O’Shea doesn’t tip his hand on who starts for Bombers in season finale

Nichols left last weekend’s 36-27 loss to the B.C. Lions in the first quarter after falling to the turf untouched and grabbing the lower part of his left leg.

The game was the second attempt by the Bombers (11-6) to try to get a win that would clinch second place in the CFL West Division and a home playoff date for the first time since 2011.

A victory against the Stampeders (13-3-1) can still do that or an Edmonton (11-6) loss to Saskatchewan (10-7).

O’Shea had proclaimed Davis as the No. 2 quarterback this season and the third-year pivot went in when Nichols was injured. In only his third appearance this season, Davis was 7-of-12 passing for 82 yards before LeFevour replaced him early in the fourth quarter.

LeFevour threw two interceptions on the way to completing five of his 12 pass attempts for 42 yards. but O’Shea wasn’t dismissing him as an option.

“We’ve got another day of practise and we’ll see how it goes,” O’Shea said. “But Dan’s also had more starts and some more success in this league as a starter.”

Winnipeg became LeFevour’s fourth CFL club after he signed in February. The six-year veteran has seven career starts, including three (1-2) with Toronto last season. He’s been used in Winnipeg’s short-yardage situations.

“I think they’ll both tell you they didn’t execute at a high level,” O’Shea said in assessing the pair’s performance against the Lions. “But we need better execution around them, too.”

O’Shea also gave an update on running back Andrew Harris, who left the B.C. game late in the fourth after a helmet-to-helmet collision with Lions linebacker Dyshawn Davis.

Harris “ran around” during the closed practice and he’ll be checked Wednesday, O’Shea said. Offensive lineman Travis Bond, who missed the B.C. game because of injury, didn’t practice.

If there was one good thing that came out of the loss to the Lions it was the bounce-back game from Justin Medlock.

The kicker made all seven of his field-goal tries from a range of distances, including between 14 and 48 yards.

In the previous week’s 29-28 loss to Toronto, Medlock missed two of his four field-goal attempts, including from 39 yards as time expired. A win would have given the Bombers second place.

With a third chance on the line Friday and a new starting quarterback, every point will count, but Medlock wasn’t adding any extra pressure on himself.

“I don’t really even look at the offence or defence,” he said.

“I just look at the opportunities that I’m given and just try to take advantage of them and help the offence out and help the defence out in field position. I try not to worry about all that stuff.”

He didn’t even view his perfect outing as a confidence-booster.

“My confidence has always been pretty up,” Medlock said. “It was a good game and I was glad to come through.

“I knew I would come through eventually. I’m a good kicker. I think I’m the best kicker in this league so I wasn’t really too worried about it.”

Medlock’s 79.1 percentage (53-of-67) is at the bottom of the league.

Judy Owen, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press