Little Mess on the Prairie

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This article was published 20/08/2010 (5726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — It has all the ingredients and several chapters worth of information to provide the foundation for a 500-page how-to book.

Call it The Winnipeg Blue Bombers Guide to Throwing Away Football Games. And you’ll soon find it in bookstores everywhere next to their next project, currently in the works: Little Mess on the Prairie.

Yes, following the same recipe for disaster they’ve perfected through the first eight games of the season, the Bombers fell behind 24-zilch to the Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes Thursday night, rallied, and then collapsed in the fourth quarter of a 39-17 loss that leaves the same questions unanswered and the same concerns eating away at management.

Winnipeg is now 2-6 heading into next week’s bye with a home-and-home series against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on the horizon.

And in the locker-room in the moments after the loss there was a mix of anger, concern, resolve and a smidgen of hope. But there was also the realization that when this team returns to work following the week off, changes could very well mean new faces and a farewell to some teammates.

"Every game is a different story," said a dejected Doug Brown in a tomb-like room. "We’ve got some problems here. What was the score, 38-17? It’s pretty simple: we didn’t score enough and we gave up too much. We had a chance when we got it to 24-17, but… I don’t know what to say anymore. We’re professionals. This is our job. We’re paid to do this, but after a performance like this some of us might not get paid to do this any more.

"You look for a direction, but it’s everywhere. Very few areas escape culpability in a lopsided performance like that. There’s lot of areas we need to address."

The Bombers, as has been the case so often this season, fell behind early by a ton and trailed 24-0 before the game was even 20 minutes old as Alouettes all-star pivot Anthony Calvillo connected twice with S.J. Green for scores while Chip Cox gobbled up a Steven Jyles fumble and returned it for a touchdown.

But with Calvillo exiting the game with just under five minutes left in the half — he was to be kept in hospital over night with a dislocated rib after being sacked by Odell Willis — the Bombers managed a valiant comeback as Jyles connected with Brock Ralph for a TD, placekicker Justin Palardy connected from 45 yards away before Jovon Johnson returned a Damon Duval punt 74 yards for another major.

That’s when the Als, with Chris Leak now under centre, got fourth-quarter scores from Brandon Whitaker and the QB himself and outscored the Bombers 15-0 in the final 15 minutes.

"I told the players, ‘We will not win football games when we turn it over three times in a half, one of those being a touchdown,’" said Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice, referring to three Steven Jyles fumbles in the opening 30 minutes. "That’s something we harp on each day… you have to protect the football. You can’t come out of these holes. It’s a proven fact, if you turn the ball over that many times you don’t win games and until we understand that it’s going to be an uphill battle."

Jyles finished the night 11 of 22 for just 123 yards and the TD strike to Ralph, but also had the three fumbles. But he was also the victim of three or four drops — two glaring ones by Adarius Bowman — that took points off the board. Couple that with the Als registering five sacks and the Bombers’ offensive woes are aplenty.

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Ditto for the defence, which was pushed around early by Calvillo early and then late when they needed to knuckle down and get it done.

"We just didn’t make plays offensively," said Jyles, who was replaced by Alex Brink with 5:31 left in the game after being sacked by Anwar Stewart. "We had opportunities but didn’t capitalize on them. We had three turnovers and when you do that it’s tough. We fight in these games. Our effort is not the question. It’s execution and we have to find a way to correct that.

"Hopefully everyone goes home for the bye week but thinks about how they can get better individually. We can’t keep making the same mistakes. If we fix that and work on bettering ourselves individually, as a team, we will be better."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca