Bombers don’t stand a chance

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2014 (4061 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once infamously said: “You go to war with the army you have — not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

The problem for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this season — and it was never more evident than in a 33-23 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Investors Group Field Saturday night — is the army they built for the 2014 season is hopelessly ill-equipped to battle the actual opponents they are facing on a week-to-week basis.

The proof is in the numbers: Eight times the Bombers have faced a West Division rival this season — and seven times they have lost.

That’s the worst division record in the country right now and you only had to watch Jon Cornish and the Stamps rush for 195 yards and the Calgary offensive line humiliate an overmatched Bombers front-seven to appreciate how this team is as ill-suited to play in the CFL’s West Division as Rumsfeld’s military was go to war in Iraq.

Again, the proof is in the numbers: In their last six games against West Division opponents, the Bombers have given up an almost comical average of 176 yards rushing. To the surprise of no one, they’ve lost all six of those games.

The problem, of course, is the offensive lines and running backs in the West Division are bulls — just look at Calgary, just look at Saskatchewan, just look at B.C., just look at Edmonton.

Now take a look at the Bombers’ defensive front seven: They are undersized and lacking strength, hand-picked by defensive co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry for speed, agility and versatility instead of strength and size and suitability as an unmovable object.

The result has been utterly predictable: A defence that is suited to rushing the passer but completely ill-equipped to stop the run.

You know how the players have been saying all season they’ve never before played in a defence even remotely like Etcheverry’s? That’s because it doesn’t work, at least not in the CFL’s West Division in 2014.

Now, I’d love to tell you Etcheverry’s side in all this. Indeed, he’s owed a chance to defend himself and his work.

But alas, for the first time in CFL history, the assistant coaches of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have been made off-limits to the media for an entire season.

So all I can tell you is what the man who instituted the ban on talking to his assistants thinks — and, on the surface, that’s perhaps the most worrying part of all.

Because what Mike O’Shea has said publicly about his run defence was, first, that he was “not concerned” it’s a problem and, second and more recently, he’s not concerned it’s a big problem.

If that’s true — that the man who put together this assistant coaching staff and oversees the scheme from week to week — still doesn’t think his hopelessly ill-designed defence is a major cause of the current seven-game losing streak and the fact the Bombers are about to miss the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six years, then that really is a big problem.

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But I don’t think so. I think O’Shea’s continuing insistence on downplaying the problems in his run defence is simply a function of a man who has, if nothing else this season, shown himself to be both wildly stubborn and very, very reluctant to admit when his team has done anything wrong — at least in public.

There’s some recent evidence to support the notion O’Shea might finally be coming around on this issue. Late last week, in announcing he was shuffling his linebacker corps in advance of facing Calgary — bringing in Johnny Sears and Don Unamba and taking out Teague Sherman and Desia Dunn — O’Shea conceded part of the reason for the move was to “get bigger.”

Now, the fact Sears and Unamba are within a few pounds of Sherman and Dunn and the switch did nothing to solve Winnipeg’s problems on run defence is beside the point. The point is, at least in a roundabout way, O’Shea seemed to be admitting last week that maybe, just maybe, his defence might need some fixing.

It’s a bit late for that now, of course. But still, better late than never. Because, as Bombers fans know better than anyone else in the CFL, there’s always next year.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek