Bomber offence ugly as sin

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This article was published 19/07/2009 (5928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HAMILTON — It was the first word out of Stefan LeFors’ mouth. And it couldn’t have been a more fitting description.

Ugly.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers may have scrapped and fought with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Saturday night’s 25-13 loss, but their offensive ineptitude was especially gruesome. And LeFors, who has struggled to find consistency in his game, posted horrid numbers in going just 7-of-19 for 99 yards while his counterparts in black and gold, Quinton Porter and Kevin Glenn, combined to complete 27 of 42 passes for 334 yards.

"Ugly," said LeFors. "Wasn’t good enough and we took a step back tonight."

Indeed it was the Bomber defence who scored Winnipeg’s only touchdown of the night as Siddeeq Shabazz returned a Glenn pass 30 yards for a score. But with Winnipeg’s attack essentially one-dimensional — they did manage 137 yards along the ground but only 13 in the second half — the Ticat defence was able to tee off at the line of scrimmage.

The two clubs were tied 6-6 at the half, but the Bombers scraped together just three first downs and 55 yards offence in the final 30 minutes.

Yikes.

"It just seemed like nothing was going our way," said LeFors. "Fred Reid did an outstanding job doing the things he did tonight (88 yards rushing) but collectively as a group… we win as a group and we lose as a group and tonight we lost.

"We had things set up but it just wasn’t going our way. I don’t know, I’ve got to watch film and see what the deal was, but off the top of my head it wasn’t good enough. It was a bad loss for us. Coming in we felt good, but this is a missed opportunity for us. A bad one."

LeFors may have been injured in the game — at least, that’s what head coach Mike Kelly hinted at afterward — and he did take a nasty shot in the first half near the Bomber bench after attempting to scramble for a first down. His passes often fluttered and the Bomber boss said he couldn’t rotate his upper body and that’s why the change to Bryan Randall.

But for all Bomber fans howling for a QB switch, there isn’t going to be one.

Instead, it’s back to the drawing board for an attack which has been brutally inconsistent in three games.

"It wasn’t the best day," said receiver Adarius Bowman, who was held without a catch. "There’s a lot of things you could say now, but Hamilton played a good game and they had a great scheme going. It wasn’t anything they did that we didn’t already know, but their guys up front played well. But we just have to play better.

"We have to make the plays when the ball comes your way. We’ve got to go back home and work on getting better. A step backward? Well, it sure wasn’t a step forward."

The offensive woes overshadowed a decent effort by the defence, which forced four turnovers and scored the Bombers only TD.

"It was a defensive battle," said defensive tackle Doug Brown. "From the get-go it was a defensive battle, their defence against our defence and both groups were resilient. Hats off to them and (defensive coordinator) Greg Marshall because they stepped up and we relented a little bit at the end.

"It was a beautiful game for three quarters if you’re a fan of stalwart defences, but unfortunately we didn’t have that extra gear that they did in the fourth quarter and they made more plays than we did when we needed to. It was one of those days where it was up for us to win it for our offence because their offence wasn’t doing much either.

"Kevin Glenn came in and made a little spark for them, but I thought we had it under firm control until the fourth quarter when they made a couple plays and it got away from us."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca