Blue Bombers do enough to win, now must do more

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2019 (2263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No, they typically don’t ask “how,” but “how many.” And yes, the standings show the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a perfect 2-for-2 this young season, sitting on top of the CFL’s West Division, with a talented roster.

Allow me to hit pause on the potential parade for a few moments. Because while they’ve ultimately got the desired results so far, there remains plenty of work to be done to compete for the Grey Cup — and snap a championship drought that dates to 1990.

Just look at Thursday night’s 28-21 victory over Edmonton, in which the Bombers were seemingly doing everything they could to give the game away in the fourth quarter. Fortunately for them, the Eskimos repeatedly looked the gift horse in the mouth and said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

It was as if both clubs were trying to one-up each other to see who could suffer the more painful defeat, playing hot potato with the football as time seemingly stood still in the final few minutes — and thousands of fish flies showed up at IG Field and gathered in the lights, adding to the somewhat surreal scene playing out below.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of a killjoy, you’re not going to win many games when you give up more than twice as many first downs (29-14), allow the opponent to run more than twice as many plays (76-37), let them handle the ball more than 13 minutes more (36:20 to 23:40) and surrender 160 yards more on offence (445-283).

But that’s what happened, and the Eskimos must have flown out of town Friday shaking their collective heads, wondering how they let this one slip away after dominating pretty much every statistical category — except the most important one on the scoreboard.

The Bombers defence deserves some credit, bending but not breaking, but this was more a case of what Edmonton didn’t do rather than anything Winnipeg did.

Eskimos receivers suddenly developed an acute case of stone hands as they dropped at least three catchable balls on a pair of desperation drives.

Edmonton head coach Jason Maas made a boneheaded decision with his team needing both a converted touchdown and field goal to tie (10 points), ordering his kicker out for a three-pointer with 2:02 left, despite the fact the Esks were on the Winnipeg 26-yard line and it was first down.

It made no sense at the time, and it makes even less sense now. The Esks had quickly driven the ball into Winnipeg territory after starting on their own 29 — only to literally boot it all away.

Even Bombers sideline boss Mike O’Shea, no stranger to making puzzling in-game decisions, must have been wondering what his counterpart was thinking.

The Bombers dodged that potential bullet by attempting to shoot themselves in the feet not once, but twice.

First, they quickly went two-and-out and gave Edmonton the ball back with plenty of time left on the clock. And, after a turnover on downs caused by a couple bad drops, the normally sure-handed running back Andrew Harris coughed up the rock and gave the Eskimos one final chance. (It was his second fumble of the game, and the third turnover by the Bombers.)

Continuing the theme, Edmonton would come up short. Again. Just as they had done all night, with kicker Sean Whyte accounting for all their scoring by connecting on seven field goals.

Turn two of those drives into touchdowns and the Eskimos are still looking down on everyone in the league with a 3-0 record while the Bombers lag behind at 1-1.

Also in the spotlight was Edmonton’s undisciplined play, which included taking five penalties for 55 yards before the first quarter was halfway done. One of those, a roughing-the-passer call on a second-and-20 situation where Matt Nichols had just thrown the ball away, gave the Bombers a fresh set of downs and ultimately set up the first score of the game. Edmonton finished the night with 13 infractions for 139 yards, compared to Winnipeg’s eight for 86.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

They say you have to be good to be lucky. That certainly appears to be true for the Bombers, who are are also good to have Lucky — Rodney (Lucky) Whitehead, the lightning-quick receiver who burned Edmonton for seven receptions, two touchdowns, and 155 yards.

In a contest screaming out for a game-breaker, Whitehead was the difference. Perhaps he can ultimately do what reduced beer prices and cheap hot dogs couldn’t on a picture-perfect summer night Thursday and put some extra fans in the stands next game.

Only 25,336 came out for the 2019 home-opener between a pair of undefeated clubs, continuing a trend in the CFL in which crowds have shrunk in traditionally strong markets like Winnipeg and Edmonton.

Whitehead was worth the price of admission and it appears the Bombers have found a real gem in the former NFLer who first appeared at their April mini-camp in Florida. He even managed to make a pair of tackles after Winnipeg turnovers. He’s a keeper, and an exciting one at that.

Meanwhile, the Bombers are going to need more consistency from Nichols and company going forward. Same goes for the defence, which flirted with trouble far too often. It didn’t cost them Thursday, but counting on good fortune to continue might not be the best plan going forward.

The Bombers would also be wise to try and find the killer instinct all good teams have. After they quickly raced to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter, it was as if they took the foot off the gas, as Edmonton closed to within two points by the half. Winnipeg came flying out of the gates in the third quarter to build a 28-12 lead — only to again sit back and hang on for dear life.

In the end, a win is a win, and you never want to be overly picky about putting two points in the bank. And it appears this team has enough talent, and perhaps poise, to overcome some adversity — certainly a good sign.

“Like we have said, we don’t care about stats and yards, we care about points. When the game is over, we don’t even care about points. We care about wins. Great team win. Looking forward to celebrating the win and watching the tape on how we need to get better,” Bombers defensive back Jeff Hecht posted on Twitter shortly after the game, no doubt summing up what many of his teammates — and even — were feeling.

Still, there should be plenty to cover at film study over the next several days, as the Bombers prepare to head to the nation’s capital and battle the 2-0 Ottawa Redblacks on July 5.

A solid start to the year, for sure. But plenty of room for improvement, no doubt.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg