The Corbett Report, August 15, 2019

Introduction

The 2019 season is rolling right along and so are the Bombers.  After the hiccup that was the East Division road trip the Blue got back on track with a 26-24 victory over the Grey Cup champs last week.  Lots of cranky fans still out there though, among the complaints (with the Corbett report response):

• Nichols didn’t hit the end zone last week (he leads the league in total TDs for the year)
• The offense is nothing without Andrew Harris – he’s been responsible for 56% of the Bombers offense over the past two games (uhmmmmmm and your point is?)
• Bomber play-calling is lacklustre (I guess you’d prefer Calgary’s 2 Interceptions to the Bombers 0 last week cause it’s more “exciting”)

Seems you just can’t make some fans happy.  Even with a 6-2 record.

Former Bomber Milt Stegall offered this assessment yesterday on Bomber fans: “They’re happy with their record but they know they can’t win a Championship with that style of play….” Milt may speak for many Bomber fans but he doesn’t speak for the Corbett report. In this report it says this style of play is the exact style of play that CAN win you a Championship in November.

Milt went on to offer his own critique of the Bombers offense with this tidbit: “You need your quarterback to make some plays, not just dink and dunk with Andrew Harris every time….”. Did I mention that Nichols leads the league in TD passes (14), has the second highest QB rating at 106.2 and has a TD to Interception record of 14:4.  Perhaps Milt was checking the 1988 stats when Sean Salisbury was QB. Perhaps not though, his stats were far worse than Nichols, and oh yeah, that year? The Bombers won the Grey Cup 22-21 over BC on the strength of special teams and a stingy defense.  They scored only 1 TD.  Milt, seriously, take a history lesson.

Welcome to week 10, welcome to the Corbett Report.

The Standings

WEST
Team	Wins	Losses	Pts	For	Against
Winnipeg	6	2	12	237	155
Calgary	5	3	10	215	180
Sask	5	3	10	224	183
Edmonton	5	3	10	195	138
BC	1	7	2	179	276
EAST
Team	Wins	Losses	Pts	For	Against
Hamilton	6	2	12	264	173
Montreal	3	4	6	164	178
Ottawa	3	5	6	168	225
Toronto	1	6	2	103	241

A tight victory last week leaves the Bombers alone in first in the über tight west division. So a win over the cellar dwellers should be a forgone conclusion right? Uhmmmm……not so quick.

The Bombers

So I get the fans’ angst. Let’s face it, until they win the Grey Cup the Bomber fans will be more than a little leery about fully jumping onto the “Grey Cup-bound chuck wagon”.  So many seasons of high hopes and so many seasons that ended in disappointment.  So let’s do, as the Corbett report is known to do, look at the Bombers objectively as they play their final game of the first half of the season:

Here’s where they stand so far:

Offense

Rushing yards: 1^st

Passing yards: 7^th

Points for: 2nd

Pass efficiency: 2^nd

Defense

Turnover ratio: +6 (2^nd)

Interceptions: 12 (2^nd)

Points allowed: 2nd

Special teams

Big play returns: 7 (2^nd)

Punt return average yards given up 8.3 (1^st i.e. fewest)

Average kick offs: 67.2 yards (2^nd)

Field goal %: 82.4% (5^th)

Penalties against: 61 for 554 yards (1^sti.e. fewest)

So I don’t know what you see, but I see a well-balanced team in all three phases of the game.

The Lions

BC made big CFL headlines in the off-season signing Mike Reilly to a $700,000 contract.  Many picked them to be the class of the west this year. Clearly a 1-7 record suggests that hasn’t happened.  So what went wrong? Well, apparently the Lions forgot to recruit any talent beyond Mike Reilly, especially on the offensive line.  The result? Sack after sack after sack.  To put this in perspective consider this: Mike’s old team, Edmonton, has given up 3 sacks all year.  The Bombers have given up 11.  Mike Reilly has been sacked 29 times in 8 games, including 4 times last week.

The Lions however, did show signs of life last week.  Reilly (in spite of the sacks) completed 21 of 26 passes for 306 yards passing and John White contributed 124 yards of rushing enroute to a total offensive production by BC of 457 yards.  It wasn’t quite enough though as the Ti-Cats topped the Lions 35-34.

Still, this team should not be taken lightly.

Keys to the game

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

For the Bombers to win

• Keep on keepin’ on with Mr. Harris
• Continue the return-game dominance
• Bring the heat on Reilly

For the Lions to win

• Establish a run game to keep the pressure off of Reilly
• Hit the big play to Bryan Burnham (149 yards total, 21.3 average last week)
• Force the Bombers to a passing game

The predictions

Picks

Edmonton over Toronto

Hamilton over Ottawa

Calgary over Montreal

And in our feature game, it’s a throw back to 1988

Winnipeg 22  BC 21

Corbett Report Stats so far:

CFL overall        24-17 (69%)

Bomber games     6-2  (75% – a pure coincidence that it’s the same as the Bomber record)

CHEERS!

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