Two quarters not worth 2 bits

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2009 (6192 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The final gun had long since sounded when Winnipeg Blue Bomber head coach Mike Kelly — already in autopsy mode after Saturday’s confounding loss to the Calgary Stampeders — walked out of the team’s dressing room at McMahon Stadium and pretended to bang his head repeatedly against a concrete wall.

"Aaarrrggghhh! We’re s-o-o-o close," wailed the Bomber boss. "We’ll just keep pounding away at it. It’ll come."

Now, that was the refrain from the Bomber room late Saturday night in Calgary. Conveniently forgetting a first half in which they were rag-dolled by the champs, the Bombers have their fingers crossed the final 30 minutes of the 31-23 loss to the Stamps is the foundation of something positive and can put them in good stead for this week’s home date against the Montreal Alouettes.

It was almost cliche, to tell the truth, to hear so many Bomber types speak of "strength of character," "not throwing up the white flag" and blah-de-blah, blah, after falling behind 23-3 in what was an atrocious first half. But just for the sake of debate, let’s crank up the hyperbole and suggest here that the second half in Calgary — a 30-minute stretch in which the visitors outscored the home side 20-8 while racking up 20 first downs and 355 yards offensively — may just save this outfit from imploding.

Or, at the very least, stave off the implosion for a spell.

We could even suggest that given the Bombers’ complete offensive ineptitude for much of this season, those final two quarters in Calgary not only serve as evidence that Kelly’s blueprint does have merit, but — more importantly — will keep the wolves, some of them in his own locker-room, at bay.

Consider, after all, that in the final two quarters the Bombers managed more yards offensively than in any game this season.

And the 20 first downs was exactly the same number they managed in the TWO previous games against the Toronto Argonauts.

As well, a team desperate to develop some sort of identity offensively found it courtesy Fred Reid (17 carries, 167 yards and two TDs), Yvenson Bernard (six carries for 54 yards) and the big boys on the offensive line. It may not be what Kelly envisioned with all the misdirection and complicated passing/receiving trees, but smash-mouth football can be sexy, too.

"Hopefully that’s the end of the growing pains for us now," said Doug Brown. "But defensively that wasn’t characteristic of us at all this season… we got it handed to us in the first half when they went up and down the field on us. Then we didn’t have the backs of our offence in the second half when they started to get it together. You need that cohesion, where both units play off each other, but we took a step back defensively.

"There were some positive, encouraging signs there but… I’m getting too old for moral victories."

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And therein lies the danger of getting too caught up in building on the second half of Saturday’s loss. Yes, it’s a helluva lot better than getting pummelled for four quarters, but it’s still a loss.

And the CFL doesn’t hand out special bonus points for moral victories.

"That’s what I just told the guys: we can’t be happy with moral victories," said Kelly. "We’re 2-4. We have to start stringing some wins together.

"Hopefully everybody learns from this. That if we come out and play right away we are capable of moving the ball on anybody. We just have to keep believing in ourselves and not worry about any outside distractions. We have to stay on the task at hand. I KNOW we’re going to be fine."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca