Four games down, four to go.
The Thunderbird football team has now reached the midway mark of its season and things are starting to look a bit better. Thanks to the 62-0 win against the University of Alberta Golden Bears, the ’Birds are now 2-2 and place fourth in Canada West. If the playoffs were to begin today, UBC would secure a spot.
A 2-2 record may not seem all that impressive, but when you consider that the ’Birds struggled to play consistently in their first three games, you’ve got to give them credit.
Head coach Blake Nill has said in past games about how “the inconsistencies with the young kids that [the T-Birds] have” took its toll on the team’s performance. For him, the last win against the Golden Bears might very well be the turning point of the season.
62-0 isn’t just any ordinary win. It is the biggest margin of victory in team history — surpassing the 60-0 win that UBC had against the same opponent in 2013. It was also the 11th straight time that UBC has defeated Alberta.
UBC’s offence was noticeably strong against Alberta and the stats do speak for themselves. Starting quarterback Michael O’Connor threw a total of 417 passing yards for five touchdowns. Receivers Will Watson and Marcus Davis also had 131 and 99 receiving yards respectively.
Sure, consistency wasn’t quite at its best to start the season, but the game against Alberta showed that the ’Birds clearly have the potential.
Still, this doesn’t mean that the T-Birds can let their guard down just yet. In the next game, UBC will have to face the Manitoba Bisons — to which the team suffered a 50-7 loss during last month’s exhibition game.
With two other Canada West teams currently holding a 2-2 record — those being the Bisons and the Saskatchewan Huskies — the ’Birds have very little room for error. One more wrong move and the season may go completely down the drain for UBC.
On Manitoba’s side of things, Theo Deezar remains one of the strongest quarterbacks in CIS football. Deezar has averaged 381.8 passing yards per game this season — the second most of all CIS quarterbacks. For UBC, the pressure will be on the defence to keep Deezar in check.
With the many changes that the UBC defensive line has gone through, Nill believes that the ’Birds’ defence has steadily shown improvement and it must stay this way if the team wants to get by Manitoba.
“The defence continues to play better and so there are positives out there, but we have to win some games,” said Nill.
A brighter future does lie ahead for the ’Birds and now, it’s all about just making it happen.
The match against the Bisons will kick into action at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 30 at Thunderbird Stadium.
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