A dominant performance, with a (surprising) capital D

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2017 (2938 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I believe that the American bassist Bill Laswell best described how many of us currently feel about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence with this simple quote: “People are afraid of things they don’t understand. They don’t know how to relate. It threatens their security, their existence, their career, image.”

Exactly.

After spending 13 of the first 14 games on the fun party bus of the consistently high-flying, multi-dimensional and prolific offence and reaping the rewards of strong coverage units on special teams, the Bomber defence decided to hold the B.C. Lions to zero points in the first quarter of the game Saturday afternoon. They then held them to three points each in the second and third quarters and gave up only a couple of touchdowns with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter — in the heart of garbage time, when they started playing conservative “you won’t beat us deep” football.

If you had told me going into this game that the Bombers could defeat B.C. without scoring an offensive touchdown, I would have picked you up and driven you straight back to Crazytown, from where you had obviously just moved. I mean, let’s be serious here: the last four times the Lions played the Bombers there were more points handed out than if you were caught driving while texting on two smartphones.

Unlike the sentiment expressed in Laswell’s quote, you wouldn’t quite say we are afraid of this defence. Well, maybe in the sense that we aren’t sure we can count on them. But not afraid of them as in, scared of what they might do to their opponents. After all, aside from the game in Edmonton two weeks ago, which was their best performance before this last B.C. game, the statistics told us a very different story about their performance so far this season.

Up to week 16, the defence had allowed, on average, 27.9 points per game. Only the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes, who have combined for a whopping total of seven wins this season, have allowed more. To this date, Winnipeg had allowed the second-most touchdowns in the league with 40. Only Hamilton had surrendered more, giving up 43 so far.

Up until Saturday, opponents averaged 401 yards of offence against this defence. Once again, only Hamilton and Montreal had been worse. Only Edmonton has been gashed with more 20-plus yard rushing plays and this defensive dozen is also second-last in quarterback pressures. Even when looking at the gold standard of judging defences — the number of yards opponents gain per play — the Bombers are dead-last in the league at 6.9 yards surrendered every time anybody runs a football play.

They do lead the league in interceptions, but that’s about it from a defensive standpoint.

Now, it’s not like the Lions showed up with the league’s best offence in tow, or anywhere near the best team. They are dead-last in the West, their record is only better than Hamilton and Montreal, and they’ve scored more points this season than only Hamilton and Montreal, despite having proven performers such as Emmanuel Arceneaux, Chris Williams, Chris Rainey and Bryan Burnham.

The Lions’ offensive line is highly porous and their QB of the future has been improving in the same way Benjamin Button aged — meaning he’s regressing.

Yet over the last three weeks, if we can dismiss the performance against Hamilton — like we did for every other phase of the Bombers — this defence was both the dominant third of the team that secured the win against the Eskimos in Edmonton and now, an even more impressive performance against the Lions at home.

I certainly don’t understand this defence and don’t know how to relate to them either, but if they are able to play at this level, overcome a season-ending injury to their best player and have the offence lead the way again, this just might end up as a more-than-noteworthy season.

Twitter: @DougBrown97

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.