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TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg QB Joey Elliott signals from the line of scrimmage before taking a snap Saturday in the game against the Calgarians.

If part of the maturation of a quarterback is facing the music post-game -- staring into a mess of cameras and microphones and owning up -- then Joey Elliott might soon have this gig nailed.

In the meantime, Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans will be forced to suffer through the extreme drops and climbs in the young pivot's game. Yes, while the Blue and Gold faithful were raising a toast in his honour a week ago after he led the troops to a victory in Montreal -- and was named the CFL's Offensive Player of the Week in the process -- on Saturday afternoon, fans watching his game must have struggled to keep from hurling up their bratwurst.

His stat line, in a 32-21 loss to the Calgary Stampeders that is another nail in the coffin for the locals, was critical to the game's storyline: 22 of 33 for 284 yards with 0 touchdowns and FOUR interceptions.

"I made three mistakes," Elliott said to a throng of media surrounding his locker. "I thought we moved the ball offensively pretty well and coach called on the offence to move up and down the field... We had lots of big plays and were able to move the ball in the second half.

"Everybody's always second-guessing us, and when you go back and watch film, they're going to say, 'Everybody's wide open.' But in the heat of the battle... I don't know how many drop-backs we had, how many reads I had to go through, but those are my mistakes. I can't let the ball leave and have those interceptions. That's totally on me.

"If we make those plays in the end zone, we're having a different conversation now. I gotta play better. It's a learning curve. They put the game plan on me in a short week, and I want that. I want the game plan in my hands. I've got to build off it."

But that has been, and will continue to be, the critical question for the Bombers this season and going forward. Elliott is 2-5 as a starter this season, 2-7 in his career. When he's on, he looks like the answer, with a 73.5 per cent completion percentage, a 4-0 TD-to-interception ratio and a sparkling 128.4 QB rating in his two wins. When he's off, it looks like Saturday afternoon.

Consider that in his five losses as a starter, he has thrown zero TDs and been picked off seven times. What was especially critical in Saturday's loss was three of Elliott's four picks came in the Calgary end zone. The fourth came at the Stampeders' 17-yard-line.

Asked to sum up his starter's work, head coach Tim Burke, as per usual, didn't sugar-coat the numbers.

"I thought in the middle of the field he played well," Burke said. "I thought in the red zone he played poorly."

Told that Elliott admitted to making three mistakes, Burke quickly agreed.

"I can think of three."

Asked if he could think of more, Burke added: "I'll probably see more, yeah. But I can't think of any more off the top of my head. But, yeah, the mistakes are obvious. They're called interceptions."

Burke didn't have an update on Buck Pierce's health post-game, but it's clear that if he is green-lighted to play, he'll take the first snap this Friday in Toronto. As for Elliott, Burke and the rest of the Bombers brass must be wondering which version is the real deal -- the dude who got it done in Montreal on Thanksgiving or the one who served up a turkey against Calgary.

How long, the Bomber boss was asked, does a young quarterback get to prove himself?

"I don't know," Burke said with a shrug. "It depends on the guy, it depends on who you're playing behind and it depends on the situations you're put in.

"In Joey's defence, he hasn't played a lot of football. I'm sure he's still learning and all that, but I would have thought we could have got past at least some of those interceptions in the red zone."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait

THE QB NUMBERS

A look at the stats of the four Bomber pivots this season:

AttCompYdsTDsInt

Joey Elliott1562111,975511

Alex Brink1011871,19457

Buck Pierce538473533

Justin Goltz13900

Totals 3114853,9131321

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 14, 2012 B4