The Corbett Report, August 10, 2018

Introduction

 Serena Ryder rocked Harbourfest last weekend so fitting that we start with a song from her.

Bombers are coming off the bye week and when they opened the sports section (do people still buy newspapers) they saw that they’re right were they were when they left, i.e. in 3^rdplace.  What’s also happened however is that there is beginning to be some separation in the West division standings.  Calgary and Edmonton both won over weekend defeating Saskatchewan and BC respectively so now the West standings look like this:

Calgary     14 points

Edmonton 10 points

Winnipeg    8 points

Sask             6 points

BC               4 points

 

What they’ll also note is that the East isn’t a very strong division so suffice to say that it looks like another year of a West to East crossover.

Before the break the Bombers won back to back games against Toronto to stop their trend of 1 good game/1 bad game. Let’s be realistic though, beating the (now 2-5) Argos is hardly an accomplishment.  With Labour Day and a slew of Western division match ups on the horizon, it’s time for Blue to start playing consistent, error free football.

Tonight would be a good place to start.

Welcome to week 9.  Welcome to the Corbett Report.

The Bombers

The Bombers faced Hamilton in game 3 of the season in what was a humbling experience. Jeremiah Masoli shredded the Bombers secondary seemingly hitting receivers at will.  The Bomber defenders looked like they were standing as still as cars in the Tim Horton’s field drive thru as Masoli completed pass after pass to wide open receivers.

The game also saw Chris Streveler show that he still had a lot of growing to do.  At one point the Bombers went six consecutive series without a first down.  The final score, 31 – 17, with the 17 point total actually flattering the Bombers who were anemic all night on both sides of the ball.

A lot has changed since week 3 though.  The defense has shown promise and with Matt Nichols back at the helm the offense has been putting up decent numbers. The Bombers should be well rested and are relatively healthy.  Hamilton will be a good test for them to show that they belong with the Edmontons and Calgarys of the league and are not an average middle of the pack team.

The Ti-cats

At 3-4 the Ti-Cats are in second in the East.  Like the Bombers however they’ve been inconsistent from game to game. They finally got rid of the Johnny Manziel distraction (how’s that working out for you Montreal?), and so this is Jeremiah Masoli’s team now.  The Cat’s looked unbeatable last week during a 50 – 11 pommeling of Montreal, but looked pretty ordinary the week before against Ottawa.

This game will be a good test for Hamilton as well.  Are they just another weak Eastern division squad or do they have enough talent to be legit contenders.

Keys to the game

 

So with all of that said, here are the keys to the game:

For the Bombers to win

 

• Get the rust off early. After two weeks off it’s important to regain momentum
• Win the O-line vs. D-line battle. Hamilton have a staunch defense and will be looking to shut down the run
• Win the turnover battle

 For the Ti-cats to win

•  Score early to show last week’s performance in Montreal can carry over
• Pressure Nichols
• Hold Harris to less than 100 yards rushing

 

The predictions

Only 3 games this week

• Edmonton over BC (Wally’s final season is turning into a nightmare)
• Ottawa over Montreal (Johnny who?)

And of course in our feature game:

The Bombers get revenge from week 3

Winnipeg 36  Hamilton 20