Bombers well aware they put forth a shoddy effort against Ticats

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This article was published 20/06/2015 (3761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The game was meaningless in the standings, but Friday night’s 26-15 Winnipeg Blue Bombers pre-season loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Investors Group Field certainly wasn’t meaningless to the men on the losing side of that score.

On the contrary.

Taking their cue from head coach Mike O’Shea — who made clear he felt his team’s performance Friday night was “unacceptable” — player after player in the Bombers locker- room was seething after a game that saw their team humbled by the Ticats on offence, defence and special teams.

“We’ve got to compete a lot harder than that,” said Bombers defensive tackle Bryant Turner. “We didn’t compete at a high level.

“To be honest, we’ve had practices where we competed harder than that. It was just night and day and you could see it. And that’s something for sure we’ve got to get right.”

A Bombers defence that was widely expected to be vastly improved after sweeping off-season personnel changes — and a new co-ordinator in Richie Hall — instead looked like more of the same against a Hamilton squad that put up 243 yards of offence in the first half alone, including 205 yards through the air.

That’s not good. But what would be far worse — with a regular-season opening date in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders just a week away — is if what Turner says about Friday is true: these guys just didn’t try hard enough.

Worryingly, Turner wasn’t the only one saying it.

“We came out flat. It certainly wasn’t the start we wanted,” said cornerback Matt Bucknor.

“The way we came out in the first half, that’s just not us. And we know that.

“This game mattered. No one came out here thinking this was just an exhibition game. This was a game to win… We’ve got to get back in the film room and get very critical of ourselves.”

While a porous defence in the first half — most of the club’s projected starters were on the field — stood out most prominently, the offence and special teams weren’t anything to brag about either.

Winnipeg’s special teams gave up far too many yards on returns, including a 68-yard kickoff return, and kicker Lirim Hajrullahu had a night to forget, missing a convert and a field goal.

As for the offence, there was a chronic failure to finish drives and the 14 yards rushing in the first half were not what fans were expecting from a bold new offensive line they’ve been hearing about all winter long.

Like his counterparts on defence, centre Dominic Picard was unimpressed with his team’s performance generally and that of his own unit.

“It was our first time really playing together and we’ve definitely got a lot of work to do,” Picard said of the O-line.

“The good thing is it’s pre-season, but it’s still not up to our standards, and we’ve got a long way to go.”

Picard wanted nothing to do with any talk about it all just being pre-season football anyway.

“Pre-season or not, I hate losing. I hate this feeling. It makes me sick.”

All of which was pretty much what Turner was saying Friday night, too. “I don’t care if it’s pro football or intramural basketball, I want to win.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek