Cat eats hapless rodent

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/09/2009 (5854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After the Montreal Alouettes finished toying with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, they ate them.

Kinda like what a cat sometimes does to a mouse. The cat entertains itself for a while and then decides, “That’s enough. It’s lunchtime.”

But that the Bombers lost handily to the league-leading Als is about as shocking as a two-volt battery. This was David meeting Goliath, sans slingshot and rocks.

It’s not that starting quarterback Michael Bishop was the only problem. He had receivers such as Adarius Bowman and Romby Bryant whiff on big passes. Bryant and Arjei Franklin were shipped off to Calgary mere minutes following the game, but you have to wonder what difference that will make at this point.

And the penalties. Oh, the penalties.

You want a summary of the Bombers 3-8 season?

How about this series late in the half, with the visitors gamely hanging in, trailing 12-7. The Bombers starting a drive on their own 35: After an incompletion, right guard Ryan Donnelly is called for illegal procedure. Next play, a dump pass to running back Fred Reid busts out for a 54-yard gain.

Huge play. First-and-10 in Montreal territory.

Wait. Flag on the play. Donnelly is nailed for a marginal holding call. The bench slumps. Not again.

Second-and-25. Another flag. The Bombers are caught with 13 men in the huddle. Of course, we all agree the Bombers could use 13 players on offence. It’s just illegal, is all.

So third-and-long — punt.

Go figure Alouettes veteran quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who has feasted on the Bombers much of his illustrious career, leads Montreal to another major, a kill-shot to make it 19-7. The Als never looked back.

The rest is a movie we’ve all seen before that wasn’t pretty the first time: A stubborn Winnipeg defence eventually wears down after spending far too much time on the field. The opponent simply shuts down the Winnipeg running game, rendering Reid into furniture. And for every touchdown Bishop throws, there’s two back-breaking interceptions.

Game over.

Yes, CFL neophyte Casey Bramlet, who made his debut late in the first half, was ineffective during his brief stint.

Bramlet didn’t look like a deer in the headlights. He looked like a deer under the headlights.

What else did you expect? The guy is taking his first snaps in the CFL, in a dysfunctional offence, on the road against the best team in the league. No wonder Bramlet looked like a rabbit trapped in the middle of an eight-lane freeway.

That’s where the Bombers are. It’s pretty simple. Head coach Mike Kelly bet the farm on his guy Stefan LeFors way back in training camp and now he’s living in a broken down pickup truck.

The Bombers have been paying the price ever since, forced to parachute in Bishop in mid-season, and with every loss the cost is getting rather rich. And with every loss the frustration mounts and concentration ebbs. Hence the penalties and dropped passes. Hence the turnovers, which have now ballooned to 18 in the last four games.

Now what? Is Bramlet going to get thrown to the wolves? After all, it’s rare that a quarterback can succeed early in his CFL career, but almost impossible under these circumstances. But what other choices do the Bombers have?

Clearly, backup Bryan Randall is not in the Bombers’ plans any more. So Kelly and Co. can continue to bail water out of a sinking ship with Bishop or hand the ball over to a guy with no CFL experience whose debut totals were 1-for-8 for 13 yards and one interception.

Pick your poison.

Meanwhile, you’ve got a defence that must be on the verge of mutiny. And consider: The Bombers, who face the powerful Al on two more occasions, need to go 5-2 down the stretch to match last year’s tepid 8-10 season.

In short, if Bramlet isn’t the answer, then hope for 2009 has just bought a one-way bus ticket out of town.

Thank goodness the CFL’s quirky playoff structure is generous enough to allow a 3-8 team to entertain thoughts of a post-season without prompting spit-takes and belly laughs.

All the Bombers have to do is find a quarterback, win about five games down the stretch, hope their defence doesn’t collapse from collective exhaustion, catch up to the 5-6 B.C. Lions, scrape into the playoffs and win three straight in November.

Feel free to try and calculate the odds of that rose-coloured scenario unfolding.

We’ll wait.

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.

   Read full biography