Do or die? You don’t say

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This article was published 09/10/2015 (3815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — It was an interesting — and high-stakes — calculation by Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea earlier this week when he decided to call this Saturday’s game here against the B.C. Lions a “must-win” affair.

Because if this weekend’s game is a “must win” and the Bombers go on to lose to the Lions, then what? What becomes of the final month of this 2015 Bombers season — and, more importantly, the final six weeks of the Bombers’ Grey Cup ticket-sale campaign — if the Bombers lose a game to B.C. tonight their head coach said over and over again over the past week they must win?

Consider: the Bombers are still going to be mathematically alive heading into next week no matter what happens here tonight. And even if the Bombers lose to B.C., we will no doubt hear next week from O’Shea and his players all about how where there’s life there’s hope, we’re not giving up until we’re eliminated etc.

But it will all ring very hollow and very disingenuous after this week’s pronouncements from O’Shea about how this Lions game is do or die for this 4-10 Bombers team. Just imagine: if Winnipeg loses here to the Lions — and they’re 61Ž2 point underdogs — what are the Bombers going to say in advance of next week’s game in Ottawa: “Must-win, the sequel — and this time we mean it?”

It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue or inspire fear in an opponent, does it?

Now, on the one hand you could argue it is hardly a bold pronouncement for the head coach of a 4-10 team to proclaim the obvious in advance of a late-season game against a division rival.

Of course, the Bombers need to beat the Lions and O’Shea going off his usual tired script in which every game is simply “the next game” is simply acknowledging the obvious.

But it is precisely because O’Shea has been so reluctant in the past to be this up front and honest about his team’s dire straits that it is now so noteworthy that he has finally done so.

So what gives? How come the prince of bafflegab is finally getting honest with Bombers Nation? Bombers defensive end Jamaal Westerman offered a clue Friday, detailing how much better he feels his team has been playing in recent weeks ever since some desperation and urgency were added to the mix.

“Over the last couple weeks, guys have been very urgent. They’ve been doing the extra, practising hard and focusing more and continuing to ratchet it up. And you can see we’ve been playing better as a team through the last five or six weeks.

“And we’re a couple plays away. The thing is though that we don’t want to be a couple plays away. We want to be on the other side of things.”

And if tipping that balance in favour of the Bombers means taking the team to the brink with pronouncements of now or never and do or die? Well, it’s hard to argue the truth of that statement and it’s not like it could make things any worse for a Bombers team that has dug itself this hole by losing seven of its last eight games.

The bottom line is two-fold — you are what your record says you are and winning fixes everything.

The former suggests this is not a very good Bombers football team. But a win over the Lions, a share of a playoff spot and some much-needed momentum heading into the final three games of the regular season would put some life into a team that is on life support in the words of its own coach.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek