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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Blue charge too little too late

Strong second half can't atone for brutal beginning

By: Ed Tait

Posted: 08/9/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Calgary Stampeders receiver Titus Ryan (83) reaches for the ball in front of Winnipeg Blue Bombers defender Keyuo Craver during Saturday night's game at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. (DEAN BICKNELL / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE)

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Calgary's Dwight Anderson wraps up Bombers running back Fred Reid (32). (JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

CALGARY -- And Mike Kelly thought he had a problem with Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans for their on-again off-again, lust-hate relationship with the Blue and Gold...

It turns out fans may simply be adopting the very same disorder of his football team.

And that team -- based on evidence served up in Saturday night's 31-23 loss to the Calgary Stampeders -- is so messed up it's got more personalities than Sybil and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde combined.

The Bombers were positively dreadful in the first half in front of a sold-out crowd of 35,650 at McMahon Stadium, falling behind 23-3 while generating just five first downs -- three by penalty -- and 82 net yards, but to their immense credit bolted out of the grave in the second half with a valiant final 30 minutes, albeit in a losing cause.

Pushed all over the park in the first 30 minutes, the Bombers drove the ball down the Stamps' throats in the second half by rediscovering their ground game as Fred Reid (17 carries for 167 yards) and rookie Yvenson Bernard (six carries for 54 yards) combined to jump-start the attack. Reid scored twice in the second half to pull the Bombers close, but two last-ditch attempts inside the final two minutes both ended in turnovers -- Reid stopped on a third-and-two run and Michael Bishop intercepted by Wes Lysack with 28 seconds remaining.

The loss drops the Bombers to 2-4 while the Stamps, for the fifth consecutive season, hit the one-third mark at 3-3. The Bombers have now dropped seven straight at McMahon and are a grotesque 3-18 in their last 21 trips to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

Listed as 14 1/2-point underdogs heading into the game, the Bombers looked every bit the part of punching bag in the first half as Stampeder quarterback Henry Burris sliced through the defence with the precision of a brain surgeon. Burris hooked up with Joffrey Reynolds for a 17-yard score while throwing for 247 in two quarters as the Stampeder offence held the ball for 19 minutes and 58 seconds and worked over a Winnipeg defence that looked dog tired.

And the Bomber attack, such as it was in the first two quarters, was two-plays-and-out on its first four possessions, didn't register its first completion until there was 10:30 left in the half and its first first down until there was 7:47 remaining as the Stamps built a 16-zip lead. What's worse was the team's atrocious handling of the clock in the half's final moments as the they messed up a chance for at least a field goal, scrimmaging from the Calgary 25-yard line with 19 seconds remaining, but taking so long to get the play off that a 15-yard completion to Terrence Edwards to the Stampeder 10 ended the half.

But the Bombers found some sort of spark at halftime -- a 10,000-volt spark -- and were a completely different outfit in the second half, outscoring the Stamps 20-8. The comeback began on the first series of the third quarter when the Bombers drove 86 yards on eight plays, capped by an eight-yard TD run by Reid. The lead was cut to 23-13 following an 18-yard field-goal by Alexis Serna -- who hit a career long 54-yarder for the only Bomber scoring in the first half -- but the Stamps delivered the KO punch when Burris connected with Titus Ryan for a 36-yard TD that put Calgary ahead 30-13.

Again the Bombers countered as they marched 82 yards on nine plays, with the drive capped by Reid dragging two defenders into the end zone. The Bombers' Bishop, who took a beating, finished 16 of 30 for 209 yards and was intercepted once.

Alas, the Bombers learned the hard way you can't go toe-to-toe with the champs for just 30 minutes and expect to steal a victory.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 9, 2009 C1

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