It all starts with the QB

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/08/2009 (6135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I’m not sure if Andy Dufresne might ever have been a football fan, but the protagonist of one of my favourite movies, Shawshank Redemption, famously uttered, "Get busy living, or get busy dying."

That appears to be the tenuous position of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who are currently serving hard time in the CFL East, just 2-5 and teetering just this side of a prison riot.

But the Bombers haven’t dug their way out of jail, they’ve spent the last two months furiously digging their way in. And now, in Week 7, they are an offensively challenged team with a 33-year-old journeyman at quarterback and two inexperienced backups in solitary.

No, it doesn’t look good. Hasn’t for a long time, in fact.

Yet this is what’s so crazy — and, yes, kind of sad — about the grand old CFL: While the Bombers have struggled mightily under the new regime of head coach Mike Kelly, with a raft of controversies and personnel turnover, just take a gander, if you dare, at the standings.

Because believe it or don’t, the Bombers still hold their fate in their own hands. Really. For example, the Bombers are preparing to travel to Vancouver to face the 3-4 B.C. Lions on Friday night. Should the Bombers win — and the Lions have been a study of inconsistency with a couple wonky quarterbacks — they would actually be sitting in a playoff spot should the season end on Saturday.

Huh?

We know, the season doesn’t end Saturday. But the point is that technically the Bombers still control their own destiny. Who knew?

Of course, there’s still the matter of the Toronto Argonauts, also 2-5, who currently hold a slight advantage so far with a better points for/against in the two meetings between the Argos and Bombers so far this season. The teams meet for a third and final time in Winnipeg on Sept. 26 in what could be a critical test to decide the season series.

Further, although the Lions are in the West and the Bombers in the East, this weekend’s contest will essentially be a divisional battle, since it’s the Lions — a crossover possibility come playoff time — who could represent a bigger threat than the Argos to Winnipeg’s playoff aspirations, as bleak as they might seem now.

Bottom line: There is every reason — hell, there are dozens of them — for Bombers faithful to be concerned. That much is self-evident. But the cold, hard reality is the Bombers not only remain in the post-season hunt, they could secure a big hand up with an upset in B.C. Friday night. Wacky, eh?

Which brings us back to the aforementioned Andy Dufresne and how his philosophical dilemma in a way mirrors what awaits the Bombers, and the mounting frustration of a fan base held captive by a team that can’t seem to escape their current plight. Of course, it’s all about the quarterback and the Bombers have limited options.

Michael Bishop’s arrival has to date has resulted in little improvement over either Stefan LeFors, who clearly has lost the faith of the head coach who traded for him (don’t listen to what Kelly says, pay attention to what he did, which was refuse to put LeFors in last week’s loss to Montreal even when Bishop was ineffective), or the forgotten Bryan Randall, who also does not have the confidence of the coaching staff.

So what now? Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Either start showing, not talking about, shoring up the quarterback position or start over. From scratch if you have to. After all, what’s the point of this slow torture anyhow? To end up 8-10 (which would be a stretch, at this rate) and playoff fodder for the Montreal Alouettes is not exactly anybody’s idea of early parole on good behaviour.

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Because there comes a time when you have to start thinking about long-term survival. Just trudging through a dreary, dead-end existence living off the prison slop the Bombers (offence) has been serving up for an indefinite stretch is too depressing to consider.

Get busy living, or get busy dying. If the Bombers don’t start digging their way out, and soon, of any hope for the 2009 season won’t be worth the effort. Yes, hope. That was a common theme under Kelly’s new administration.

Well, Andy Dufresne had a best friend in prison. His name was Red. "Hope is a dangerous thing," Red said. "Hope can drive a man insane."

So can a 2-5 football team that agonizingly has a chance to escape its confines, even if there is no visible plan.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Randy Turner
Reporter

Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.

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