‘We’re living in a world of hope right now’: O’Shea

By: Ed Tait Posted: 8:12 PM CDT Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015 Last Modified: 8:28 PM CDT Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015 | Updates

Advertise with us

It’s not officially official yet, but the finishing touches are now being applied on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 2015 obituary. The next of kin have been notified and a man of the cloth is en route to administer the last rites.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/10/2015 (3732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Their faithful said their goodbyses Saturday afternoon at Investors Group Field as the Bombers — once again — did just enough to keep those in attendance interested and more than enough to have anyone still watching this sad-sack bunch cursing throughout in a 27-20 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks.

WHAT IT MEANS: The loss drops the Bombers to 5-12 and, coupled with wins by the Montreal Alouettes and B.C. Lions Friday night — they both are 6-10 — means they now need a whole lot of help to keep their fleeting playoff dream from flat-lining.

John Woods / The Canadian Press
Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols (15) tosses out to Da'Rel Scott (23) against the Ottawa Redblacks during the first half of CFL action in Winnipeg Saturday. — John Woods / The Canadian Press Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols (15) tosses out to Da'Rel Scott (23) against the Ottawa Redblacks during the first half of CFL action in Winnipeg Saturday.

Winnipeg has the bye this week and a win by either the Leos or Als deep-sixes their season. Should they both lose, the Bombers would have to win their regular-season finale against the Argos on Nov. 6th and then cross their fingers the Lions lose to Calgary on Nov. 7th and the Alouettes fall to Saskatchewan on Nov. 8th.

“We’re living in a world of hope now,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “It’s a tough place to be, but we’ve just got to wait to see what happens with the games this week. I have no doubt in my mind that our guys are going to work hard and play this last game hard. Hopefully it’s a meaningful game.”

SLOW-MOTION STARTS: The Bombers continued a theme that has plagued them of late, falling behind 10-zip to the Redblacks as an anemic offence coughed and sputtered again. Ottawa had 372 yards offence at the half and a whopping 20:39 to 9:21 advantage in the time of possession that would be a factor late in the game.

Winnipeg’s defensive dozen forced three turnovers in the first half, but the offence spit up three of their own. The Bombers would rally late in the first half on a Matt Nichols-to-Darvin Adams TD and a Sergio Castillo field goal with 74 seconds left, but then had their momentum killed when Henry Burris connected with Chris Williams for a 51-yard TD with nine seconds left.

“As an offence, we talked before the game about putting four strong quarters together,” said Nichols, who finished 17 of 26 for 282 yards with two TDs and two interceptions. “It felt like we had two pretty decent quarters and two quarters not so great. We’ve got to figure out a way to play a complete game as an offence.”

Over the last three games, two of them losses, the Bombers have been out-scored in the first half 55-19. And for a team with such a small margin for error, that’s a whole lot of catching up to do.

THE END IS NEAR: There is no small irony in the fact the Lions jumped ahead of the Bombers in the standings with Winnipeg product Andrew Harris playing a pivotal role in Friday’s win over Hamilton and former Bomber QB Kevin Glenn dominant in Montreal’s victory over Toronto.

Couple that with the last four Bomber losses being by a grand total of 13 points and that equals a whole lot of heartache.

“It hurts because it’s fresh,” said defensive end Jammal Westerman. “A lot of mistakes out there. If you look in everybody’s eyes, they feel like it’s their fault. We just didn’t play good enough. It’s on us. It’s on the players, man. You can’t point fingers… I hear people are pointing their fingers at the coaches, at management… it’s on us. We were good enough to win this game, but we just didn’t do it.”

Worth point out here, even if it’s picking at an open wound: Winnipeg is now just 7-20 in its three seasons at Investors Group Field. Homefield advantage, that is not.

“It’s the same feeling week in, week out,” admitted running back Cameron Marshall. “Obviously as we get closer to the end and closer to the playoffs it feels worse. Now we’ve got to hope for teams to lose instead of controlling our own destiny. But that’s the situation we’ve put ourselves in. Hopefully those teams lose and we finish strong.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait

THREE PHASES

OTTAWA 27 WINNIPEG 20

OFFENCE

The latest in a series of erratic performances by the offence. They had the ball for a measly nine minutes and 21 seconds in the first half and, after finding their legs, still couldn’t consistently run the ball, surrendered six sacks and were guilty of three turnovers, all in the first half. Rinse and repeat. Over and over again.

DEFENCE

Participation ribbons all round for a valiant effort, but the final Redblacks offensive numbers are gruesome: 525 yards net offence, including over 400 through the air and over 100 along the ground. The ineffective Bomber offence had a piece of this and the defence kept this one from being over early with three first-half turnovers, but when it mattered they couldn’t get a critical stop.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Just OK. Sergio Castillo had his streak of five consecutive field goals snapped when he whiffed on a 33-yard field goal on Winnipeg’s first possession and he also missed a convert. But he rebounded to hit from 42 and 46. But there were no huge returns for or against, nor the difference-maker plays the Bomber special teams served up in their win in Vancouver a couple weeks ago.

THE HERO

Burris, the Redblacks 40-year-old surgeon, cut open the Bombers again with another masterful performance. Not only did he score the winning TD on a third-down plunge with 48 seconds left, he completed 29 of 43 passes for 413 yards with one TD and two picks. His mistakes — the two interceptions — were glaring. But so was his leadership and poise on the final drive, which covered 76 yards on 11 plays.

THE GOAT

Tough to point the finger at any one player in particular in a game rife with errors. But the Bomber D — yes, we know they were on the field forever — couldn’t come up with a stop in the final few minutes in a game that was tied. Everyone gets the finger of blame pointed at them in this one, however. Just not good enough across the board.

EXTRA POINTS

Burris eclipsed the 60K career passing mark on his first completion of the game, joining Anthony Calvillo and Damon Allen in that elite company. Greg Peach’s fourth-quarter sack of Burris was his first of the season, Bombers DT Leon Mackey started in his first CFL game for Zach Anderson and finished with one tackle, and Stanley Bryant was in the lineup after missing the entire practice week to tend to a personal matter.

NOTEBOOK

Bomber head coach Mike O’Shea was as frustrated as anyone after the game, not because of his team’s effort, but because a lot of what plagued his team looked so familiar.

“We couldn’t stay on the field, we couldn’t get off the field again,” he said. “At the end of the game you’re looking at a defence and special-teams unit that is pretty tired. We still put ourselves in position at the end to try and tie the game up… We got beat by a good team. There were parts of the game where we didn’t look good.”

O’Shea lamented an inability to run the ball effectively as hurting their time of possession early — Winnipeg had just 19 yards rushing — and pointed to how Ottawa’s push at the line of scrimmage was critical. But, most of all, the Bombers were chasing this game for long spells and, after taking the lead, had to continually throw out a defensive unit that was plum tuckered out in the critical moments.

“It always boils down to several plays, not just one,” he said. “The last three games in particular, just look at the first halves. We’re not effective enough in the first half to tip those games in our favour. This game we go in at the half down six, but the momentum shifted, right? They score with nine seconds left (in the half). The last three games in particular, those first halves and the production difference between us and our opponent.”

— Ed Tait