Bombers truly an enigma

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This article was published 27/10/2014 (4054 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Years from now, when people reflect on the enigma that was the 2014 Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the biggest mystery won’t be why this team missed the playoffs, but rather how they missed the playoffs.

The why is simple — rookie quarterback; shallow pool of Canadian talent; an offensive line that was lousy in 2013 and somehow got worse this year.

But the how — How did a team that overcame all those shortcomings to open the regular season at 5-1 and still miss the playoffs — well, now there’s a page-turner.

We put the question to the Bombers players and coaching staff at Investors Group Field Saturday night after Winnipeg was eliminated from playoff contention with a 28-23 loss to the B.C. Lions. Where did it all go so wrong this year?

Linebacker Johnny Sears pointed to an earlier loss to the Lions in Vancouver in mid-September that immediately preceded the Bombers’ bye week. “The plan was to go into the bye with a good week and that didn’t happen,” said Sears, referencing a 25-9 thrashing at the hands of the Lions.

“And that changed the mindset coming back from the bye week. I really think that was the point things hit.”

That loss to the Lions was the third in the row for the Bombers, coming after back-to-back losses to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Labour Day Weekend and in the Banjo Bowl.

Six weeks later, a three-game losing streak is now an eight-game losing streak and the Bombers are eliminated from playoff contention with one more meaningless game to play Saturday against the Calgary Stampeders.

So was that where it all went wrong — a small fire in mid-September that turned into a raging inferno by the time the Bombers got back from their bye-week break?

Defensive back Matt Bucknor — one of the few things that did go right for the Bombers in 2014 — pointed to a more general death by a thousand cuts.

“A lot of games we just beat ourselves, to be honest with you. Penalties, lack of execution here and there — we just didn’t put together a full game a lot of times,” said Bucknor.

“It’s tough. This is a tough pill to swallow.”

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea seemed to agree with Bucknor’s assessment the downward spiral from 5-1 wasn’t the product of any one defining moment, but rather a series of stumbles and bumbles from week to week.

“It didn’t all go wrong in one moment,” said O’Shea. “You have to go back and look at each game and look at those mistakes again and look at those points in the game where two or three things — two or three plays in a row go south on us — and figure out a way to change that momentum, figure out what I can do better to stop that third play from happening or that fourth play from happening.”

And then there’s the possibility no one in Blue and Gold raised Saturday — that rather than asking where things went wrong for the Bombers in 2014, the better question might be to ask if things ever really were right with this team this season?

That latter question is based on the premise the Bombers’ early 5-1 record was actually “wind-assisted” — the result of playing East Division opponents in four of their first six games at a time when all the teams in the East were struggling mightily.

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If you subscribe to this theory then you believe the 5-1 Bombers back in late July really weren’t all that different from the current 6-11 Bombers — it was simply the quality of the opponent that changed, a theory that is given weight considering the Bombers are 1-8 against the West this year.

Whatever case, the net result is the same — a team outside the CFL playoffs looking in for the fifth time in six years.

“We obviously got off to a tremendous start as a team,” quarterback Drew Willy reflected Saturday night. “No one in that locker-room ever thought we’d have (just) six wins at this point.

“It’s extremely frustrating.”

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