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Is Matt Nichols the quarterback who can turn the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ fortunes around?
That’s the hope in Winnipeg and the reason Bombers’ Head Coach Mike O’Shea is handing the ball over to the six-year CFL vet, a little over a week after the 28-year-old quarterback was snagged in a trade with the Edmonton Eskimos. Nichols gets the start in Saturday’s Banjo Bowl, when the Bombers attempt to rebound from the 37-19 drubbing they took at the hands of the same Saskatchewan Roughriders, on Labour Day weekend.
There are a number of things that need to line up for a Winnipeg turnaround and not all of them have to do with whether Nichols can be a number one quarterback.
“Well, we hope it looks different,” was O’Shea’s response when asked whether the Bombers’ offence – ranked at or near the bottom of the league in a slew of important categories, can resemble something other than the stuck-in-the mud unit it has been in the absence of starter Drew Willy.
Nichols will not be the number one quarterback when Willy returns from injury. However, he needs to play like it if the Blue Bombers are to reverse course on what has grown into a four game losing streak, each loss a dagger to the playoff hopes of a team hoping to at least tread water while Willy’s injured knee heals.
With Willy still weeks away from returning – if he can at all this year – Nichols needs to be the pivot many have thought he could be, dating back to the year he first saw game action, in Edmonton, in 2012. That’s when he posted a QB rating of 107.7, in limited action, before a terrible leg injury forced him to miss the entire 2013 season.
There are concerns over Nichols’ capabilities, especially in light of the short amount of time he’s been in Winnipeg, poring over the Bombers’ offensive designs. “I’ve been in three or four offences since I’ve been up here, Nichols said this week,” waving off those concerns. “I feel very comfortable, already, in it. I feel like I’ve been running it for months.”
With his CFL experience, Nichols should be able to find some sort of forward gear for the Bombers’ offence. Maybe even without having a firm grip on all the pages of the playbook. Even if he were to take over his first huddle and just say “Clarence, run a post. Nick, down out and down. Darvin, twelve yard hook,” that might be enough to fire things up.
| Nichols not a numbers guy |
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“I don’t care at all what those stats say. I know that I’ve been playing football at a high level for a long time.” – Matt Nichols in response to his interception numbers and focused on ‘Ws’ |
With a quarterback rating of 75.6, Nichols’ has not posted extraordinary numbers, this season. Yet, he’ll be an improvement over Brian Brohm and Robert Marve, whose ratings of 53.2 and 54.6, respectively, have shrunk Winnipeg’s team efficiency rating to 81.9, second worst in the CFL, just ahead of the Montreal Alouettes. And that’s with Willy’s impressive 106.6 rating factored in. You can see just how mired in the muck Winnipeg’s passing game has been.
What Nichols will bring the Bombers is something O’Shea believes can add another dimension to Winnipeg’s aerial game. The coach admitted, this week, that the lack of a deep game has hurt his team in Willy’s absence. “At times,” he agreed, “I think that’s been noticeable. Sometimes it’s been planned that way to lessen the load in terms of the thought process, the decision-making that the quarterbacks have to go through.”
In other words, a short passing game has been a large part of the design, to take some pocket heat off Brohm and Marve and that’s another area where the Bombers need improvement, with or without Nichols under centre.
Worst in the league, last season, at protecting the quarterback, Winnipeg is in that spot once again in 2015. Allowing a sack every 9.9 drop backs, that’s a far cry from the league’s best team, the B.C. Lions, at one every 22.5. The league average is one every 12.5. The question is: what’s the correlation between that number and having young quarterbacks in the pocket? Quarterbacks that might hold the ball a little too long as they scan a defence?
In that, the Blue Bombers hope Nichols’ experience will allow for quicker decisions and an offence that flows, as opposed tot he unit that is tied with Toronto with a league-worst 61 two-and-outs.
“I think he gives us a good chance in terms of understanding CFL defences,” O’Shea said of the decision to start Nichols on Saturday.
“Understand what the defence is doing and get the ball out quick,” said Nichols, when asked about the keys to stringing together some first downs for his new team.
That’s one of those things that’s easier said than done, of course and Nichols’ numbers in Edmonton this year suggest that hasn’t always gone well. With 10 interceptions and 8 touchdown passes as well as that not very lofty QB efficiency rating, Nichols is nonetheless confident.
“I don’t care at all what those stats say,” he responds, in the face of those interception numbers. “I know that I’ve been playing football at a high level for a long time.”
He then went on to document why interception numbers may not always be what they seem and he’s not wrong there. Tried to force one in on 3rd and twenty against Toronto, he said, late in the game, with the Eskimos down. Same thing in B.C., he argued.
In Edmonton’s Week 4 victory in Ottawa, you find a microcosm of Matt Nichols’ 2015 season and of the questions around what he is and can be, in Winnipeg. That night, he threw three interceptions, two of them with his team in the red zone. Could have been a blowout, but those picks allowed Ottawa to stay in the game. In the fourth quarter, however, Nichols went 5 for 8, including a beautiful bomb to Kendial Lawrence for a major score. No interceptions.
So, which is it for Matt Nichols as he begins his stay in Winnipeg?
His career – and the Bombers’ season – have reached a pivot point at exactly the same time. Answers to come on Saturday night.
