No quit in Blue crew

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This article was published 28/09/2014 (4083 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Maybe the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are dead. Maybe their season is over but for the motions of playing out the schedule.

But, for some reason it doesn’t seem that way. This team doesn’t smell, sound or give off the feeling of being finished.

While there was disappointment and even dread in the faces and voices of the Bombers following Saturday’s 16-11 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, there was also defiance.

In some ways, this was a loser’s loss. Mistakes, bad penalties and the failure to convert from a first-and-10 on the opposition three-yard-line in the final seconds. It would be easy for the spirit to vacate the vessel right now.

This team is thirsty. Very thirsty. But a win will slake that thirst. And they still have the drive to achieve victory.

Head coach Mike O’Shea and GM Kyle Walters have seen to that in the type of people they have brought to this team. What they couldn’t get in talent, they have to make up for in character. It won’t get you a championship — for that, elite talent is always required — but it can keep a team working. And work ethic is all these Bombers have to cling to right now.

Words, especially from a team that has lost four straight and six of its last seven, are extraordinarily cheap.

Every team and every player in this position spouts the same “we’re still in it and we’ll come to work Monday and try to get better,” credo.

No, it’s not the words one looks for in these moments. It’s the glances between players. The hushed conversations at the lockers. Whether a team can still win games is never a known quantity. But whether they’re still in the fight mentally, that can be detected.

Right around this time last year, when the Bombers were on cruise control and headed towards a 3-15 record, the lack of professionalism and will to work was beyond obvious. They didn’t even try to disguise it. They had quit. Maybe not every player in the room, but far too many.

Veteran defensive lineman Bryant Turner was sitting in his stall holding his head in his hands long after most of his teammates had drifted off to the showers.

“We won’t quit. We can’t. Coach O’Shea, he’s like a teammate. And you don’t quit on a teammate,” said Turner. “It’s the GM’s job to bring in the right kind of people. He did his job. I can’t tell you we’re gonna win. But I know we’re coming to work Monday and we’re going to try to get better and we’re going to worry about playing Ottawa and nothing else.”

Not so surprisingly, a few minutes later when O’Shea was asked about his team having lost four in a row and standing near the precipice with the choice to fight on or quit, the coach sounded a lot like his player.

“It’s not four losses in a row. It’s one loss. And we’re not worried about the five games left on the schedule. We’re worried about the next game,” said O’Shea. “It has to be that way.”

Coach-speak can be tiresome. O’Shea has a music sheet he sings from, but it’s not rehearsed. It’s believed. Big difference.

Bigger yet is that his beliefs have become the fibre this team is built on. His quarterback Drew Willy and the players both old and new also spout those values.

Do they share them? We’re about to find out. Five games left on the schedule and still very much in the playoff picture means one win can change this team’s entire outlook. But they have to get that win. It’s eluded them for a month.

O’Shea, you can be certain, will offer up the “come to work and get better,” mantra so long as he’s breathing. It’s his essence.

An entire roster of players is different. Some will fall away and become non-believers. There are always weak in the herd.

The time of truth is upon this team. O’Shea said late Saturday night the next game wasn’t a must win. He was wrong. This team needs to be rewarded for its belief.

Otherwise the words can at the same time become heavy and empty. Heavy to carry and empty of nourishment.

You’ve done the work, Blue Bombers. Time for a win. You owe it to yourselves.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless