‘We’re going to bring the house’

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This article was published 10/09/2015 (3903 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it comes to long-suffering Winnipeg Blue Bombers players, defensive tackle Bryant Turner Jr. has suffered longer than almost anyone.

Now in his fifth season in Winnipeg, Turner was second only to offensive lineman Chris Greaves in service as a Bomber until Greaves was traded to Edmonton Wednesday afternoon.

With a six-year veteran in Greaves now gone, Turner joins receiver Clarence Denmark and utility guy Michel-Pierre Pontbriand as the longest-serving members of the Winnipeg Football Club.

All of which is to say Turner has a long view most don’t have when it comes to what ails this franchise.

And so on the day the club announced they’d lost yet another team leader to injury — linebacker Chris Randle is done for the year with a knee injury sustained in last weekend’s 37-19 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders — it seemed a good time to track down Turner and ask him whether all the losing in recent years has become so ingrained in this franchise that it’s almost become a habit.

“I am tired of losing,” Turner said, shaking his head. “From the first game I lost in Winnipeg, I’m tired of losing. It’s a long time. We’ve had some tough last few years. And it’s horrible, it takes so much to put wins together, so many moving parts that you have to put together.

“And that’s the thing. We’ve rebuilt and rebuilt and now we’re trying to stick with what we’ve got and get it going. It’s just having patience, I guess. It’s just knowing that if you keep doing the right thing, it will pay off in the long term.”

Asking for more patience will be cold comfort to Bombers fans, of course, who are already the most patient in the nation, waiting as they have for a Grey Cup that hasn’t been hoisted in these parts since 1990.

And that’s the other particularly galling thing about the current four-game losing streak that has Winnipeg mired at 3-7 and in very real danger of missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year — the Grey Cup is going to be hoisted in Winnipeg this November, whether Bombers fans like it or not.

The Bombers, of course, are hosting the Grey Cup game this year. And for all of Turner’s talk about the need for patience, the simple fact is this organization went all-in on this season being the one they would finally get back to the big game.

Aggressive

Kyle Walters was the most aggressive general manager in the nation during CFL free agency and the Bombers spared no expense this season putting together what they thought was a legitimate playoff contender.

But then starting QB Drew Willy got hurt in early August, sparking the current four-game losing skid. And then things went from bad to worse this week with the news Randle — a team leader on defence and special teams — is done for the year.

And Willy? Well, the good news is he’s no longer using crutches to walk around Investors Group Field. The bad news? Willy is still limping badly, walking slowly and looking nothing like a man who will be football-ready in a few short weeks, as the Bombers first estimated.

‘I am tired of losing. From the first game I lost in Winnipeg, I’m tired of losing. It’s a long time. We’ve had some tough last few years. And it’s horrible… We’ve rebuilt and rebuilt and now we’re trying to stick with what we’ve got and get it going. It’s just having patience, I guess. It’s just knowing that if you keep doing the right thing, it will pay off in the long term’

— Bryant Turner Jr.

So where does that leave Turner and a Bombers team that is 19-45 since they lost the Grey Cup game in 2011?

Well, Turner says if there’s one thing he’s learned in all the deep, dark valleys he’s experienced in five seasons as a Bomber, it’s that you have to ignore what you cannot control and focus on what you can.

For Turner, that latter category begins with putting an immediate stop to all the penalties this team takes, week in and week out.

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“This week it’s all about being accountable,” said Turner. “I think we had 16 penalties last week, and we realize as a group that we’re not good enough to have 16 penalties. We’ve got to be a four-or-five-penalties-or-less team to win games, I think.”

Now, Bombers fans have heard that pledge before, only to see the same old movie the following week. But Turner says there’s a sense of urgency around IGF right now, and he thinks this time the talk really will translate into action when the Bombers host the Saskatchewan Roughriders Saturday in the annual Banjo Bowl.

“This is a make-or-break game, I think, for our team,” said Turner. “I think we need to do something now. We need to get the ball rolling now. We kind of have no choice. And I feel you’re definitely going to see our best effort this game.

“We’re going to bring the house.”

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