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The Blue Bombers offensive line had a strong showing in Friday’s 20-3 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos.

“I saw a lot of guys getting better, a lot of guys getting physical and trying to live up to the standard we’ve created over the last two years,” said Hardrick. “It’s very encouraging to watch them on the tape after the game and from being on the sideline, I saw guys catching bodies and guys keeping the quarterback up.”

The Blue Bombers close out the pre-season on Thursday at Mosaic Stadium against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and open the regular season in Vancouver on June 15 against the B.C. Lions.

Despite having some turnover along the offensive line, Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea isn’t worried about Hardrick needing to get into any game action before the regular season opens.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m quite comfortable with Jermarcus being able to play and the effort he gives is top-notch,” said O’Shea. “I don’t need to see him play (in the pre-season).”

GOOD HABITS

It’s never too early for a defence to get excited about creating turnovers in the red zone.

So when middle linebacker Adam Bighill forced Logan Kilgore to fumble at the one-yard line and Willie Jefferson recovered, it was a sign of what general manager Kyle Walters envisioned when he signed the defensive end in free agency.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re all going to have our opportunities to make plays, but when you bring a guy like Willie in, he’s such a dynamic player and he can do a lot of things,” said Bighill. “It’s a mentality that we’re going to defend every blade of grass on this field and that’s a prime example. At the end of the day, I felt like we played a pretty clean game in terms of execution on defence, a fairly clean game as far as penalties, those are the things you look for off the top.