Little team that couldn’t

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/09/2010 (5526 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is this thing called the Riemann Hypothesis, which many scientists believe is one of the most difficult problems in the history of mankind.

It involves zeta-functions and non-trivial zeros and integers. It’s 150 years old and has yet to be solved by the most brilliant minds in the world.

In a related story, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost to the Montreal Alouettes 44-40 on Friday night.

That’s right, the 3-9 Bombers, who lost 17-13 to the offensively-challenged Toronto Argonauts last week after holding the Saskatchewan Roughriders to just two points the week before, came within a whisker of upsetting the Grey Cup champions at Canad Inns Stadium.

Before losing another heartbreaker with just seconds left on the clock. Again.

Indeed, just when it seemed that Steven Jyles and Co. were about to continue the manic oscillation that has defined their Jekyll and Hyde season with an unexpected victory, the home crowd of 26,143 was left in stunned silence when Als quarterback Anthony Calvillo threw a 48-yard TD to Brian Bratton with just 120 seconds remaining.

Sounds about right.

As if the football gods weren’t frowning enough on the beleaguered Bombers, who have put themselves and their faithful through the emotional wringer all season.

Because the Bombers couldn’t have tasted this one. This wasn’t one of those nights when nothing went right. This wasn’t losing to a team, like the Argos last week, who threw for a piddly 90 yards.

This was going toe-to-toe with the first-place Alouettes and finding themselves with a 40-34 lead with just under three minutes left. This was supposed to be yet another who-saw-that chapter in the Bombers’ wildly unpredictable and gut-wrenching campaign.

But it slipped through their fingers — the sixth game this season that the Bombers have lost by seven points or less.

They can’t seem to help themselves, though. If the game is on the line, you just hold your breath and wait for the train wreck. This must be what it’s like to be Lindsay Lohan’s parole officer.

After all, the Bombers spotted the Als a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter, with veteran Calvillo coming out throwing a dart. But that was before the memorable Bombers debut of receiver Greg Carr, whose first CFL reception was a 74-yard touchdown strike from Jyles. Carr’s third-ever CFL catch was a 71-yard touchdown.

And the slugfest began in a race to 50.

So when Bombers rush end Odell Willis stripped the ball from Calvillo’s hands deep in Montreal territory early in the fourth quarter and the loose ball was gobbled up by Bombers linebacker Joe Lobendahn, who skipped a few yards into the Als’ end zone to give his desperate team a 40-31 cushion, it appeared to all the world that a giant upset was in the making.

But as the Alouettes’ final seven-play, 84- yard dagger-in-the-heart drive unfolded to the horror of the locals, it represented just another luckless blow for a team that has proven to be just good enough to lose.

You know, it might be easier to stomach if the Bombers just flat-out stunk. It would probably be more palatable if they were clearly inadequate.

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Not the case, however. And it only seems to make it more confounding when their offence is repulsive one week and resplendent the next. How can their secondary look so aggressive and tight and still give up so many monster plays?

How can a team be such a tease and a heartbreaker at the same time.

Maybe they’re solve the Rienmann Hypothesis one day.

The 2010 Bombers? Go ahead, Einstein, try and figure them out. We dare you.

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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