton over 5 years. 

But hey guys, this is just game 5, right? Sorry couldn't help myself.

edit: In fact, using the CFl website, I can't even see a recorded win in Edmonton. Prior to 2004 it seems the game results aren't available.

Meaning the Calgary Flames have played in the Stanley Cup final more recently than we won in Edmonton. Holy ****.
 

Edited July 25, 20169 yr by White Out

I can feel the nervousness of the its all willys fault toxic group as they get to see nichols in edm. wonder how many games of excuses he will get before full panic sets in.

im guessing hes gonna be between 2-3 tds and the same for pics. Hit around 10 times. Hard to beat a team all three meetings out of the year nichols may pull it out in edm. I hope mos doesnt panic pull nichols for willy though. 

2 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

I can feel the nervousness of the its all willys fault toxic group as they get to see nichols in edm. wonder how many games of excuses he will get before full panic sets in.

im guessing hes gonna be between 2-3 tds and the same for pics. Hit around 10 times. Hard to beat a team all three meetings out of the year nichols may pull it out in edm. I hope mos doesnt panic pull nichols for willy though. 

I don't feel a tad bit nervous. Why would I? See my above post. Good god, it's an absolute no lose. If Nichols even comes within 2 scores he will out done previous Bombers teams.

I feel like the only way Nichols can really do himself harm is if he throws 3 or more picks, zero touchdowns, and the Bombers score no more than a field goal. Otherwise it's fairly par for the course.

Nichols is a journeyman back up and is not capable of much more than we have seen in the past ... our future lies with  Dominique Davis or Bryan Bennet ( & Bryan is on the 6 game DL)  and I don't know whether to say Yikes

A top head coach would know whether there is something in those two to build on ... none of us do. I hope Davis gets a shot when Nichols falters ... Willy is done for now but may come into his own later in his career after serving some time as a journeyman back up.

I wish we had the people who would have gone after Toronto's Harris instead of letting him sign on as a "backup" in Ottawa. Who knew? We should have.

 

Anyone else feeling this is obviously a decision forced upon O'Shea from above him? He seemed pretty adamant that Willy was the starter prior to this, and I find it hard to believe Nichols' play against Calgary warrants a start.

Personally I don't think it really matters who starts at QB, only way we beat Edmonton is if they shoot themselves in the foot enough times for us to scrounge some points off turnovers.

1 hour ago, White Out said:

Last 5 games at Commonwealth:

3-32... -29
9-41, -29, added to  -32 = -61
7-25, -18, added to -61, = -79
10-42, -32... added to -79, = -111
10-24, -14, added to -111  = -125

Last 5 trips to Edmonton are 5 losses with a combined point differential of -125.  Meaning we've lost, on average, by 25 points in Edmonton over 5 years. 

But hey guys, this is just game 5, right? Sorry couldn't help myself.

edit: In fact, using the CFl website, I can't even see a recorded win in Edmonton. Prior to 2004 it seems the game results aren't available.

Meaning the Calgary Flames have played in the Stanley Cup final more recently than we won in Edmonton. Holy ****.
 

Milts last second TD was in 2006 

2 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

Milts last second TD was in 2006 

Dont know how I missed that.

Nichols is better suited to run the offense we have. He gets the ball out much faster than Willy.  He's gonna need help from the receivers though.  A LOT of drops on perfect passes today at practice.  Darvin, I'm looking at you.   The other Adams, Kris looked good.  I'd rather see him.

Edited July 25, 20169 yr by JohnnyOnTheSpot

I feel sorry for Nichols, the defence will be of no help to him in this one and Plap will saddle him with another explosive game plan.

The only hope is if Harris can go off for 100 or more on the ground and special teams score about 21 points, otherwise it will be fugly.

So it's desperation mode for O'Shea.... the countdown is alive...

2 hours ago, White Out said:

Last 5 games at Commonwealth:

3-32... -29
9-41, -29, added to  -32 = -61
7-25, -18, added to -61, = -79
10-42, -32... added to -79, = -111
10-24, -14, added to -111  = -125

Last 5 trips to Edmonton are 5 losses with a combined point differential of -125.  Meaning we've lost, on average, by 25 points in Edmonton over 5 years. 

But hey guys, this is just game 5, right? Sorry couldn't help myself.

edit: In fact, using the CFl website, I can't even see a recorded win in Edmonton. Prior to 2004 it seems the game results aren't available.

Meaning the Calgary Flames have played in the Stanley Cup final more recently than we won in Edmonton. Holy ****.
 

So you're telling me that we're due?

All off season the Bombers were selling the idea that we lost so many games because Willy went down early. If we'd only have had Willy last year, they'd say, we would have made the playoffs. 5 Weeks in, Willy is demoted to promote old 2 wins in 7 tries, Nichols, who according to the idea they were selling hard in the off season, wasn't good enough to get us into the playoffs last year. Yup, that ought to save us.

Edited July 25, 20169 yr by TBURGESS
fix spelling

I like the idea of starting Nichols to shake things up

14 hours ago, pigseye said:

I feel sorry for Nichols, the defence will be of no help to him in this one and Plap will saddle him with another explosive game plan.

The only hope is if Harris can go off for 100 or more on the ground and special teams score about 21 points, otherwise it will be fugly.

They don't hand the ball off to Harris enough for that to happen and when they do hand off to him he's having to make guys miss in the backfield so if he gets a yard or two it's a big win. The run game on this team sucks and it's because guys aren't winning the line of scrimmage. Sets the tone for everything. 

Why did we expect any different from a Lapo offense? We saw it here twice before and the only time it looked good was with Khari Jones tossing the ball to Stegall and Bruce with Roberts and Sellers liberally sprinkled in. I could probably look good calling an offense with those guys around.

The headline in the papers should have been "O'shea pulls Willy for a Nichol"

2 hours ago, Ripper said:

I like the idea of starting Nichols to shake things up

I don't like the idea, although I agree with it. I don't like it because it shows how poorly things are going for yet another season.

31 minutes ago, Bomber_fanaddict said:

The headline in the papers should have been "O'shea pulls Willy for a Nichol"

thanks Dave Wheeler...

On 7/24/2016 at 7:56 AM, tracker said:

This kinda feels like a trap- 

This guy agrees with you.

8 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

This guy agrees with you.

ironically, if Nichols stinks the joint out, it might buy O'Shea more time because that could be interpreted as "we have no competent starter quarter

backs, so its not the coaches' fault. " If Nichols does well, O'Shea can be legitimately asked why didn't this happen sooner?

 

                                                                

 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

This guy agrees with you.

I dont think any excuse will save mos if we miss the play offs this year. I dont think he gets canned before LD. 

On 7/26/2016 at 9:35 AM, 17to85 said:

And for the severely dyslexic: