Bombers must solve slow starts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/08/2010 (5545 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a common theme working its way through the Winnipeg Blue Bomber dressing room. And the refrain will repeat itself until the 2010 edition of The Bomb Squad discovers a solution.

Namely, good football teams don’t give away games in crunch time, particularly on the road.

And so it was for the Bombers in Saturday’s 23-20 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium, a defeat that dropped the squad to 2-3.

Hanging with a Stampeder squad that looks as talented as any in the Canadian Football League, the Bombers were trailing 23-18 with the ball on the Calgary 30-yard line with under a minute to play but couldn’t finish the deal.

The Stamps would surrender a late safety, but the feeling among the Bombers afterward was this was a glorious opportunity lost to open some eyes around the CFL neighbourhood and pull into a second-place tie in the East Division with the Toronto Argonauts.

“We’ve just got to start putting two halves together,” said Bomber cornerback Jovon Johnson. If we come out and play like we did in the second half in the first half (Saturday) who knows what can happen?

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board. It’s about being consistent and if we can play consistently every week I really think we’ve got a chance to beat the best. We’ve got the pieces in order, it’s just a matter of us coming out of the gate earlier because when we do that it just makes the second half that much harder.”

There’s truth in what Johnson speaks. The Bombers fell behind 10-0 Saturday, marking the fourth time in five games this season they’ve been behind in the first half. The Stamps held a 17-8 lead at halftime and had racked up 267 net offensive yards, but managed just two Rob Maver field goals and 124 yards offence in the final 30 minutes.

The Bombers got touchdowns from Fred Reid on a 46-yard run and Terrence Edwards, but Steven Jyles and his receivers also whiffed on what could have been some big-time completions.

“If we make those plays we’ll be OK and come out of here with a win,” said Jyles afterward. “I know there’s work that has to be done. I was talking to the receivers just now. We’ve got to go out and work a little harder and get that chemistry built up.”

It would help, too, said head coach Paul LaPolice if the offence could be a lot more productive on first down.

Interestingly, the Bombers three biggest plays on the night — the Reid and Edwards’ TDs and another 43-yard strike to Edwards — all came on first down. But the Bombers also had four first-down plays that resulted in minus yardage and eight others that were four one yard or less.

And being in second and long constantly with a QB making just his third career start and versus the Stampeders highly-athletic defence can be dangerous.

“We didn’t score as many points as we normally do and they did a good job of holding us on first down to average yardage, no big plays on first and 10,” said LaPolice. “We’ve got to be better than that.

“This is a good football team we just lost to. We put ourselves in the position to win the game. We’ve had two losses (including the 36-34 home defeat to Toronto) where we put ourselves in position to win the game. Now we’ve got to come out and win the game. We gotta start winning some of those. That’s what you talk about: on the road you hang around, hang around, hang around and then make a play. Once we got the touchdown to Terrence Edwards we thought we were right back in it.

“We’re not really happy that we almost beat the Calgary Stampeders,” LaPolice continued. “I don’t think there’s a guy in there that feels that way. We have to get better come back and out-play Hamilton.”

BLUE NOTES: The Bombers will further update the injuries to safety Ian Logan (re-injured his hamstring) as well as SB Terence Jeffers-Harris and DB Jerry-Ralph Jules Monday after further evaluation. Looks like Logan will be out for at least two weeks, though.. The Bombers, as speculated in Sunday’s On7, may be interested in former Stamps’ D-lineman Fernand Kashama. A former second-round draft pick by the Stamps, Kashama was released by the club earlier in the week… The loss of Logan and injury to Jules will likely force the Bombers to unearth another Canadian defensive back.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca