Season of promise down the drain: Another NO-vember

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This article was published 09/11/2008 (6514 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The faces change but, for the past 18 years and counting, the ending does not.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will see their current Grey Cup drought — the longest in the Canadian Football League — extended for another November.

The 2008 Bomber season — one which began with so much promise and an unofficial ‘Grey-Cup-or-Bust’ slogan — came screeching to a halt Saturday afternoon in a 29-21 East Semifinal loss to the Edmonton Eskimos in front of 27,493 diehards at Canad Inns Stadium.

And so another winter of discontent begins for the organization, the biggest questions being just how big the mushroom cloud over the operation will be, and how dramatic the changes will be when training camp opens in 2009.

No matter how the club spins a 6-2 finish to the regular season, there is no escaping 8-10 and a quick exit from the playoffs.

"What do you expect? It’s like we got what we deserved today," said an obviously frustrated Doug Brown. "We’re lucky to be in the playoffs. As you get older, these opportunities become more fleeting. I think if I had already won a Grey Cup and had a ring, I’d be able to sit here and be able to say, ‘Oh, well, at least I’ve already won once.’ But I don’t. Some of us are running out of time."

Edmonton becomes the first team to win a crossover game. And they did it without any kind of tricks or tomfoolery, but by winning the war of the trenches, forcing four turnovers, taking away the Bombers’ vaunted running game and by getting far superior quarterback play.

Although Eskimos QB Ricky Ray did not throw for a TD — Kevin Glenn hooked up with Romby Bryant for a 78-yard score in the first quarter — he did connect on 27 of 37 passes for 303 yards in a mistake-free effort. Glenn was just 15 of 34 for 233 yards and his lone interception was returned 31 yards for a TD by Fred Perry.

Afterward, Bombers head coach Doug Berry didn’t toss his starting QB under the bus, but was succinct in his take on Glenn’s play in the biggest game of the season.

"If you look at the quarterback play, certainly Ricky Ray had an outstanding day today with a very high completion percentage. He threw for over 300 yards and no matter who he’s throwing to he’s able to make the completion," said Berry. "I was a little bit disappointed that we weren’t able to match that and in a game of this magnitude… if one quarterback is playing really hot then the other offence has to match up and we, whether it be with our run game early or our passing game, we just didn’t match up today."

On a day that seemed perfectly suited to the Bombers’ grinding out their ball-control attack, it was the Esks who instead controlled the time of possession — they held the ball for 10 minutes more than Winnipeg overall, including 11 minutes in the second quarter when they turned an 8-3 Bomber lead into a 21-15 half-time advantage.

Winnipeg would rush for 121 yards, but 57 of those came on two carries as the Bombers were repeatedly stuffed with chances to extend drives.

"They made a couple of adjustments, we made a couple back and then they made some. It’s like a chess match and they won it tonight," said Glenn. "We had some success running the ball but when you’re going against the wind you want to have more success running the ball. Give those guys credit."

The key to the Esks winning that chess match was their production on first down and with Ray often throwing short, check-down passes to his running backs as the Bomber defence concentrated on taking away the deeper, vertical passes. Edmonton would rush for just 56 yards, but Ray completed 12 passes to running backs Calvin McCarty, A.J. Harris and Mike Maurer for a total of 101 yards.

All that, of course, matters little now. The Esks are off to Montreal for the East Final; the Bombers’ season is kaput.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

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