By: Mike Still (@mikestill94)
Feature photo: Dylan Schrot makes a tremendous grab against Saskatchewan. Photo by Trevor Hagan.
This article originally appeared on gobisons.ca by the same author. You can view it here.
You’d be hard pressed to find a more entertaining U SPORTS football home opener than this past Friday at Investors Group Field, where Manitoba came up two points shy against the #10-ranked Saskatchewan Huskies. It was a game that included lead changes, pick-sixes, onside kicks and everything in between. But when push came to shove, it was the 2-0 Huskies that emerged victorious, handing the Bisons their second consecutive loss to start the season.
Despite the result, Brian Dobie maintained faith in his team.
“We’re pretty good. We honestly are,” he said following the contest. “This is the best team we’ve had for sure in their performances since 2014. It just is.”
Some might consider this statement to be particularly bold. But when you analyze the first two contests Manitoba has played – both of which have been against nationally ranked opponents – then it’s relatively easy to understand Dobie’s faith in his team.
In week one against UBC, the Bisons made as many positive plays on both sides of ball as their opponent, but were hindered by some costly mistakes on special teams. This week, they went score-for-score with the Huskies and were a two-point convert away from taking the contest to overtime. Additionally, they’ve lost those first two games by a combined total of just 12 points.
“I like that they believe that they’re good and that they believe that they should win. That’s really hard to get a locker room to honestly feel that way,” Dobie said of his team. “I like that about them. I like the pieces that are on the field in most of our positions. We’ve got a couple weak areas in spots, but we’ve got a lot of strengths.”
One of those strengths is third-year pivot Des Catellier, who has thrown for 803 yards in his first season as the bona fide number one guy for the Bisons. That’s just 13 yards shy of the conference lead. His 401.5 yards per game is also second in the conference and his six passing touchdowns also tie him for second in that category. Granted, we’re just two weeks into the season, however his numbers are currently above two fifth-year quarterbacks, including former Hec Crighton winner Noah Picton of Regina.
“Des Catellier is a legit Canada West quarterback. And I can’t give him a bigger complement,” Dobie said. “He gives us a chance right off the bat.”
Catellier is also complemented by tremendous depth all across board offensively. Receivers Dylan Schrot and Macho Bockru— the latter of which went off for 185 yards and two scores against Saskatchewan — are currently third and fourth in the conference in receiving yards, while fellow pass-catchers Shai Ross, Riley Harrison and Trysten Dyce have all made big plays early on. On top of that, running back Jamel Lyles had over 100 yards rushing this past weekend and is a threat to score every time he has the ball.
“I like our offence. I like the design of our offence and I think Blaire [Atkinson] is doing a great job as offensive coordinator,” Dobie said. “We’ve got a really good group of receivers and we protect our quarterback for the most part. So we give ourselves a chance to make plays, get first downs and score points.”
Defensively, the Bisons have an eight-man rotation in their front four that looks to be gaining more confidence, while fifth-year halfback Schneider Charles had a pick-six against the Huskies.
But despite all the positives, Manitoba is still 0-2 for a third straight season. They’ll need to play their best football going forward in order to have a chance to make the postseason for the first time since 2015.
“We’ve got to win four of the six games. That’s the position we’re in right now. [The season] is so short,” Dobie said.
“We’ll be okay. We can beat anyone. That’s not rah-rah talk. We can beat anybody. But we can also lose to anybody. It’s the Canada West [conference]. But boy those opportunities don’t come around that often, and we had two in a row that were right there to take and we just couldn’t convert them.”