Can Bombers bounce back?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2011 (5441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Consider this overreaction: If you’re only as good as your last game, then the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in big trouble.

That old adage doesn’t apply here, of course, as forecasting the Bombers’ fortunes through the second half of the 2011 CFL schedule would be utterly foolish based on the 27-7 embarrassment the club went through in Regina on Sunday.

The Blue and Gold body of work, or what the club has collectively put forth as eyes look towards Sunday’s Banjo Bowl, remains pretty impressive thanks to a 7-2 record and a penthouse position in the CFL standings. Those holding objectivity dear can recognize this as fact and when hosting a roundtable discussion regarding the top clubs in the country at this point of the season, you better put a chair out for the Bombers.

Check that: You might as well put out six or seven chairs, as judging from this past weekend’s slate of games where the assumed top three teams had the doors blown off them in spectacularly mediocre fashion, proving that nothing is absolute in the science of Canadian football.

And there’s the lesson learned for the Bombers: Certainty is fleeting and as quickly as momentum soared up to sold-out buildings and player-inspired marketing frenzy, it can easily fall off to the side.

One hiccup through nine games is not a reason to panic, but even as some try to lose that loss among the myriad of good deeds and stellar statistical evidence perpetrated by the Bombers before that, it’s hard to not wonder just what the heck happened there in Regina.

Seriously, what was that?

Tell yourself it doesn’t matter now and just like that, behold the mindset for the club when they open up practice this morning. It’s been standard procedure around the Bombers — specifically the coaching staff — to rearview mirror games 24 hours or so after they’re done.

Win or lose, attention and focus is immediately placed on the next contest and the recent past is archived on the shelf as ancient history.

It’s smart study in acceptance. Hand wringing or resting on laurels never amounts to much growth in any situation and typically leads to the ‘What have you done for me lately?’ type of questions. In the case of the Bombers, who have had no real on-field adversity to speak of this summer, that’s where things stand right now.

Is it unfair to put a lot of weight in the one lopsided loss to a basement-dwelling Riders rival? Yes. In that same breath, can you call the Saskatchewan shaming an aberration; one a simple dusting of a magnet over the memory banks might erase, thus suggesting that game never even happened? No, you can’t.

Actually, the first-half evaluation is elementary. The Bombers are a 7-2 team with very few warts coming off a humiliating effort in the biggest game of the season. Pointing that out isn’t an overreaction; it’s merely a topic of conversation. How the club responds as the second half gets underway this week is where the real intrigue (and possible emotional analysis) sits.

On that thought, here’s another old theorem to digest: The CFL season starts after Labour Day.

That’s kind of what it feels like, isn’t it?

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca