Ball security just wasn’t enough for Nichols, Bombers offence

CALGARY — Calm, cool, and collected.

Unfortunately for Matt Nichols, that just wasn’t enough.

Riding a streak of not throwing an interception in 165 pass attempts in the playoffs, Nichols and the offence just couldn’t quite find the one play head coach Mike O’Shea felt they needed to break away from the stalemate against the Stampeders.

Nichols completed 15 of his 32 pass attempts on Sunday. While facing the tight coverage the Stampeders were offering up, the Bombers’ quarterback managed to squeak out a 156-yard performance through the air.

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Andrew Harris sits alone on Winnipeg’s bench following his team’s 22-14 loss to the Stampeders in Sunday’s Western Final. (Dave Chidley, CFL.ca)

They’re not impressive numbers, but they’re numbers that have allowed the Bombers to put themselves in the position to go on and win games. Just last week, Nichols threw for a mere 169 yards as he completed 16 of his 22 pass attempts and a touchdown at Mosaic Stadium in the Western Semi-Final.

“You win or lose as a team,” said O’Shea following the Western Final loss. “Big credit to Calgary. They played a really good game. Up until that last score, I thought it was real tight. It could have gone either way but somebody’s got to lose.”

With the Stampeders defence playing their usual dominating scheme, Nichols often found himself scrambling in the backfield in an attempt to extend plays, often resulting in him needing to settle with a throwaway out of bounds as his receivers struggled all game long to get open.

“Honestly, I felt like we played a pretty solid game. The yards just weren’t there,” Nichols said.

“Going into this, I said it was going to be one or two plays that are going to net out the winner, and they made a couple more than we did,” O’Shea said. “But it’s not about overthrows, it’s about the entire 60 minutes and what we didn’t do. It just didn’t work out.”

As for Nichols, who won his first playoff game since joining the Blue Bombers in 2015 this year in last weekend’s Semi-Final victory over the Roughriders, his efforts against the Stampeders just weren’t enough to propel the Bombers ahead, coming up short of sending Winnipeg to their first Grey Cup appearance since 2011.

“It’s difficult. I mean, you go into a game like this with no doubt you’re going to win,” Nichols said following the game. “So when you don’t, I don’t know, it’s a pretty terrible feeling.”

Nichols expressed his frustration, especially following a game in which the Winnipeg defence did their part in forcing two-and-outs, giving the Bombers’ offence back the ball.

Head coach Mike O’Shea comforts veteran DB Chris Randle as the Bombers leave the field following Sunday’s loss in the Western Final.

“They played incredible,” said Nichols. “I think they deserved better. I think that if we scored one or two more times, we had play opportunities, especially in the second half. They kept getting us the ball back. It’s unfortunate — we couldn’t quite get anything going. Our guys were playing hard. Everyone was playing good. They just outplayed us today.”

Yet, in the shadow of defeat, Nichols still took time to recognize the effort his opponent also put forth, more specifically their defence.

The Stampeders defence managed to haul Nichols down on three occasions, as well as tally five pass knockdowns in Sunday’s Western Final at McMahon Stadium.

“They played good tonight,” Nichols said. “We just couldn’t quite get into a rhythm. Full credit to them. They outplayed us tonight.”