Two teams going in two very different directions will square off this Thursday night at Princess Auto Stadium when the Bombers host the Elks.

The Elks find themselves losers of two straight – being beat by BC and Montreal – while the Bombers are winners of two straight beating BC twice. If Princess Auto Stadium was not a hard enough place as it is to come in as a visitor and try and pull out a win, it looks like the Elks starting centre David Beard will be out as he has been placed on the 6-game injured list.

For the Elks there are two things I will be watching for and both have to do with Fords – not the vehicle though. Is it just me or does the Elks’ quarterback, Tre Ford, throw his receiver’s in to positions where they are likely to get their head taken off? The way Winnipeg’s defence hits hard, I wonder if Elks’ receivers will be hearing footsteps and seeing ghosts.

Another major question will be if Tre stays in the pocket, or scrambles even when their is a wide open receiver – if there happens to be a wide open receiver. Last game we saw Tre Ford looking hurried. He moved out of the pocket when he did not have to. Yes, that did result in some long plays, and the Bombers better protect against that. But it also left the Elks in second and long positions as Tre did not spot the open receiver.

Then there is the other Ford, Tyrell. That name should sound familiar to Bomber fans as he used to be a Blue Bomber. Now lining up in the Elks’ defensive backfield it will be interesting to see what presence he has. Will the Bombers purposely target him? Will Tyrell play stay at home defence, or will he try and jump a few balls? He should know Collaros’ tendencies. And if Tyrell does jump some throws, will he be the hero for the Elks with an INT, or a zero by letting up a massive catch and possibly a Bomber touchdown? That is all yet to be seen.

The Bombers are coming into this game on a short week, having played last Saturday. There is some question on whether Demski will play as he is listed as a GDT (game time decision). It should be noted that Demski does far more than catch the ball, he is a terrific blocker. If he is not able to play, his lack of presence may be felt.

Keys To A Bomber Victory
There are a couple of things that the Bombers must do if they are going to win.

They have to either make Ford a pocket passer – which he does not want to be – or they need to flush him from the pocket while maintaining down field coverage and containing Ford himself. It is not good enough simply to make him scramble. If those other parts are not in place and Ford scrambles…it will be a long night for the Bombers. The Bombers have shown in past years that they can lose games against teams that have unconventional quarterbacks…anyone remember the game against Dustin Crum? I see Ford much like Crum. He could throw a ton of interceptions or beat you deep too many times.

The Bombers also have to play clean football. Week 3 saw the Bombers, and particularly Jefferson, take undisciplined penalties. While Jefferson said he will get back to playing how he does and being the leader he is, the rest of the team needs to be disciplined. One major area I want to highlight is on kick returns. How often in the CFL do we see a team have a great return only to be negated by a penalty that did not even help the returner gain yards? That was not a rhetorical question and the answer is far too often! The Bombers need to make sure to help their return game by not falling prey to that.

Finally, I would like to see Collaros have a 3:1 touchdown to interception ratio or better. Last week he threw 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The Bombers still won the game quite easily. But at some point that is not going to work, and you certainly do not want that to be when you are facing an 0-2 team.

If the Bombers do those three things then they should delight the crowd at Princess Auto Stadium on Thursday. If they do not do those three things, we could be in for a very interesting game.

Do you agree or disagree. Let me know in the comments section wherever you are reading this.
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