Simpson shows pedigree

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/07/2012 (4827 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — All right, so now what?

With four straight road games to start the 2012 season — the first time a CFL team has had to do that since 1953 — the Winnipeg Blue Bombers realized their absolute worst-case scenario here, falling to 0-4 with a 25-22 loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

That would be the worst possible result just because of the winless record. But in the process of losing all those games, the Bombers have also lost nine starters to injury — 10 if you count Chris Garrett — including three more here last night. Not good.

But if you wanted reason to hope last night, you needed to look no farther than running back Chad Simpson, the former NFLer who lived up to his coaches’ high expectations. He had a CFL debut that seemed to open the possibility that maybe the Bombers might be able to run — literally — away from their quarterback problems.

Simpson had, by far, the best running performance by a Bombers tailback this season, rushing for 91 yards on 15 carries and pulling down a catch for another 31 yards.

That’s good.

But what’s tantalizing is Simpson did all that on a night he missed much of the third quarter with an injury and didn’t really factor into the Bombers offence after that.

And he also had a big run nullified by a terrible offside penalty by slotback Jade Etienne, who lined up offside on the play after substituting in the lineup for an injured Terrence Edwards.

Put it all together and Simpson looked a whole lot like a running back who played 28 games in the NFL against much faster and smarter defenders than he made short work of Wednesday night.

So he must have been thrilled, right?

“I play to win,” said a dejected Simpson in a subdued Bombers locker-room. “It ain’t about me, it ain’t about stats, it’s about winning. They brought me here to help win and I didn’t help them win.”

He did a lot more to help than just about any other offensive player on the Bombers, however — with the notable exception of slotback Clarence Denmark, who had his best game of the year with 115 receiving yards, including a 55-yarder in the second quarter that set up Winnipeg’s only touchdown on a one-yard plunge by QB Alex Brink.

“I’ve been playing this game for a while, but I got a lot of help,” Simpson said.

“The O-line did well. You can only tell a man he can’t do something for so long, and that’s the way it was with the offensive line — the media, everyone talking about them. But I had faith in them.

“I was just running the ball, so praise God and the offensive line.”

In that order, presumably. While Simpson had nothing but plaudits for the play of the offensive line, it bears noting that QB Alex Brink was sacked three times and spent most of the night being hurried.

Some of that was the function of play selection — continuous deep patterns that took forever to run and yielded precious few results.

And some of that — including a devastating sack of Brink on the Bombers’ second offensive play of the game that led to an Argos interception and touchdown a few plays later — was the result of plays missed elsewhere than on the offensive line; a missed block by fullback Michel-Pierre Pontbriand, in that case.

“This isn’t just the offensive line,” said tackle Glenn January. “The layman doesn’t understand there’s other parts at work there.”

The best quarterback protection, of course, is a bona fide running game, and Simpson would appear to provide that prospect.

While he’s been hurt since training camp and only lasted two quarters and a bit before getting hurt again last night, he pledged at night’s end that he was good to go and expected to be back in the starting lineup next week.

“I’m good,” said Simpson. “I’ll be back. No question.”

And while you ponder that, ponder this: The last time the Bombers opened a season 0-4, they finished at 8-10 and hosted the 2008 East Division semifinal.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca