Blue Bombers were put down humanely… and not a moment too soon

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This article was published 06/11/2015 (3619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — So, yeah, that happened.

A forgettable 2015 Winnipeg Blue Bombers season came to a fittingly forgettable conclusion at Rogers Centre Friday night as the Bombers whimpered to their 13th loss of the season, falling 21-11 to the Toronto Argonauts.

The loss means the Bombers finish their campaign at 5-13 and are 12-24 over the last two seasons. The Argos finish their regular season at 10-8 with a victory that also marked the team’s farewell — and good riddance — to Rogers Centre.

The Argos have new ownership and will move next season into BMO Field, a much more intimate setting Toronto is hoping will do for their flagging franchise what the move out of Olympic Stadium and into Stade Molson did for the Montreal Alouettes a couple of years ago.

Toronto will play on the road in next week’s East Division semifinal against either Hamilton or Ottawa, who meet in a showdown for first place today.

The Ugly Numbers: It almost seems like piling on at this point, but it is worth closing the book on a few statistics from the season that illustrate why a Bombers team that had such high hopes at the start of the year of playing in a Grey Cup game they’re hosting later this month has instead missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year.

Topping the list of damning statistics is this — with the loss, the Bombers finished 2015 a perfectly horrendous 0-11 against teams that had a record above .500.

Say what you want about the injury to Drew Willy in early August that deprived Winnipeg of its starting quarterback for most of the year — that 0-11 number screams this team was simply not good enough to compete. The word outclassed comes to mind.

The other number that needs noting is this: since opening the 2014 season at 5-1, the Bombers have gone 7-23.

Whatever they’re doing, it ain’t working.

Was there anything good for Winnipeg Friday night?

Two words — Dominique Davis.

Making his first professional start and handicapped by having had only three days of practise with the first-team offence, Davis did not look out of place. That, by itself, makes him an improvement on anything Brian Brohm or Robert Marve showed in a backup role this year.

Davis showed a strong arm and some scrambling ability. His reads were a little wonky, and he had at least two balls that should have been picked off, but that’s quibbling — the kid showed promise and almost certainly earned himself an invite back to training camp next season.

In keeping with the Bombers’ theme this season, Davis pulled a leg muscle late in the fourth quarter and was replaced by Matt Nichols. He finished the night 16-of-25 for 169 yards, zero touchdowns and no interceptions. And he would have had a lot more than that were it not for three egregious drops.

Up next — Absolutely nothing: The Bombers fly home this morning, will clean out their lockers Sunday and hold one final media availability.

If you’re expecting heads to start rolling down Pembina Highway soon afterward, you’re going to be mostly disappointed. CEO Wade Miller, GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea will all be back next season, although they will almost certainly be on short leashes.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be changes upcoming, and the first one will almost certainly be the firing of offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille, who has become a lightning rod for an offence that just never got rolling this year.

The offensive problems go much deeper than Bellefeuille, of course. But someone’s got to go after this debacle, and he will be the first.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek