O’Shea knows Bombers job under review

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This article was published 02/11/2014 (3991 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea says he’s taking nothing for granted — including his own job — as his team heads into the off-season.

“I think all our jobs are under review — mine on down,” O’Shea said at Investors Group Field Sunday as his players emptied their lockers following the conclusion of Winnipeg’s season in Calgary on Saturday.

The Bombers defeated the Calgary Stampeders 18-13 on Saturday to snap an eight-game losing streak and improve their finishing record to 7-11. While Winnipeg’s season ended on a high note, a second-half swoon still resulted in the Bombers missing the playoffs for the third season in a row and fifth time in the last six years.

It was the first year with O’Shea as head coach, however, and the Bombers field boss was asked Sunday what lessons he took away from his rookie season as a head coach.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. And there’s lots to learn still. That’s an easy answer,” O’Shea said.

Asked where his team needs to get better, O’Shea didn’t mince words. “Every phase. We want to win championships, so saying we’re going to fix one thing here, one thing there — it doesn’t work that way.

“We have to get better across the board — we can’t afford to take penalties, we can’t give up so many turnovers, we can’t give up that number of sacks, we can’t give up those rushing yards, we need to be more effective in the red zone.

“It’s everything. We’re trying to improve every facet of the game. What I’ve said to the coaches so far is we’re going to spend this off-season inspecting everything.”

Asked to assess the performances of his offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille and defensive coordinator Gary Etcheverry, O’Shea was upbeat. “They’ve worked extremely hard. They’ve put their players in positions to be successful. They’ve done a pretty good job.”

But O’Shea hedged when asked if the two men would be back for the 2015 season, noting he hasn’t even yet had his own performance review from GM Kyle Walters. “When I have that meeting with Kyle, then I’ll be able to go down the line and go from there.”

The Bombers have 16 players who could become free agents next February, including six regular starters: LB Ian Wild; LB/DB Johnny Sears; DB/LB Demond Washington; LB/DB Desia Dunn; CB Matt Bucknor; and OT Glenn January. No. 2 quarterback Brian Brohm could also be a free agent come February.

O’Shea said it’s much too early to say who the team will seek to re-sign. “Everybody is going to have a chance to meet with me and we will talk about all these scenarios. But that takes awhile. We’re not there yet in the process of figuring out the roster and where we’re going to go from here.”

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek