Stuck in a standstill

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This article was published 07/10/2019 (2193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REGINA — Once considered a favourite to win the Grey Cup, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers might be hard-pressed to win another game.

The Bombers hit a new low on the weekend, falling to their Prairie rival Saskatchewan Roughriders 21-6 on Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium. In a game the Bombers were never really in, despite being close on the scoreboard for much of the night, Winnipeg’s hopes of finishing atop the West Division have all but vanished.

At 9-6, they sit in third place, behind the Saskatchewan Roughriders (10-4) and Calgary Stampeders (9-5). With three tough games — a home date with the Montreal Alouettes, followed by a home-and-home series with the Stampeders — to close out the regular season, it’s hard to imagine the Bombers carrying much momentum into the playoffs.

But before we look too far ahead, here are five takeaways from Saturday’s loss:

 

1) It was the third straight loss for the Bombers, the fourth defeat in the past five games and sixth over the past 10.

Perhaps most concerning, though, is that it was the second straight game Winnipeg had no answers, despite being motivated by the hordes of fans questioning their place among the top teams in the CFL. All week, the Bombers dismissed suggestions they were losing stock against their peers, brushing off a two-game losing streak and vowing a turnaround was right around the corner.

Instead, they laid another egg and continue to trend the wrong way at the most important time of the season. There are two things every team hopes for entering the playoffs: to be as healthy as possible and to be playing their best football.

The Bombers are as whole as they’ve been all season, but they couldn’t be playing a worse brand of football. They would need to win out to be considered on a run, but right now, they look caught in a standstill with no exit strategy in sight.

 

2) Before we get into the offensive struggles, which were aplenty, let’s take a moment to praise the defensive effort. The Bombers “D” was put in a blender this past week, with a number of moving pieces in the secondary and the absence of defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall, who was back home dealing with a personal issue.

The only reason the Bombers were in the game for much of the night was because of the defence. They limited the Roughriders to 11 points through the first three quarters and had quarterback Cody Fajardo running for his life on a number of plays, recording four sacks.

What’s happenin’ @Demski9?!

Big gain for the @Wpg_BlueBombers! #CFLGameday pic.twitter.com/1v1jlIsDgO

— CFL (@CFL) October 6, 2019

It wasn’t until the 12:17 mark of the fourth quarter, when Fajardo connected with Shaq Evans on a 61-yard touchdown, that the Bombers trailed by more than one score. The only thing missing from the defence were takeaways, something Bombers middle linebacker Adam Bighill said was imperative to win these kind of games late in the year.

"At this point, where it’s playoff-like football, you’ve got to get more takeaways, you got to give your offence more opportunities," he said.

 

3) While Bighill certainly has a point, and there’s no denying the team that commits fewer turnovers is more often victorious, there’s little to believe the Bombers would have capitalized even with the added time on offence.

Where to start with this group? It took Winnipeg until the final moments of the first half to get into scoring range, when Justin Medlock connected on a 27-yard field goal with one second left on the clock. Before that, the Bombers punted on all six of their first-half drives, with only one of those series entering Saskatchewan territory.

When the Bombers did get close enough to score in the second half, they straight up couldn’t get the job done. Chris Streveler, making his sixth straight start for an injured Matt Nichols, committed three of his team’s four turnovers, all of which left points off the board.

He was sacked and fumbled on the Roughriders’ 24, was intercepted in the back of the end zone on a pass into double coverage while throwing from the 13-yard line and was picked off once more near the goal line on an underthrown ball he delivered from Saskatchewan’s 34.

Momentum ➡️ @sskroughriders

A.C. Leonard gets home for a sack and forced fumble! #CFLGameday pic.twitter.com/2Q1MGY3vA1

— CFL (@CFL) October 6, 2019

PICKED OFF — in the endzone!@Multifacet_ED leaps to snag a Streveler pass, and the @sskroughriders faithful at Mosaic go nuts! #CFLGameday pic.twitter.com/0eEUwx4Ddm

— CFL (@CFL) October 6, 2019

The Bombers now have just one touchdown in the last 10 quarters, a drought that dates back to the third frame against Montreal in Week 15.

 

4) Was anyone else wondering, as the game progressed at a snail’s pace, whom on the Bombers offence was going to make a play? If anything has become blatantly obvious – and is as concerning as the Bombers’ current quarterback situation (more on that in a second) – it’s that Winnipeg lacks bona fide playmakers.

Beyond Andrew Harris, who is taxed every week to face double-team after double-team, the Bombers don’t have a legitimate game-breaker, or at least we haven’t seen one.

Darvin Adams finished the game with a team-high 109 receiving yards, but 67 of those came in the final drive with Winnipeg having zero per cent chance of winning. Nic Demski has had his moments and so, too, has Kenny Lawler, but both, like Adams, have struggled with consistency. Lucky Whitehead, as dazzling as he was earlier in the year and might still be, has been mostly invisible since a breakout game in Week 2.

But as tough sledding as it has been for the receivers, that lack of production is just as much, and perhaps even more, on offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice. LaPolice has been dubbed an offensive guru, including by myself a number of times, but what we’ve seen in recent weeks has hardly been inspiring.

The Bombers OC has been criticized for not throwing the ball more, but his excuse has always been the Bombers strong run game (they rank first in the CFL) for why the air attack isn’t as potent (they rank last in the CFL). But in a matchup that screamed leaning on Harris and Co., the Bombers instead attempted at least 40 passes for a second straight week. It was an inexcusable game plan given the flow and scoreboard.

And while other clubs are chucking the ball downfield, testing opposing team’s last line of defence, the Bombers are throwing more passes horizontally than they are vertically. Tell me again why Chris Matthews was released?

 

5) Still, when asked about whether he had concerns over the offence, Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said with a straight face "it was a great opportunity."

"I’m very confident we can move the ball and score some points," he added. "We have just got to go out there and execute and do it."

This offence, under Streveler, has been waiting to unleash its potential. But what we’ve seen is that without Nichols at the helm the Bombers continue to take steps backwards. Simply put, hope is not a strategy and if the man watching more tape than anyone else doesn’t realize he’s driving southbound on a northbound highway then maybe he shouldn’t be behind the wheel.

This team needs a quarterback if they’re going to snap a 28-year championship drought. And though Streveler has shown promise and has the respect of his teammates, it’s going to take some dramatic change for him over the next few weeks to prove he is the answer. They need someone with more experience and success in the CFL.

O’Shea has said bringing in someone new at this point in the season would be a tough challenge in getting that person up to speed with the playbook. Speaking with general manager Kyle Walters last week, the reason the Bombers have stayed put is because the price is either too high for a trade or the quality of free-agent players too low.

Problem is, what’s likely to cost this team the most is doing nothing.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton