Don’t abandon all hope, Bomber Nation; playoffs still possible

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2015 (3891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s no sugar-coating 3-6 — even an infamous optimist such as former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Said Sahaf would have a tough time putting a cherry on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ record right now.

Sahaf’s comical pronouncements during the 2003 invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein had the Americans right where he wanted them had about as much credibility then as the Bombers do this week selling Grey Cup tickets on the pitch it’s a chance to see the home team in the big game at Investors Group Field.

But in a week in which a lot of Bombers Nation has written off their team for yet another season after Saturday’s embarrassing 36-8 thumping at home to the Calgary Stampeders left Winnipeg with twice as many losses as wins at the halfway point of the season, how about we all pause for a brief moment and consider:

If for the next three weeks the Bombers do nothing more than they’ve done this season — beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes — this seemingly hopeless team would be 6-6 and right back in the playoff conversation.

Yes, seriously — the Bombers play the hapless 0-9 Riders back to back over the next two weeks and then visit the Als Sept. 20.

The Bombers beat Saskatchewan in Regina in the opening week and the Riders are nothing less than the most dysfunctional team in Canada, with both head coach Corey Chamblin and GM Brendan Taman getting fired Monday night.

The 4-5 Als? Well, Winnipeg beat Montreal 25-23 in Week 3 at IGF and the Bombers are 5-1 against the Alouettes in their last six visits to Stade Molson.

It’s true this tiny glimmer of optimism comes with an important caveat — Winnipeg’s wins over Montreal and Saskatchewan came with Drew Willy at quarterback, and that won’t be the case in the coming three weeks.

Willy is still recuperating from a leg injury and the team’s original prognosis of six-eight weeks means the earliest Willy will be available is versus Calgary Sept. 25. That early a return seems unlikely, with Bombers officials reiterating both privately and publicly in the past week the six-eight week prognosis was the “best case” for Willy and fans shouldn’t be surprised if he’s out longer.

So yeah, the Bombers will have to beat Saskatchewan and Montreal with backups Robert Marve and/or Brian Brohm at the controls. And yeah, both those men were positively awful versus Calgary in a game that saw them combine for just 101 yards in passing.

Winnipeg won’t beat anyone this season — not even Saskatchewan — with that kind of passing game. But it bears reminding that Marve was actually pretty good in his start previous to Calgary. While the Bombers also lost that game — 27-20 to the Toronto Argonauts in Week 8 — Marve was a very respectable 18 of 29 for 203 yards with one TD and one interception against the Argos.

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A repeat of that performance by Marve against lesser opponents in Saskatchewan and Montreal — coupled with more of the kind of play the Bombers got out of their defence (before they got worn out) and special teams against Calgary — would give them a decent chance at notching some badly needed wins over the next three weeks.

The alternative? Well, if you cannot beat Saskatchewan in 2015 you’ve got to ask yourself if you can beat anyone in this league.

This is a deep hole the Bombers have dug themselves. And they need to turn things around immediately, or all those loyal Winnipeg fans who coughed up big bucks for Grey Cup tickets are going to be shivering in -20 C weather watching Calgary and Hamilton play at IGF.

But where there’s life, there’s hope. All is not lost. At least not yet.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek