Streveler ‘showed a lot of heart’ in Bombers loss against Calgary

There are zero doubts about his toughness, his heart, or his grit. Chris Streveler had already earned that in spades through his almost two years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Even with that, his warrior-like effort in Saturday’s 37-33 loss to the Calgary Stampeders had teammates raving afterward, even in defeat.

“I’ll say this: Strev, he showed a lot of heart,” said Bombers left tackle Stanley Bryant in a quiet visitors dressing room in McMahon Stadium Saturday night. “He’s our guy now and he stepped up and made plays with his legs, with his arms. He’s one of those guys you believe in because he’s giving his all on each and every play. The O-line has his back.”

“Strev’s a tough dude,” added receiver Kenny Lawler. “He plays with tremendous heart and tenacity. He’s a competitor at heart. When he went down it didn’t look good, but I knew he was going to do everything he could to get back into the game. That’s who he is.”

Still, the bigger question now for the Bombers in the wake of Saturday’s loss is whether Streveler will be healthy enough to take the first snap in Friday night’s rematch with the Stamps at IG Field.

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Streveler, simply put, took an absolute pounding against the Stampeders defence, appearing to injure his throwing hand just before halftime and then being forced to leave the game with under eight minutes remaining – only to return and, while limping noticeably, attempt to lead the Bombers to a late rally.

His availability won’t become clearer until the club returns to practice on Tuesday. Even then, it’s not clear who would get the first call out of the bullpen between rookie Sean McGuire and newly-acquired veteran Zach Collaros.

It was McGuire who entered the game when Streveler was forced to leave for two plays in the fourth quarter, just missing Lucky Whitehead for a long attempt down the sidelines before connecting with Andrew Harris for a three-yard gain while facing a blitz.

Streveler returned after that, but was sacked on a third and 10 with 1:42 left and then was intercepted on a Hail Mary attempt on the last play of the game. Asked about returning to the game when he was struggling with an assortment of injuries, Streveler said:

“Everyone’s out there battling. I love every one of those guys in that locker room, in that huddle and I love fighting with them. It is what it is.”

As for his ankle injury, Streveler added: “I think I’ll be fine and we’ll just go from there.”

Bombers management is big on McGuire, who impressed enough in training camp to earn the No. 3 QB gig over veteran Bryan Bennett. But the trade for Collaros last week provided a veteran presence in a guy who, despite taking only two snaps this year, is 34-31 as a starter in this league. He had just three practices last week, but could get two more full sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thursday’s walk-through.

That’s part of why McGuire was first off the bench on Saturday.

“In practice he’s right and also, if we get into a situation where we’ve got to run hurry-up, Sean’s been doing that all year and Zach’s had a week of it,” said O’Shea. “We wanted to get him in there, get him loose and see what he could do. He was right… he delivered the ball and just missed that one to Lucky, which is unfortunate.”