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ken gigliotti / winnipeg free press Brady Browne (standing, left), Johnny Sears and the Bombers defence need to cut down on mental errors and gain some confidence in Toronto.

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There has been much wringing of hands in these parts this week as the faithful struggle to come to grips with the idea the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are not only 0-3 this season, they also looked hopelessly out-classed in a 42-10 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos last Friday.

Much of that consternation has been focused on the performance thus far of the once feared Winnipeg defence and, in particular, the startling number of yards that the group formerly known as Swaggerville has given up so far this season.

The 1,334 yards the Bombers defence has given up in three games is dead last in the CFL -- the exact opposite of their opponent this Wednesday, the Toronto Argonauts, who are tied with the B.C. Lions for the league lead in least yards surrendered at 841.

But dig a little deeper into those numbers and what emerges is the tiniest sliver of a silver lining that suggests this defence might not be as bad as those numbers at first suggest.

Much has been made about the 454 yards of net offence the Bombers defence yielded to an Edmonton offence that had mustered just a single point the week earlier in a loss to Saskatchewan. But a look inside the numbers reveals almost all of those Edmonton yards -- 353 of them to be exact -- came after the game was already effectively over at 28-0.

Thanks to four Winnipeg turnovers in the first half -- two of which were returned by the Eskimos for touchdowns -- Edmonton had a four touchdown lead despite having mustered just 101 yards of net offence against the Bombers defence to that point late in the second quarter.

Indeed, take away a three-play 47-yard Edmonton drive early in the second quarter that resulted in Edmonton's second touchdown of the game and you could make the case that the Winnipeg defence was almost flawless to that point of the game.

Now, that doesn't excuse the fact the defence went on to give up 353 mostly meaningless yards to the Eskimos the rest of the way. But it does put those yards in perspective. Yes, you lose as a team. But this one was lost by the early turnovers generated by the Bombers offence and special teams, long before the defence even got a chance to make a statement.

And in that way, the Edmonton performance was a marked improvement over what the Bomber defence did a week earlier in a 41-30 loss to the Montreal Alouettes, where the Als exploited some weak linebacker play by the Bombers from the opening kickoff to the final gun.

Does any of this change the fact the team is 0-3? No. But it does suggest the defence -- which, remember, is playing without three injured starters -- is both improving and perhaps closer than they might at first appear to once again becoming the straw that stirs this team's drink.

The problem is it's three games in and they're still looking for that certain something -- dare we say swagger -- to pull it all together.

"You can have swag, but that just means you look good," explained cornerback Jovon Johnson, "and having swagger means you have the attitude and the confidence. I guess that's what we're missing at this point. We have to get our confidence going. And I think we'll get it going -- trust me."

SAM linebacker Jonathan Hefney says he feels like the line separating this defence from becoming something special is very fine right now and cites the Edmonton game as an example.

"Yeah we gave up a lot of yards after the game was over, but I felt like we actually played pretty well as a defence except for two or three plays," said Hefney.

"I feel like we're there, but we're just making a few mental mistakes. Last year, when we made those mistakes, they didn't pop up on the scoreboard. But this year, we make the mistakes and we're getting scored on.

"And what we got to do now is to start focussing on our keys so that when we do make mistakes, they go for five yards instead of for touchdowns."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 17, 2012 C3