By: Mike Still (@mikestill94), all photos by Matthew Hamilton
Last Sunday – for the first time in 22 months – the Winnipeg Rifles took to the field for a regular season CJFL football game at St. Vital Mustangs field. The squad’s roster looked much different compared to 2019, as over 20 veterans chose to hang up the cleats during the pandemic. As a result, Winnipeg fielded what was likely the youngest group in head coach Geordie Wilson’s six-year tenure as bench-boss, and – to be expected – there were growing pains and lessons to be learned. The first came against the Regina Thunder, who capitalized on Winnipeg’s mistakes, especially in the second half en route to a 37-0 win.
In the first half alone, Winnipeg had five dropped passes, four procedure calls and a few untimely turnovers, one of which led to the Thunder’s first touchdown on a 44-yard Isaac Foord reception.
“The average age on our team is probably 19 and a half. We’re young, and we knew that we were young. We had to go out here and see what was going to happen,” Wilson said postgame. “I think we were at ten drops, seven procedure calls [by the end of the game]. When you have pre-snap penalties, they’ll kill you.”
The Rifles’ defence – led by conference player of the week JoJo Funk-Clements’ eight tackles and a forced fumble, and defensive end Spenser Pilon’s two sacks – kept the Thunder at bay for the most part in the first half. The Foord catch-and-run was the only major for Regina prior to the third quarter, however Winnipeg, who trailed 13-0 at halftime, couldn’t capitalize on the other end. Every one of the team’s drops on offence came on second down, which seemed to have an effect on starting quarterback Bryson McNeil’s confidence. Regina then opened the second half with a pick six and didn’t look back.
McNeil, a first-time CJFLer at 22, was a top-level Division 1 quarterback while at River East. He came to the Rifles as a highly-touted pivot out of the Manitoba Major Junior Football League (MMJFL) and was praised throughout camp for his maturity, leadership and football IQ. He did some good things against the Thunder – keeping multiple plays alive with his feet while keeping his eyes downfield – and didn’t get frustrated despite dealing with a number of high snaps.
“He has some intangibles, first of all because he’s an older kid, he’s 22. He assumed a leadership role and he’s got a lot of composure and moxie when he’s standing in there. I thought he played well, especially in the first half,” Wilson noted.
“He threw some dynamite balls, but guys have to catch them. He’s no different than anyone else, your confidence starts fading a bit and then you start forcing things because we’re getting down. We were trying to hit some drag routes and get [receivers] off coming down the field, because they were playing so deep, we just wanted to get some drags to hit guys when they were moving. I thought overall he played a pretty good game.”
Winnipeg’s best chance to score came late in the third quarter. McNeil connected with first-year receiver Ronin Francis, a Dakota alum, for a 20-yard gain to the one, but the squad couldn’t cash in on three attempts.
One of the host’s issues, not only on the drive, but as a whole, was their snapping. Jackson Haime took over at centre for Dawson Abbott, who was having issues in the shotgun. The team ran into a different issue on the goal line though.
“[Haime] doesn’t have a lot of reps at centre, and we put him in, and what was happening was they were nervous about going under centre with him because we’re on the one-yard line, but I didn’t want to run a wedge from the one. That’s why we called the timeout, to get Jackson a couple of practice snaps,” added Wilson.
“What happened was Sekina [Scheibler], our running back, he essentially started pushing the quarterback before he took the snap. If a quarterback gets into the pile and he’s driving and someone pushes him from behind, they’re fine with it, you just can’t pull him, but Sekina got excited and he actually had his hands on the quarterback before he took the snap. That’s why we got the procedure call. It wasn’t good.”
Winnipeg will get a chance at revenge on Sunday, as they travel to Regina for a 1 pm tilt. The key for Wilson and company will be to clean up their mistakes and play clean football.
“Regina is a good football team, but I don’t think they’re way better than us. If you fix dropped balls, procedure calls, those kinds of mistake are all correctible mistakes. It’s not a physical problem, a lot of guys just need to tune in a bit more and be better.”