Grey Cup mirage fades away

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/10/2010 (5459 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s just as well, you know.

For weeks, if not months, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were presented opportunity after opportunity to prove themselves. Or to keep any hope of prolonging this lost 2010 season.

And in every case, almost without exception, they took those opportunities and tossed them into the gutter. No matter the opposition, no matter the scenario, the Bombers found a way to lose.

So if the home team’s 27-8 was anything, it mercifully ended any pretense of a playoff berth for an outfit that deserved the post-season like Jackass 3 deserves an Oscar.

Because there’s only one thing the Bombers did consistently: Lose. Prepare for another “must-win” game. Lose. Vow to get better. Lose. Talk about their slim playoff chances. Lose. Repeat.

Enough already.

In fact, what transpired at Canad Inns Stadium on Saturday nothing more — or less — than a microcosm of a five months of football nobody can get back. A so-so beginning, a starting quarterback lost to injury, at least one questionable coaching decision gone wrong and a frustrated fan base force-fed an underachieving and unappealing product.

The only difference: The Bombers lost by more points than usual.

Sure, the Bombers missing the playoffs had the inevitability of winter even prior to this stinker. But watching the Bombers offence Saturday was a study in futility. And that was long before starter Steven Jyles (separated shoulder) and backup Alex Brink (shoulder) fell to successive injuries, leaving only third-stringer Joey Elliott to be thrown to the wolves.

It was that bad, folks, evoking misty memories of that olden days football table-top game when you turn the switch and the board vibrates. The players go all over the place, for no apparent reason. They go in circles. Sometimes they go backwards. Mostly, they go nowhere.

But that doesn’t excuse the inexplicable decision by head coach Paul LaPolice, who late in the first half sent placekicker Justin Palardy out to attempt a 51-yard field goal into a strong breeze, with the Bombers trailing 10-5. It was a lose-lose situation, especially with Argos returner Chad Owens — only the most dynamic offensive weapon on the field — standing in the Toronto end zone.

Go figure, Palardy comes up way short and Owens races 109 yards for a back-breaking Argos touchdown. The end.

The rest was just a lousy way for 23,446 unfortunate customers to waste a lovely October afternoon.

It’s probably going to get worse, however. With Jyles probably done for the season and Brink’s status in doubt, the fallout from missing the playoffs, again, might be lost in the upcoming week by the uncertainty at quarterback heading into next weekend’s meaningless game in Edmonton.

Regardless, the remainder of the 2010 campaign will possess all the allure of the pre-season — or maybe not as much, given there’s at least the benefit of doubt in June.

Not that the Bombers will have any shortage of doubt moving forward. Who will be the starting quarterback next week? Who will be the starting quarterback next year?

Has LaPolice proven he even has the potential of being a successful head coach? And are the Bombers now staring in the face of a 4-14 season?

The short answer to that last question would be, “It doesn’t matter now.”

After months of promises and wishful thinking, the bottom line is that the Bombers’ Grey Cup drought officially stands at 20 long, frustrating years.

Happy anniversary everybody.

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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