Miracle on Maroons Road

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2010 (5809 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Miracle on Maroons ended with almost as many fans in the parking lot as in the stands.

It ended in bedlam, with Bombers cornerback Deon Beasley streaking 72 yards into the B.C. Lions end zone in overtime, his hard-luck teammates exploding in celebration.

Half the hometown fans had left griping about a turkey. The die-hards who stayed behind found their Thanksgiving.

A most unlikely finish unfolded at Canad Inns Stadium on Monday — part disbelief, part relief, part ecstasy — in the one game that for all the world seemed a lost cause. Like the Bombers 2010 season itself.

There will be time, when the delirium subsides, to point out the obvious: The Bombers 47-35 victory resulted more in spite of decisions made prior to hosting the B.C. Lions than because of them.

After all, when Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice made the curious decision to bench Steven Jyles for fresh meat Alex Brink, it was met with reaction that ranged from harsh criticism (Hello, Matt Dunigan) to apathy (those convinced the Bombers season was already lost).

And even with young Brink, making his first ever start as a professional, stumbling to a 3-of-14 first half (59 yards), with a brutal efficiency rating of 44.64, the head coach stood by his man, and left the “backup” with a 100 per cent rating on the pine.

Even though the Bombers were clinging to an 11-8 lead in a Tryptophan Bowl of mediocrity. Even though Brink was getting booed every time he left the field — only to get booed even LOUDER when he came trotting back out.

Poor kid. Geez, the last time a guy started against the Lions and suffered this much carnage there was a Roman emperor in the stands.

By the time LaPolice got around to yanking Brink, the Bombers were trailing 25-11 and stinking the joint out. Hence the fan exodus. Who could blame them?

Indeed, the events that transpired that led to the home team’s deficit were a low point in a 3-10 season, hard as that is to imagine. It was painful to watch.

But if losses can amplify decisions gone wrong, then victories can mute them.

Trust us, without that inconceivable finish — down 32-11 early in the fourth quarter, down 10 points with a minute left — the fallout in Bomberville would have been visceral. LaPolice would be getting raked. The masses would be voting for mob captains. Ugly wouldn’t begin to describe the mood.

That was before the Hail Mary to Greg Carr. That was before Jovon Johnson’s dramatic 59-yard punt return that set up Justin Palardy’s tying field goal at the buzzer. That was before Lions DL Khalif Mitchell punched Bombers offensive lineman Andre Douglas in the nether regions in overtime, drawing a 25-yard penalty when the Bombers looked done. Again. That was before Beasley’s stake-in-the-heart interception.

Suddenly, the Bombers are the guy waking up with a massive hangover, in the debris of a wild party, wondering how they got that tattoo that says, “Lions Suck”. And what’s with all the lingerie?

And for the briefest of moments, the seemingly endless string of costly injuries, bad ideas, fatal meltdowns — only to be interrupted, almost cruelly, by brief glimpses of promise — seemed to vanish. Just as it was hard to remember that the same team that left the field to the deafening roar of the fans who remained was the exact same team getting unmercifully booed just an hour before. At home.

Nobody remembers Jonathan Hefney’s four major fouls, all needless. No one remembers why everybody left in the first place, and that with a season-low attendance of 25,000 and change.

Nobody remembers that the quarterback who won the game was benched by the head coach, or that Jyles didn’t see the field until there was five minutes left in the third quarter. Even as the playoff ship (tugboat?) was sinking.

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They always say they don’t ask how you won. Or how you lost, for that matter. Good thing.

But if the Miracle on Maroons Road proves anything, it’s that if the Bombers didn’t think they had their quarterback of the future in Jyles, they certainly don’t have it in the other guy. Not yet.

True, the Bombers have one more win. But they still have more issues than Reader’s Digest. And a quarterback situation, according to their own head coach, yet unresolved — both short term and long term.

To the Brink, and back.

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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