Bombers troika better get better

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This article was published 09/11/2015 (3617 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Yeah, so now what?

With the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ 2015 CFL season now mercifully behind us — the Bombers finished at 5-13 with a 21-11 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in their final regular-season game Friday at Rogers Centre — the big question now is where does this team go from here?

Whether you like it or not, CEO Wade Miller, GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea aren’t going to be fired after posting a combined 12-24 record over the last two seasons.

The troika have convinced the people that make these decisions in the Winnipeg Football Club they have earned one more chance to get it right next season.

Whether they should is a whole different column, but the basic case in their favour is this would have been a very different team if quarterback Drew Willy had stayed healthy. And they’re also going to point to a string of close defeats in September and October — Winnipeg tied a CFL record with four games in a row decided by three points or less — as evidence this team is not as far off as their record suggests.

While close only counts in horseshoes and nuclear war, it’s worth remembering the last Bombers team that posted a lot of narrow defeats — the 2010 squad lost nine games by four points or less — went on to play in the Grey Cup the following season.

While the prospect of this team in next year’s Grey Cup might seem preposterous at the moment — and it is, especially given this squad’s 0-11 record against opponents with a record above .500 — the Edmonton Eskimos and Ottawa Redblacks proved over the past two seasons the path from here to there can be travelled very quickly.

The first step, however, is going to be getting an agitated base of Bombers fans to jump back aboard the bandwagon. After 25 years of empty promises and no championships, fans appeared to hit rock bottom this year, dividing themselves into two types — those who don’t much like this frustrating team anymore, much less love it; and those who simply don’t even care anymore.

So if Miller, Walters and O’Shea aren’t going to be fired, the front office is going to have to sacrifice someone else to placate the mob. And the guy with his head on that plate is going to be offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille.

Now, I’d argue it’s not Bellefeuille’s fault the Bombers had no offensive line in 2014 and no viable backup quarterback for the first half of 2015. But someone’s got to be fed to the lions and it’s going to be Bellefeuille.

Among the names being tossed around as his possible successor: former Bombers head coach Doug Berry; former Bombers QB Khari Jones, who interviewed for the job the last time but was passed over in favour of Bellefeuille; and former Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice, although his name has also been mentioned as the possible next head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Alright, so they’ve got a new OC, then what? Well, let’s play the cut game:

— A lot of people seem to like the secondary, but I’d argue defensive backs Demond Washington and Matt Bucknor simply aren’t good enough. The secondary looked like a track meet far too often this year and those two were often chasing from behind.

— Defensive linemen Zach Anderson and, yes, the longest-serving Bomber — Bryant Turner — don’t get enough push and haven’t for a long time now.

— The Canadian portion of the aerial corps needs a serious upgrade. Julian Feoli-Gudino went backwards this season and I don’t think Rory Kohlert is ever going to take the long-awaited “next step.” Top CFL teams have stud Canadian receivers — Winnipeg needs to find some, pronto.

 

— The Bombers need a proven, CFL-ready backup quarterback and no, Dominique Davis’s modest success in Friday’s loss to the Argos does not mean he’s that guy. If Winnipeg cannot re-sign Matt Nichols this winter, they need to go out and get Kevin Glenn. But this whole “we’ll wing it if Drew goes down” philosophy was nothing short of a disaster this season.

— Maurice Leggett told CJOB after the game Friday the Bombers locker-room needs more “mean jerks” next season. Look, I’m doing my part every time I walk in that room. But when the local beat reporter is the meanest jerk in your locker-room, Leggett is right — nice guys finish last in life and go 25 years without a championship in football.

What else? Well, for all the money this team spent on its scouting department after Walters took over from Joe Mack in 2013, their import talent still isn’t good enough. Yes, cornerback Johnny Adams was a good find. So too was linebacker Khalil Bass, although only after Winnipeg cut him three times.

But where’s the stud running back? An import running back should be the easiest thing for a CFL scouting department to find and this one is still looking two years later.

Where’s the game-breaking receiver? Where’s the monster defensive tackle to plug the middle? Where’s the right tackle? And how on earth does assistant GM Danny McManus explain why he thought Brian Brohm was Winnipeg’s solution as a backup quarterback?

That’s a lot of hard questions that need to be answered at Investors Group Field. And that’s a lot of work that needs to get done this winter.

Miller, Walters and O’Shea have won the argument they should keep their jobs. Now, they need to prove they can actually do them.

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