It’s the players, silly

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2014 (4066 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a phrase heard around the headquarters of every losing team and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers must now begin the “evaluating the entire organization” phase.

Players will be released. Maybe even some coaches will be fired and replaced.

Having lost six straight and fallen out of the playoff race and facing the very real possibility of ending the season on a nine-game skid, the Bombers are well into next-year thinking.

At the very least this team will have doubled its win total and uncovered a quarterback they can build around. Progress, for sure, but plenty of work remains to be done.

The Bombers will need lots more good players. But will they need a revamp of the coaching staff as well?

One of the questions GM Kyle Walters will want head coach Mike O’Shea to answer will be, “Was it the scheme/coaches or was it the players?”

For his part, O’Shea will have to assess blame, which is something he’s steadfastedly refused to do in the media all season. Behind closed doors with a GM demanding answers, it will have to be different. From this perspective, it’s a little of both.

Gary Etcheverry’s defence is too easy to push around. Marcel Bellefeuille’s offence has no identity. O’Shea has been in on the meetings all season and reviewed the game plans his coaches have installed. He’s been privy to all of the work they’ve done. One has to believe if O’Shea was terribly unhappy with the work of his co-ordinators, change would have come in some form or another. Someone else calling the offensive plays or a consultant to evaluate the defence. But none of that has happened.

O’Shea is either too loyal or green to have made a decision or he knows the issues with this club lie mostly with the men wearing the helmets. It should be noted, O’Shea is very loyal and while that quality breeds stability and fosters a strong working environment it can’t be a cause for overlooking poor work.

Plenty of people around this city have been calling for blood where the coaching staff is concerned and while it’s tough to mount an argument for bringing Bellefeuille and Etcheverry back, it’s also hard to judge them considering the clay with which they have had to work.

Coaching may or may not be an issue but it’s very clear personnel is still a big problem in Bomberland.

The two most obvious and important areas of concern are the defensive and offensive lines. Winnipeg is last in the league in rushing yards allowed and last in rushing yards gained.

Such transparent weakness makes game film redundant when scheming against the Bombers. Run the ball on offence and rush the passer on defence.

The result is a tired Bombers defence that now can’t stop anything or anyone and a banged up Drew Willy, who has learned it’s impossible to lead an offence while lying on the turf.

Winnipeg doesn’t get enough done with its four defensive linemen to disrupt the opposition’s scheme. They’re too light. The knock on Etcheverry’s defensive system is it requires faster and usually smaller players to execute. Offensive co-ordinators have long tried to overpower it. This year they’ve done so with far too much regularity.

The offensive line is soft and can neither run or pass block. It’s the worst in the league by a long stretch. Offensive line coach Bob Wylie is considered the best in the CFL at his craft and he’s been able to get nothing out of this group.

The imports, and Winnipeg has started three Americans more often than not this season, have not been competitive. They need to go. Successful CFL teams have long been built around the foundation of three or four steady Canadian offensive linemen and one or two very good Americans.

Neither Winnipeg’s Americans nor their Canadians have been very good this year. Veteran Glenn January, an all-star the past three seasons, has long been the standout among this group but it’s been an off year for him as well. In fact, January was the one trading chip Walters presumably could have moved in return for a draft pick or a Canadian and the interest just wasn’t out there as the trade deadline came and went yesterday.

Pat Neufeld and Chris Greaves are serviceable Canadians but not elite and rookie Matthias Goossen is a bright prospect but remains an unknown quantity. Veteran Steve Morley has been a great soldier for this team but is now best suited to a backup role.

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Other than that, there’s nothing here. To say the offensive line must be the top priority for Walters in the off-season is beyond obvious. The question will be, can he get enough done in one off-season? Walters will need to draft offensive linemen, try to score big in the free agent market and then find an import stud or two to lead this group.

There are other needs. This team doesn’t have an outstanding Canadian on the roster outside of kicker Lirim Hajrullahu. Walters must continue to draft, beg, borrow and steal to improve this segment of his roster.

Firing assistant coaches is often just for optics. O’Shea can dictate what he wants done and Bellefeuille and Etcheverry are competent coaches capable of executing a scheme.

What every winning team needs is good players. The Bombers simply don’t have enough.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter @garylawless