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Kevin Glenn (CP)

A sign displayed in the west-side grandstand said it all:

Hey Glenn! Break a leg!

Thankfully, it didn't come to that, but an injury to Kevin Glenn, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback and former Blue Bomber pivot, did factor into the story of Winnipeg's 19-3 win in the East Final at Canad Inns Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Glenn left the game in the third quarter with a right knee injury after being brought down by Bombers defensive end Rodney Fritz. He left the field on his own power and tried to move on it, but the club decided he wasn't ready to return.

Another crash-landing for Glenn involving the East Final and the Bombers.

Back in 2007, as a member of the Bombers, he broke his arm in the waning moments of a win in Toronto, and was forced to miss the Grey Cup the following week. Sunday, he was forced to leave a close game -- a 10-point contest many in the Hamilton room thought they could have won with the veteran at the controls and the wind at their back -- and the memories of '07 came flooding back.

"You get this close to a berth in the Grey Cup and you don't come away with it, it's disappointing," said Glenn, who finished the game 13-of-18 for 113 yards despite having little help around him in the Ticats offence.

The 11-year veteran was visibly upset after the contest. Losing the game and a chance to play in the Grey Cup is certainly difficult to swallow, but that feeling of déjà vu was equally bitter.

"There's nothing I can do about it," he said. "It's one of those things where you say it... there's really nothing I can do about it. That kind of stuff happens...

"It just hurts that it happens in these particular times, in these situations. It sucks."

Ticats backup Quinton Porter came in for Glenn and finished 3-of-11 for 40 yards passing.

Some in the Hamilton room after the game felt Glenn's injury was the difference in the contest -- and we'll never know how the game would have turned out had he not been injured -- but it's easy to forecast a similar outcome thanks to the play of the Winnipeg's defence.

All week the Tabbies, who put up big numbers on offence in the semifinal against Montreal, talked about how running the ball at Canad Inns Stadium was paramount, given the Bombers stingy secondary and the wintery weather.

That didn't materialize.

Hamilton managed just 39 yards on the ground and the Bombers defence held running back Avon Cobourne to just 28 yards on nine carries (he had 13 touches in the game). Head coach Marcel Bellefeuille said before the contest he wanted to get Cobourne 19-21 opportunities with the football but the Winnipeg defence didn't allow that to happen.

Not only did they chase Glenn from the game, they forced the Ticats to throw the game plan into the cold Manitoba air and try their luck through the air with Porter's arm.

That didn't work, either.

"They didn't sack us a lot but they got to us a lot, our quarterbacks, our running backs," Bellefeuille said. "It was tough holding onto the ball waiting for things to develop downfield. We stuck with it for as long as we could, at the end we just didn't have enough time."

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @wazoowazny

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 21, 2011 C2