Bombers know they can be better

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This article was published 27/08/2024 (409 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The late, great Al Davis coined the iconic phrase after the Los Angeles Raiders won Super Bowl XVIII in 1984: “Just win, baby.”

The phrase, which the Raiders’ owner thought of on the spot after feeling slighted by then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, has been the motto of the franchise ever since and is used whenever the team pulls off a gritty victory.

Perhaps it’s the perfect way to describe life lately for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The club has returned to 5-6 and is within striking distance of the top spot in the West Division, trailing only the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who they meet in the annual Labour Day Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Sunday (6 p.m.).

The Bombers’ return to the upper echelon of the league has been anything but pretty, though. In fact, their performances have left a lot to be desired, especially on offence, which has found the end zone just twice during the team’s three-game winning streak.

Last week’s dramatic 26-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was a perfect illustration of that, as the Winnipeg defence dominated the TiCats in the first half — Hamilton did not record a first down until the second quarter — but the offence only had six points to show for it. A 16-3 halftime lead was owed, in large part, to a special teams touchdown in the second quarter.

While Winnipeg will never be sorry about winning football games, the question begs: is this sustainable?

“I think over the course of time I’ve seen it done all sorts of ways. We lost a game (in my playing days) where the opposition’s offence didn’t cross half — we lost by 28. So, there’s different ways to win and lose,” head coach Mike O’Shea said with a laugh after Tuesday’s practice.

“Obviously, I’m sure the offensive players would like to score more touchdowns, but when your field goal kicker is kicking the way he is and the defence is making the stops, you just keep working through it. That’s what you can do.”

Naturally, the first place to look to for the offence’s woes is the quarterback. Zach Collaros has talked about his turnover struggles ad nauseum this season, but they have persisted with him adding three more interceptions to his running total against the TiCats. With 12 picks on the year, he’s on pace to shatter his single-season career high of 15.

Collaros said he hasn’t noticed a re-occurring issue in his interceptions, adding it could be a litany of factors that lead to a turnover, from a missed assignment to miscommunication to a physical mishap.

“The bottom line is I have to do a better job of protecting the football and not putting us in bad spots. That’s a point of emphasis always for myself, and obviously, that picks up as we get closer here to the ultimate goal,” the signal-caller said.

“As I say all the time to you guys, I feel like we have to do a better job of pulling our weight. Scoring touchdowns is always a goal for every single drive so anytime you don’t do that, you feel like you’re leaving meat on the bone, so to speak.”

Though the Bombers will not use injuries as an excuse, it’s also hard to ignore the club’s revolving door of receivers and offensive linemen this season, both of which have certainly had an impact on Collaros finding a rhythm.

One weapon, Drew Wolitarsky, will bring a stable presence to the middle of the field when he returns from injury this week. Wolitarsky has watched the offence continue to flounder over the last month, which has offered him some perspective on the unit’s struggles.

“It’s a human game, bro. If you’re making plays and scoring touchdowns, you’re probably gonna make more plays and score more touchdowns. If you’re hurting yourself and turning the ball over and making small mistakes that are driving you back — penalties and all that — you’re not playing as fast, you’re not playing as fluid, you’re thinking too much,” Wolitarsky said.

“It’s a human game, and I think that humanness has got to us a couple of these games. We’re just trying to eliminate those mistakes and we’re trying to play as clean as we can and play like we know we can.”

In the meantime, defensive back Brandon Alexander said the defence, which has held opposing offences to fewer than 20 points in four of the last five games, isn’t complaining about shouldering the load.

“We play defence, we would like to have more plays — that’s more opportunities for us to make plays,” said Alexander. “We’re not complaining about that at all. If we gotta play 70 snaps, that’s 70 times we’d be able to make a play.”

So, does that mean the offence just needs to be “good enough” for the Bombers to win?

“Even when I was at college, we always talk about if our offence can score 14 points, we should win every game. That’s just a defensive player talking. Obviously, the offence wants to score 35… but that’s how we think,” said Alexander.

O’Shea added: “They’ve learned from the beginning of the season until now — and hopefully continue learning — but that was talked about in training camp, is how to be a three-phase team so that each phase picks each other up, and I think that’s what we were able to do (against Hamilton).”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam