Same old losing stench

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2014 (4063 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not what football should feel like around here. More of a dirge than an anthem. A Shirley Temple instead of a Harvey Wallbanger. A rice cake rather than a chunk of red velvet.

You get the point. And if you were at the game, you got it right in the eye like a sharp stick.

The club announced a crowd of 22,320 for a season-low attendance number. Not many bothered to make the effort to bundle up and travel to the south end of town. Traffic wasn’t an issue. Neither were lineups at the Rum Hut.

Wade Miller walked by the press box just before halftime and didn’t break stride.

The CEO might have had an appointment but from the look on his face, it was more of a case of not wanting to talk about the plight of his team and organization with tape recorders spinning and pens scribbling.

For a few moments there was a whiff of interest to this game, but it ultimately diffused and left in its place the more familiar stink of failure.

The Calgary Stampeders are the best football team in Canada. The Bombers are the second-worst. The game unfolded as expected in a 33-23 win for the Stamps. Calgary wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders, but even at half-speed, it was far too much for Winnipeg.

For those counting, since opening with a 5-1 mark, the Bombers have gone 1-9 and lost seven straight.

There won’t be any playoff football for the Bombers this season let alone a home date where fans could celebrate their loyalty and the tradition of the game in these parts.

No, it will be another autumn bereft of pigskin pride in the ’Peg. The Bombers suck. Again.

The bubblings of a resurgence were evident this season. The promise of a smart and hard-working front office getting its feet under itself is there to be seen. But so what? For the folks watching the games, the story remains the same. Their team is bad. It can’t win. It might go out on a nine-game losing streak. That’s half a season without a victory.

And really, even if the Bombers were to pull off the unlikely and squeak out another win, what would it matter? Window dressing while the roof leaks and the foundation has cracks.

Back to Miller. He’s going to be tempted to make a bold statement. People will be whispering in his ear telling him to do this and do that. Some will be fans. Others will be delusional and self-important. So-called power brokers. Miller will do well to tell them to shut up.

Among the many things Miller knows about football is if you’re not watching the film on a daily basis your information is half-baked. More of a guess than anything else.

Miller will do best to leave the football decisions to the football people. That’s been his pledge all along, but now with ticket revenue dwindling and another season drenched in disappointment, there will be temptation.

Following it would be ill-advised. Kyle Walters needed to dig this roster out of its grave before he could begin to give it new blood. He’s only just begun. The 5-1 start was in many ways the worst thing that could have happened to this organization because if fooled people into thinking this would be easy. It allowed people to forget the Bombers were a tire fire last season. It masked a league-worst offensive line. It was all fraudulent.

The truth is, the Bombers aren’t much of a football team right now and a string of early-season wins doesn’t change this.

Walters has deep structural issues he must address on this roster. Chief among them is a shortage of Canadian talent and an offensive line, to quote a reader’s email from Saturday night, that “couldn’t block a line of pregnant women.”

The Bombers weren’t a player or two away from success last off-season. They needed a major roster turnover. They still do.

A quick start to next season might have a little more substance to glom onto, but it, too, would be deceptive. This is a multi-year refurbishment. Anyone who tells you different is very likely employed in ticket sales and bucking for higher commissions. Don’t believe them.

Fall football in Winnipeg should be fun. It should be raucous and it should have meaning. Right now it doesn’t.

But this organization didn’t get into this position overnight. It took years of poor planning and mismanagement to saddle Walters with the issues he now faces. Getting out of this fix won’t happen fast.

Sorry to tell you this, but your Bombers still have some time to put in before they can be called anything better than bad.

That’s not a mirage. That’s reality.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter @garylawless