Buck Pierce stepped up to the podium in the media room at IG Field Monday morning and, after politely checking in with everyone in attendance, referenced this week as ‘the fun time of year.’
Yes, it most certainly is true this is the most intense, most stressful, most dramatic, most meaningful part of the Canadian Football League season – down to four teams heading into this weekend’s divisional finals – but the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive coordinator also provided a great take heading into this weekend’s West Final and with the B.C. Lions in town.
Fact is, CFL fans – and coaches and players – gobble up this time of year with the pure joy of a kid running downstairs on Christmas morning. And if another edition of Blue Bombers vs. Lions doesn’t get your pulse rating, it might be time to check in with a medical professional.
“You work extremely hard, you sacrifice to get to this point and the guys put a lot of work in to be where we are today,” began Pierce. “It’s imperative that everything ramps up.
“I told the guys the other day, ‘All the lessons that we’ve learned through the course of the season, the ups and downs, all the things we’ve gone through, now we’ve got to take that big chunk of information and continue to funnel it into each day and each game. That’s what makes it fun.”
We offered up an initial look of the Blue Bombers vs. Lions matchup following B.C.’s 41-30 win over the Calgary Stampeders in last Saturday’s West Division Semi-Final, and with Pierce and defensive coordinator Richie Hall meeting with the media on Monday, we now take a deeper dive at both sides of the line of scrimmage in this West Final Tale of the Tape.
BLUE BOMBERS OFFENCE vs. LIONS DEFENCE
Pierce on his Blue Bombers offence:
“We’ve continued to grow into what we want to be. You’re always looking for consistency. You’re going to have a play here or there that you want back. Hopefully we’ve grown from those experiences and understanding.
“At this time of year, you start to figure out who you are. You’ve heard me say this a lot: winning looks different every week. As an offence it’s our opportunity to control the pace of the game, the flow of the game and how the game is dictated on that given day. If you’ve got to throw it, you throw it. And if you’re able to run it and win that way, that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve gotten to a point this year where we feel we could win either way.”
Pierce on the Lions defence:
“They’ve been good all year. They’re well-coached, they play hard, they’ve veterans in the back end, they’re able to rush the passer. Just like every team at this point of the season, they’ve really focused in on who they are. They have all the screws tightened and they’re executing at a high level.”
Three Blue Bombers vs. Lions offensive trends
1 – The two highest passing total games for the Blue Bombers this season came in wins over the Lions in August (50-14) and in October (34-36 in OT). The club piled up 447 yards in the win at IG Field in August (369 from Zach Collaros; 78 from Dru Brown) and 389 yards in October (all from Collaros).
Coincidentally, the third lowest passing total of the season came in the June loss to B.C. (30-6), where Winnipeg managed just 214 passing yards. The two lowest: 171 by Brown in an August win in Calgary, and 177 in the rain on Canada Day in Montreal, both wins.
2 – Offences always reference the importance of first-down production, and of note, the Blue Bombers had a whopping 400 yards on 31 first downs – an average of 12.9 yards and a season high – in their August blowout of the Lions.
3 – Some jaw-dropping Collaros vs. Lions numbers: he is 7-1 in eight starts vs. B.C. including last year’s West Final as a Blue Bomber with a 74.3 completion percentage and 16 touchdowns against four interceptions.
Key offensive comparisons
Points: Wpg: 33.0 (1st); B.C.: 27.5 (3rd)
Touchdowns: Wpg 65 (2nd; Tor. first at 66); B.C.: 49 (3rd)
Net offence per game: Wpg: 414.7 (1st); B.C.: 371.2 (3rd)
Passing yards per game: Wpg: 292.4 (2nd); B.C.: 315.1 (1st)
Rushing yards per game: Wpg: 139.1 (1st); B.C.: 77.3 (9th)
Sacks allowed: Wpg: 33 (2nd; Tor. first at 19); B.C.: 53 (6th)
Turnovers: Wpg: 35 (4th; Tor. first at 27); B.C.: 44 (6th)
Turnover differential: Wpg.: +8 (4th; Tor. first at +27); B.C.: -12 (7th)
BLUE BOMBERS DEFENCE vs. LIONS OFFENCE
Hall on his Blue Bombers defence:
“We’re at a real good confidence level. When you look at us, we haven’t played a bad game… we’ve played a bad quarter, we’ve played a bad half, but we’ve never played a bad game. We have to strive to play consistent for four quarters and do whatever we have to do. We’re playing well. Can we play better? Yes. Do we need to play better? Yes. It’s not just big gaps, it’s just taking care of some little things where we’ve got to be more consistent throughout the course of the game.”
Hall on the Lions offence:
“A very good offence. A very explosive offence. An offence with a lot of confidence. We had a nailbiter with them a couple weeks ago. They beat us one game early, we beat them one game and the last one is a coin toss. They’re a very confident group, which they should be. We’re a very confident group, which we should be.
“(Adams, Jr.) is making plays. The last time we played against them, he made some plays, but we also countered against him and made some plays. He’s playing with a great deal of confidence, reading it well, throwing it well and they seem to be in good sync. You look at their game last week (vs. Calgary) and it was nearly perfect. He should feel good about himself because they’re playing very good football right now.”
Three Blue Bombers vs. Lions defensive trends:
1 – Vernon Adams, Jr. threw for 352 yards and a TD in the most recent meeting with the Blue Bombers. In his two starts against Winnipeg he completed 62.9 percent of his passes for 589 yards with three TDs against no interceptions.
2 – In two of the three meetings this year – the first game, a 30-6 loss and the last, the 34-26 victory in OT – Winnipeg was out-scored in both the first and second quarters, trailing 7-3 and 17-6 before halftime in Game 1 and 10-0 and 20-10 in Game 2.
3 – Winnipeg was a -4 in the sack differential in the first game of the year, a loss, but was +2 and +3 in the ensuing wins.
Key defensive comparisons
Points allowed: Wpg.: 20.9 (1st); B.C.: 24.4 (4th)
Touchdowns allowed: Wpg.: 35 (1st); B.C.: 43 (4th)
Opponent net offence per game: Wpg.: 298.8 (1st); B.C.: 328.8 (2nd)
Opponent passing yards per game: Wpg.: 229.4 (1st); B.C.: 251.7 (4th)
Opponent rushing yards per game: Wpg.: 90.4 (3rd; Tor. first at 83.6); B.C.: 99.3 (4th)
Sacks: Wpg.: 53 (3rd; Tor. first at 68); B.C.: 55 (2nd)
Turnovers forced: Wpg.: 43 (T-3rd; Tor. first at 54); B.C.: 32 (7th)
