Gambles pay off against Lions as Bombers live to see another day

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 5:53 PM CDT Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015

VANCOUVER -- With virtually nothing left to lose, Mike O’Shea turned into The Gambler here Saturday night.

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VANCOUVER -- With virtually nothing left to lose, Mike O’Shea turned into The Gambler here Saturday night.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/10/2015 (3965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — With virtually nothing left to lose, Mike O’Shea turned into The Gambler here Saturday night.

Over and over again, the normally staid — and maddeningly conservative — Bombers head coach pushed his team’s chips all-in against the B.C. Lions.

Third and 7 with two minutes to play? Why yes, I would like to gamble.

Jimmy Jeong / The Canadian Press
Winnipeg Blue Bombers' running back Da'Rel Scott, centre, runs the ball between teammates Matt Nichols, left, and Sukh Chungh during the first half of a CFL football game in Vancouver Saturday. — Jimmy Jeong / The Canadian Press Winnipeg Blue Bombers' running back Da'Rel Scott, centre, runs the ball between teammates Matt Nichols, left, and Sukh Chungh during the first half of a CFL football game in Vancouver Saturday.

Fake punt? Actually, I’ll take two, including one on 3rd and 10 with 3:26 to play.

Fake field goal? Probably would’ve worked, if not for the illegal procedure.

Block a punt? Two would be twice as nice.

If O’Shea had a kitchen sink handy here at BC Place Saturday night, he surely would have thrown that at the Lions too in a second half that was the most desperate football Bombers Nation has seen out of this franchise in a very long time.

Trailing the Lions by two touchdowns after a lousy first half and their playoff hopes dangling by a frayed thread, O’Shea and his team had a long hard look in the mirror at halftime in the Bombers locker room.

“We kind of had our backs to the wall and guys were kind of hanging their heads at first,” Bombers linebacker Ian Wild related after the game. “But some guys said some things that got us going. We knew we had to come out and play 30 minutes like it was a playoff game…

“The message was just pretty much that we have to believe in ourselves.”

Look, maybe they’re slow learners. Maybe they’re late bloomers. Or maybe, just maybe, this Bombers team is one of those outfits you see from time to time that stumbles and bumbles their way through the regular season and then, just when it seems like all is lost, rises to the occasion.

But whatever the cause, the bottom line is that all the fire and brimstone in the Bombers locker room here at half-time resulted in a display of exactly the kind of grit and character we’d been told was present within this team but had been conspicuous by its absence until the second half Saturday night.

By night’s end, a 23-9 halftime deficit was a 29-26 Bombers victory and a share of the third and final playoff spot in the CFL’s West Division with the Lions.

And with that, a Bombers team that many had written off a month ago is still very much in the playoff conversation with three games remaining in the regular season.

O’Shea — who has taken a lot of heat for his in-game management this season but deserves full credit for the bold decisions he made Saturday night — gave full credit to his team for digging deep at halftime.

“They made a decision that this was their team,” O’Shea reflected after the game. “And when they do that, I don’t know that there’s a lot of other things that matter…

“They proved something to themselves. And now we have to move forward and capitalize on it. We gave ourselves a chance and now we’ve got to keep on rolling.”

At 5-10, this Bombers team still has a steep uphill climb. For starters, the 5-9 Lions have a game in hand on them and the 5-8 Montreal Alouettes remain a bonafide crossover threat. For another, a Bombers team that posted just its second road win of the season Saturday night has to play two of their final three games on the road, including this Friday against the Ottawa Redblacks.

Throw in a worryingly anemic Bombers offence that couldn’t move the ball or sustain any drives here Saturday night and Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman probably doesn’t have to cordon off Portage and Main just yet.

But what also emerged in the second half here Saturday night is that this Bombers team — and especially their head coach — look pretty good when they play fearlessly and like a team that no longer has anything left to lose.

That’s a dangerous combination. And it makes a Bombers team that has been everyone’s patsy all season long suddenly a very dangerous team, with a Grey Cup game looming at Investors Group Field on the final Sunday of November.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek