The Montreal Alouettes are going to get their first taste of a short week in 2018 when they take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Percival Molson Stadium on Friday night.

The Als, who had just two full practices before their home opener, will seemingly make a couple of changes to their lineup on Friday night.

Wednesday’s practice, which was held at the turf field between Saputo Stadium and Olympic Stadium, lasted just over two hours. The weather was great, but it was extremely windy.

Here are some of the things I noticed during practice:

• John Bowman (ankle) wasn’t out there with his teammates. Bowman practiced on Tuesday, but he hopped on the field early and left early, according to head coach Mike Sherman. It’s unclear if he’ll be able to make his regular-season debut on Friday night.

• Safety Joe Burnett is dealing with a quad injury. He wasn’t out there for practice today, so seeing him suit up against the Bombers is unlikely to happen.

• Luc Brodeur-Jourdain is dealing with an undisclosed injury, per Sherman. He didn’t practice today, either.

• Veteran defender Chip Cox was a healthy scratch in last week’s game against the Lions, but it looks like he’ll be making a return to the lineup on Friday night. Cox took a number of snaps with the first-team defence on Wednesday night (it appeared to be at the expense of rookie Tyquwan Glass).

• Canadian receiver George Johnson, who has been out since early in training camp, took a few reps with the first-team offence. He could be closing in on a return in the near future.

• Sean Jamieson was practicing at right tackle with the starters today. It looks like Montreal will start four Canadian offensive linemen on Friday night.

• The secondary dropped quite a few potential interceptions on Wednesday. Mitchell White had a ball bounce right off his hands moments before Jermaine Robinson had the same thing happen to him. Robinson did a handful of pushups after his blunder.

• The Als leaned on Tyrell Sutton quite a bit in Week 1. Given his running style, I wonder if they want to keep him a little fresher in games. They gave backup running backs Stefan Logan and William Stanback some carries with the first-team offence during practice, so those guys might get the ball a little more during a game so that Sutton can take a break once in a while.

• Quarterback Matthew Shiltz, who suffered a back injury during training camp, is expected to miss two more weeks of action.

• It’s pretty clear that Jeff Mathews is Drew Willy’s backup quarterback now that Antonio Pipkin is no longer in the picture. Mathews got a few reps with the starting offence. Willy is still the guy.

• Fun fact: Practice roster receiver Chris Harper has changed jersey number. He’s wearing number 6 instead of number 8 (the more you know).

—

You can follow Joey Alfieri on Twitter by clicking here and on Instagram by clicking here.