Five takes: Bombers vs. Argos

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This article was published 10/06/2015 (3998 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Baseball legend and quote machine Yogi Berra once said, “a guy can observe a lot just by watching.” With that in mind, here are our five quick takes the morning after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ preseason debut here in the Centre of the Universe…

1. Bomber head coach Mike O’Shea and his staff have a few days yet before the inevitable — they must slice their roster down to 65 by Sunday night — and while some decisions were  made for them in Tuesday’s 34-27 victory getting down to that number won’t be a slam dunk.

And that might explain, in part, why O’Shea was grinning so much after the game. Coaches want hard decisions because it means the talent they’ve collected is getting it done. The Bombers were far, far from perfect against the Argos, but there was a level of desperation in their game that worked, too.

“We’d like to keep everybody,” said O’Shea. “There’s 80-some guys that we liked, that we brought into camp for a reason… we liked them all. Obviously, that’s not possible.

“It’s nice when they do pop off the page because it can help decision-making, but you need it consistently. You don’t need that pop all the time, you need them making consistently good decisions, being in the right place at the right time, executing their assignments right. The pop is fun to watch, but we need a consistently high effort and a consistently high execution level.”

2. The Varsity Stadium experience for Tuesday’s game was sensational and it left most of those involved gushing about the venue and its locale, but also what could have been for the Argos. Rogers Centre (née: SkyDome) has been a bust for the Argos. They are second-class citizens in their own venue and until the new ownership group takes over and they can get into BMO Field, this coming season is going to have a real lame-duck vibe to it.

How dumb is the Argos “home” schedule this year, because of their venue issues and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Pan Am Games behind held at Rogers Centre? Consider this:

Toronto’s “home” opener on Saturday, June 27 against Edmonton is at the 15,000-seat SMS Equipment Stadium… in Fort McMurray, Alberta. They are then on the road for back-to-back games in Saskatchewan and Calgary and, after a bye, are in Vancouver, then Hamilton.

As the few Argo faithful who attended the game Tuesday night exited Varsity, the PA announcer uttered this: “Don’t forget the Argos home opener Aug. 8 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders…’ That’s simply incredible. And with the football team almost an afterthought in their own market, that’s another way to turn off even the most-ardent supporter.

This might be the perfect state-of-the-franchise take, though: it costs the Argos so much to rent Rogers that they are expecting to come close to at least breaking even on their game in Fort McMurray.

3. Can’t say enough about Varsity Stadium and it’s a shame this isn’t the home of the Argos. The original Varsity was on this location and played home to the Argos until 1959. The subway stops nearby and there are bars and restaurants all around the U of T campus. This is one of the locations the franchise wanted to build when ideas were tossed around over the last few years, but the concept never got off the ground.

An example of the building’s quaintness, at least for football: after the game the handful of reporters who had gathered in front of the Bomber backdrop for interviews were asked to step outside for a few minutes. It seems that with no proper football dressing rooms, the club had to use five different hockey dressing rooms (Varsity Arena is attached to the football stadium), O’Shea had to call all the troops into the arena concourse for his post-game speech.

Football history buffs can get a Varsity refresher past by clicking here.

4. A number that is potentially frightening for CFL fans: The Argos (20-131) and Bombers (14-104) combined for 34 penalties for 235 yards Tuesday night. The new rule changes designed to give receivers more room off the line of scrimmage meant there were six pass interference and two illegal contact penalties during the game. There will obviously be an adjustment period, but fans have long been moaning about CFL officiating. Drawing attention to them even more will undoubtedly make the wailing that much louder.

Just FYI: in Hamilton’s win over Ottawa Monday night, the Tiger-Cats and Redblacks combined for 27 penalties for 218 yards.

The individual numbers for the Bombers-Argos are here.

5. One of the best sidebars to come out of Tuesday’s win was the work of running back Carlos Anderson, who hasn’t played in a game in three years and had retired to start his own business — speed and agility training for kids. Anderson made several references to his faith in his post-game interview, as evidenced in this part of the exchange:

Anderson: “I started my own business back home. I just thank the Lord that Winnipeg gave me my shot…”

Dan Ralph, Canadian Press: “So did you think football was done for you?

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Anderson: “I did. I had hung my cleats up. I talked to the Lord about it, but once Coach gave me that call, I had to come.”

Ralph: “I guess the Lord can change his mind.”

Anderson: “Yes sir.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait