Looks like Beverly Hills Bombers spent wisely

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/06/2015 (3755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Evaluating a player and a performance is never as simple as grading plays and watching the stats pile up on digital game tape. Age, injury history, expectations, competition, and cost are all variables that need to be taken into account — and when it comes to money spent, it should always be about paying for an anticipated future, and not what has been accomplished in the past.

Suffice to say, when it came to Saturday evening’s performance against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers got out of this one — for the most part — exactly what they paid for.

The differences in aggressiveness and spending for 2015, in comparison to other years, was as markedly pronounced as going from shopping at consignment stores and digging at the bottom of discounted bins to front window shopping on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

The Bombers went out and paid full sticker price for imported and national goods alike, and got what was the latest and greatest, and on the cutting edge of fashion. No waiting around for seasonal leftovers or clearance sales, or for the coupon book to arrive in the mail. The football club went on a supermarket shopping spree and put more expensive pieces all over their chessboard than anyone had seen in years.

With many of them new for 2015, six of the top seven earners on this football team are on offence. The only defensive recruit to crack this orbit was Jamaal Westerman, whose passport and resume thrust him directly into this stratosphere, without passing go.

The underlying concern when you go out and buy many expensive things is that you won’t get the same bang for your buck. Many of us are lured into overpaying for fancy and sparkling commodities, when something much cheaper could have done just as good of a job as, if not better than, what we dropped top dollar for. And let’s not even get started about buying things we think we need, but have absolutely no use for. Yet for at least the next couple of days, this team can feel damn good about what they bought, and what they paid for it.

Nick Moore and Clarence Denmark, the two highest-paid pass catchers on this team, ran the aerial show with the precision of a couple of veteran snowbirds. They caught most everything and anything that came their way, sacrificed themselves for the betterment of the team, and scored majors when the game was on the line.

There weren’t many, if any, dates on the schedule in 2014, when both of these money men showed up on the same night, but Saturday gave us a good idea of what it might be like if they start doing so with any kind of regularity.

The team spent the most money revamping the personnel and attitude of their offensive line, in the hopes that the near four sacks a game they gave up last year could be reduced, and as a consequence, their franchise pivot Drew Willy would stop looking like he was trapped in a pinball machine.

Dom Picard, the lieutenant of attitude adjustment, was at his agitating best on Saturday, and not only did the line allow only a single sack, they were the genesis for the most balanced rushing and passing onslaught that fans of this team have seen since 2007.

Lastly, the pivot with the price tag still stuck on him — just in case the team decides to return him without penalty at the end of the season — virtually assured himself of player of the week honours with a perfect passer rating, sniper-like accuracy and unflappable poise in the pocket.

Some folks will be quick to remind us that we have seen this mirage before — when the team were world-beaters in 2014 before they started getting beaten down. After all, it is only Week 2, and even being in the thick of things at the halfway mark is still no assurance that a team won’t miss the post-season. That being what it is, it sure is satisfying — for however long this kind of production lasts — to see all of the highest price tags on this team demonstrate why they were so expensive in the first place.

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97