The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will stop trying to pound a square peg into the round hole left whenever quarterback Drew Willy gets hurt.

Brian Brohm, who for seven weeks was the No. 2 quarterback to the bewilderment of many, won't be seeing the field again anytime soon, barring another injury.

Head coach Mike O'Shea says Robert Marve showed enough in his first start against Toronto 10 days ago to take over as the starter as long as Willy is out.

“Yeah, right now we're committing to Robert,” O'Shea said after the team's first practice, Sunday, following the bye week. “Give him the ball and let him run with it.”

Marve produced 15 first-half points but faded down the stretch, along with his team, in a 27-20 loss to the Argonauts, Winnipeg's fourth loss in five games.

“He played a very strong first half and part of the third quarter,” O'Shea said. “I thought he got a little tired. He gave us a chance to win. We had a lead. We gave it up.

“He's got a lot of potential. A lot of room to grow. He's only been with us for a year and a half. He has no problem with the play book. He has no problem athletically. He fits the bill as a CFL quarterback. It's just a matter of getting experience.”

He'll get that against the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders, here, Saturday.

Against the Argos, Marve hit on 18 of 29 passes for 203 yards, with one touchdown and a long interception.

“I played OK,” he said, acknowledging his game conditioning needs work. “There's times I made some big plays and there's times I played like a rookie a little bit. It was kind of in between. I'm excited about the coming week.”

Marve, who stayed in Winnipeg for the bye week, did throw a touchdown pass, something Brohm is still looking for.

He says his second start should look different than his first.

“It's like anything you do, your second time doing it, going through it. My feelings and my emotions about it, I'm excited. I want to get the thing rolling. Seeing how the West is starting to shape itself a little bit, in the conference play we need to start winning.”

Calgary, leading the West at 6-2, is coming off a 34-31 win over Saskatchewan.

The Bombers, 3-5, are tied with B.C. for the third and final playoff spot in the West.

MYSTERY FACE

An offensive lineman wearing No. 62 was standing around practice, but the Bombers wouldn't identify him, saying only they were working him out.

O'Shea confirmed starting tackle Jace Daniels is out with a broken ankle, likely for the season.

URGENCY REQUIRED

O'Shea says he didn't spend the entire bye week worrying about his troubled special teams.

Based on Sunday's practice, it's a priority.

“More urgency,” is one of the things he wants to see. “When you have an extra day it goes back to a checklist of what's been slipping, maybe. We went back to some drills from training camp.”

NO COUCH POTATOES

So what kind of condition did the Bombers return in?

“They didn't show up right off the couch,” O'Shea said. “I've seen it before, been part of teams where you can tell there's a whole handful of guys who did nothing. That's not the case with this group. They want it badly... the week off wasn't going to stop them from doing what they needed to do to come back ready to work.”

paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @friesensunmedia