Close isn’t good enough for O’Shea

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This article was published 05/09/2014 (4078 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike O’Shea isn’t OK with just giving it the good ol’ college try, with silver linings or with standing in the middle of the ring and trading shots with the Grey Cup champions.

No, just like the rest of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, O’Shea wants— just once — to exit the ring after having raised his arms in victory. And Sunday’s 11th Banjo Bowl against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a team which has twice beaten the Bombers in the last month, offers the perfect opportunity.

So, encouraged about hanging with the champs so far, coach?

“Oh, no, no, no, no no. No,” said O’Shea. “I’m not discouraged either. I mean, I want to get these guys. And our players do, too.”

The Bombers are 0-2 against the Riders, but have twice pushed the champs up against the ropes before being felled themselves. Winnipeg fell 23-17 to Saskatchewan in early August when Drew Willy had a late pass intercepted and returned for a touchdown. And in last week’s Labour Day Classic, the Bombers had a 30-28 lead inside three minutes before the Riders drove 75 yards for the winning score in a 35-30 win.

What separates the champs from the contenders? Not much, believes O’Shea.

“The first game, a couple more turnovers,” he said. “This game, we gave up a couple big plays and didn’t make a couple big plays. That’s really the difference. They were two really tight games where you look at a couple sequences of plays, that if they go the other way, then you guys might be writing a different story.

“I recognize from our film that we can’t make the mistakes we’ve made. We’re also not in the position right now where we worry about it. We look at the film, we see the mistakes, we recognize them and we fix them. We can change the game. Now we have to do that: go out and execute at a high level and not allow these mistakes to creep into our game.”

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The Bombers will have to make three changes to their starting lineup because of injury. Linebacker/long snapper Ian Wild, receiver Nick Moore and defensive end Kashawn Fraser will all be out and will likely be replaced by Abe Kromah, Romby Bryant and Jason Vega. Slotback Cory Watson left practice Friday near its conclusion, but will be good to go on Sunday.

“The games we’ve played (Saskatchewan) have been close… and that hurts,” said Bomber offensive lineman Glenn January. “It hurts to have the game slip through your fingers twice in the fourth quarter against the defending Grey Cup champions, who you feel like you should be able to get over the hump and beat. Last week was a big loss because we lost the season series against a division opponent. But there’s so many other storylines coming out of that game to as to why it was disappointing.

“I would say, being the reigning champions, they know how to get it done when the game’s on the line, but we’ve been able to do that several times this year as well. Whatever that extra little bit they’ve been able to figure out in order to win the games against us we’ve got to try and draw from that and figure out our own way to get it done.”

Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait