Big picture not a pretty sight

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This article was published 14/08/2015 (3949 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a cool story, this Robert-Marve-gets-his-first-start subplot that has dominated life around the Winnipeg Blue Bombers over the past few days.

He is the flavour of the day, sporting a compelling backstory, all the while being camera-friendly and spitting out some dandy sound bites. And come tonight against the Toronto Argonauts, all those in Bomber Nation will begin to get some concrete evidence as to whether he can permanently usurp Brian Brohm as the team’s No. 2 pivot and help the club tread water until Drew Willy’s return in late September-early October.

Still, while the Marve tale has changed the narrative over the last few days — just imagine, after all, the uproar/buzz-kill if Brohm had been declared the starter — it shouldn’t completely gloss over the big picture with this football team.

And, to be blunt, the Bombers have been across-the-board horrible in two of their last three games with a 32-3 loss in Edmonton and a 38-8 shellacking in Hamilton wrapped around a 23-13 win over the B.C. Lions. There have been repeated breakdowns on special teams, some sputtering work by the offence while the defence — often put on short fields because of the shoddy work of their compadres — often looks like a battered fighter holding on while he gets pummelled against the ropes.

All of which was put to Chris Randle earlier this week when he asked to counter the growing sentiment the Bombers will be toast without Willy…

“Off our resumé, you can’t fight them on that,” began the Bombers’ veteran linebacker. “All I can do as a defender and as part of this team is to try and prove them wrong, prove that we can be a winning and successful team without him.

“It’s the next-man-up policy. You can’t keep saying it, but I don’t know what else to honestly do but nut up and play better.”

Fact is, that might just be the most perfect — and succinct — pre-game speech head coach Mike O’Shea could make prior to kickoff: “Nut up and play better.” After all, the Bombers rank last in the CFL in points scored (20 per game) and eighth in points allowed (30), just further evidence their issues run deeper than who takes the first snap from centre against the Argos.

The Bombers will get back veteran defensive linemen Bryant Turner Jr. and Greg Peach from the injured list, but have sent Willy along with Paris Cotton, Darvin Adams and Patrick Neufeld into sick bay. That means when Marve gets to work against the Argos he’ll be working behind an O-line that has featured at least one change in three of the last four games, handing off to a new tailback and pitching to a 21-year-old deep threat in Jhomo Gordon who is also starting his first game.

All on a short week, no less.

Maybe that explains, in part, why Marve spent some extra time on the field with his receivers after Thursday’s walk-through. But, as O’Shea pointed out afterward, that’s also been Marve’s approach since he arrived here last summer. There’s that and the fact he brings an energetic/overly exuberant vibe to the huddle, so much so there’s a suspicion he might have Red Bull coursing through his veins.

Case in point, during Wednesday’s lightning-storm-shortened practice Marve was dishing out reminders and tips to veteran receivers such as Nick Moore, Clarence Denmark and Rory Kohlert before they nodded and, likely, grinned at their excitable QB.

“The receivers, with the veterans we have I kept saying rookie things… ‘Hey man, watch out for zero (coverage),’ ” said Marve. “And they’re saying, ‘I got you. I got you.’ “

“He certainly has a different personality than all our quarterbacks,” added O’Shea. “I think you have to let him go out there and play the game the way he’s going to play, and through the course of the game, if there’s things you have to manage, then you recognize that and manage that. He’s going to go out there and lead the way he has to lead and run the game plan the way he has to run the game plan.

‘You’d better not write us off. Just tune in Friday, right?’

— Bombers linebacker Chris Randle

“I don’t think it’s going to do the team any good to really try and change Robert Marve. He’s had some success along the way being himself. And that’s what you want: for these guys to be themselves out there. He exudes confidence and he’s got a bit of fire.”

The Bombers had better pray that kind of spark is contagious. Maybe Marve can not only do his thing to make the offence productive but that in turn spreads to the rest of the team.

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And that would make for a heckuva story.

Are the Bombers about to flat-line without Willy at the controls? We’re all about to find out.

“You’d better not write us off,” said Randle with a grin. “Just tune in Friday, right?”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait