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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Playing the Blue Bombers guessing game
Nothing is flushed in the CFL until the last swirl makes its way to the sewer of lost seasons.
So even at 3-9, it is too early to put a final determination on this version of the Blue Bombers.
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The last three minutes of a CFL game can see more ups and downs than a toilet seat at a mixed party. Same goes for the stretch run to the playoffs.
So if you think your Winnipeg Blue Bombers are done and done, you're wrong.
There are still possibilities where this club and the post-season are concerned. There is also a list of questions that must be answered regarding the future of this franchise and these final six games of the season should help provide insight into some of the answers, if not all of them.
1. Will the Bombers reach the post-season?
Amazingly they're just two wins off the post-season pace. Right now the Edmonton Eskimos, with a record of 5-7, would crossover into the East to be the sixth and final qualifier leaving the Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats out of the picture. As bad as Winnipeg has been to date, the Tabbies and Eskimos are only marginally better. If the Bombers go on a run and put together three or four wins over the final stretch they could earn themselves a playoff date. Should you hold off on your vacation plans? Let's see what Saturday night's match with the Toronto Argonauts brings. A win over the Argos this week and a loss for the Eskimos, who face the Calgary Stampeders, would leave the Bombers just one game back and keep the final five games interesting.
2. WILL JOE MACK BE BACK?
It would be hard to imagine, if the season were to end today, the Bombers keeping their GM for another season. But Mack has insisted the talent is there to win games and he pinned the club's early losses on Paul LaPolice when he fired him. More losses will expose Mack's theory as more than hollow. Mack clipped LaPo and hired Burke saying it wasn't the players but the coaching. If the same players lose under another coach, when is it determined it's not the coaches and a new GM must be brought in? If the Bombers only a win one or two more games this season, does Mack get a third coach and the chance to start next season? Or will CEO Garth Buchko and the board of directors put together a search committee and begin the hunt for a new football operations leader?
3. WILL TIM BURKE REMAIN AS HEAD COACH?
I like Burke and would like to see him given a full off-season and training camp to get his team ready to play. He took a major bullet for the franchise when he agreed to step up and run the club for the rest of this season with no increase in pay. Burke got his starting quarterback in the lineup last week and earned a win. What's the level of success he needs to achieve the rest of the way to be named head coach? Two wins? Three wins? A lot will depend on Mack's status because a new GM will have to be given the chance to hire his own people.
4. BUCK PIERCE -- NOW AND FOREVER OR NEVER AGAIN
No doubt, he's the best of the bunch on the Bombers roster. But is that good enough? The franchise needs to determine a course at the most important position on the field. Should one of Alex Brink, Justin Goltz or Joey Elliott be playing the last games of the season in order to gain some experience? Or have we seen enough of them to know they're not the answer? Know this, Mack needs wins to stick around and so does Burke. If Pierce is healthy they'll want him in the lineup. Is that what's best for the franchise?
5. LEADERS OR LOSERS
Lots of talk this season has centred around losing leaders such as Doug Brown, Brendon LaBatte, Clint Kent and Joe Lobendahn. A new leader has not emerged on the offensive line and on defence it was expected that Jovon Johnson and Jonathan Hefney would take on bigger roles. They haven't. Can young Henoc Muamba continue his surge at middle linebacker and become the top dog on the D? Should one of Johnson or Hefney or both be moved in the off-season to change the flavour of the defence? Johnson has been critical of his own play coming off a Defensive Player of the Year season in 2011. The club needs much more from him down the stretch.
gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 28, 2012 C3
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Yep, new stadium a beauty all right
1:00 AM 0Back in 2006 at the last Grey Cup this city hosted, lots of out-of-town guests were badmouthing our football stadium. ...
About Gary Lawless
Gary Lawless is the Free Press sports columnist and co-host of the Hustler and Lawless show on TSN 1290 Winnipeg and www.winnipegfreepress.com
Lawless began covering sports as a rookie reporter at The Chronicle-Journal in Thunder Bay after graduating from journalism school at Durham College in Ontario.
After a Grey Cup winning stint with the Toronto Argonauts in the communications department, Lawless returned to Thunder Bay as sports editor.
In 1999 he joined the Free Press and after working on the night sports desk moved back into the field where he covered pro hockey, baseball and football beats prior to being named columnist.
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