‘We’ve got to be able to protect the football’

Tommy Condell has been around long enough to know that criticism is part of the job, so you can understand why there were moments when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive co-ordinator sounded a tad defensive when speaking to the media on Monday afternoon.

The Bombers were coming off a disappointing 52-30 loss to the Calgary Stampeders that dropped them to 4-3 on the season.

In many instances, a 30-point outburst would have been cause for celebration. But when you look under the hood of Friday’s outing — which included four interceptions for Bombers pivot Dru Brown — the picture wasn’t quite as rosy.

Compounding matters, star tailback Brady Oliveira went from making the longest touchdown run of his CFL career — a 45-yard scamper late in the third quarter — to being a mostly forgotten player in the fourth as the club mostly abandoned the run in an effort to rally from nine and eventually 12-point deficits.

Oliveira, who had 14 carries for 128 yards and two touchdowns against the Stamps, vented a bit during the CJOB post-game show, suggesting the Bombers seem to still be fighting to figure out their identity on offence. The running back (knee) took a maintenance day on Monday and wasn’t made available to reporters to elaborate on his comments, but the topic of the team’s offensive identity was a popular one after Monday’s workout.

“The identity, at any time, it doesn’t matter who is playing,” said Condell. “It doesn’t matter what quarterback is playing, it doesn’t matter what tailback is playing, it doesn’t matter what offensive line is playing, we’ve got to be able to protect the football.

“We’ve got to be able to create explosives, we’ve got to be physical and we’ve got to finish and we’ve got to marry the run and the pass. I’ve said that before and I constantly say that. Those are the things that we need to do.”

Condell made it clear the Bombers aren’t doing a good enough job on the ball security side of things, pointing out the team has nine fumbles (five of which were lost) and another eight interceptions through seven games.

Turnovers are going to happen over the course of an 18-game season, but this is an area the Bombers need to clean up quickly, especially as they welcome the B.C. Lions to Princess Auto Stadium on Thursday night before heading into the second bye week of the campaign.

“It doesn’t matter what quarterback is playing, it doesn’t matter what tailback is playing, it doesn’t matter what offensive line is playing, we’ve got to be able to protect the football.”

“We’re a balanced team,” said veteran Bombers guard Patrick Neufeld. “We still like to run the football. We have done a good job of running the football. There are opportunities when we have to be better up front and I really like our passing game. Our system is really great. The stuff that Tommy (Condell) has brought in is really great and he’s done things to complement the inside zone and ways we’ve protected the inside zone over the years.

“Like any offence, you want explosives and that’s something we want to be more consistent with.”

Brown also weighed in on the topic of building an offensive identity.

“A lot of what everyone in this league does, you have to look at what you’re going against and what that looks like. It changes week to week,” said Brown. “There are obviously things that you hang your hat on and those things change throughout the year as you improve on certain things.

“But there’s an aspect to every single year, even possibly week to week and month to month, you’re evolving in some areas and you might not be as good as you once were in other areas, so there’s this evolution, so to speak.”

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea preferred to speak in generalities when asked for his thoughts on the offensive identity.

“You have to be good at all sorts of things and be able to draw that up when you need it,” said O’Shea. “If your identity was running screen passes, at some point you’re going to have to do something other than a screen pass to win the game. I think we’ve always landed on the idea that in any given week, whatever it’s going to take, that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

The Bombers have dealt with a few challenges as it pertains to personnel, already using four quarterbacks this season, and dealt with some instability along the offensive line. But the club isn’t leaning on that as an excuse, even if it appears to be part of the reason for the inconsistency on offence as the midway point approaches.

“I mean, it’s kind of been like a working piece of art,” said Bombers receiver Ontaria Wilson. “In a perfect world, I feel like we can be a great, explosive offence, with an ability to take shots down the field as well as Brady (Oliveira) to break for big runs and then getting the ball in our good receivers hands and letting them get YAC (yards after the catch).”

Condell was asked a series of questions about not running the ball more in the fourth quarter and wasn’t making any apologies.

“Every game is different. From a play-caller mentality– and I’ve done it for over 20 years — I have never called a perfect game.”

“I’m always trying to make the best decisions I can during the game. I thought that was the best decision for the team, in order to get back into the game,” said Condell. “I would say that analytics would say that running the football has the ability to have (fewer) turnovers than the pass, but the pass would ultimately have more chance of yardage. I don’t know the numbers directly, but analytically, that would be the case.”

Like many coaches, Condell prefers to keep his self-evaluations in house, though he made it abundantly clear that the players are aware of where he stands.

“Every game is different. From a play-caller mentality — and I’ve done it for over 20 years — I have never called a perfect game,” said Condell.

“I’m always striving to try to be great for those players and put them in the best possible situation and, at times, I have to own some of the things that I didn’t do correctly and I certainly do that with the team. I do that in there and they understand that from an accountability (standpoint), that I’m going to make mistakes and I’m going to make sure that they know it. I don’t hide behind any of that. But we do that in a team setting, a private setting.”

Ultimately, it’s Condell’s job to help the offence reach peak efficiency as the season moves along. But he is integrating a number of new weapons and is trying to spread the ball around, devising ways to create mismatches, no matter who the opponent might be.

This isn’t a dictatorship either, as Condell has been seeking input from the players.

“They have to be a part of it, whether it’s from a play-calling standpoint or a scheme design,” said Condell. “You have to make sure that they understand the intent of everything and the ‘why’ behind that. And that’s my job.”

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