Shellacking gives rise to five things that grate on Tait

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2015 (3756 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Free Press football writer Ed Tait weighs in on a variety of butt-kicking related subjects in the wake of Saturday night’s Bombers loss, a 32-3 spanking administered by the Eskimos in Edmonton…

1. If the Canadian Football League truly wants to protect its quarterbacks, as it insists, then the early-season results mean officiating crews get a big, fat ‘F’ for their handiwork.

Drew Willy has been injured twice this season and on both occasions the referees missed the offending hit. On July 2, he took an absolutely gruesome hit to the head from Hamilton defensive end Adrian Tracy, with no penalty being called, but a fine levied later in the week.

Saturday, Willy was hit high by Marcus Howard and low by Eddie Steele on a play that sent the QB to the sidelines. Now his status is in doubt for this week. (The Bombers will update his condition today). Again, no call, but there might again be supplementary discipline, which will mean diddly-poo to the franchise if its marquee player is down for a stretch.

 Look, in the end a 15-yard penalty is not going to make a lick of difference in a game the Bombers lost 32-3 — or in the 52-26 loss earlier this month. But as infuriating as it is to watch some of the little ticky-tack hits on pivots result in roughing-the-passer penalties, to have the obvious ones missed is inexcusable.

 If it means putting another official on the field just to have eyeballs specifically on the QBs, the added expense would be worth it.

2. Raise your hand if you’re among those who figure Brian Brohm, if he is summoned to start this week against B.C., has the goods to lead the club to victory. Anyone? In his defence, it is true coming out of the bullpen to replace an injured starter during a game can be a tough assignment. It’s worth noting that in his one start for the Bombers — a 33-23 loss to Calgary last October — Brohm was 14-of-23 for 194 yards with no TDs or interceptions before breaking his thumb and not being able to finish. It’s also worth noting when he left the game, the Bombers were trailing 23-7.

 But in his two relief appearances this year the Bombers have been outscored 70-19 and he has completed 25-of-47 passes for 217 yards with zero TDs and four interceptions. A guy only gets so many shots to prove himself, and if Brohm doesn’t boost those numbers in a hurry…

3. The Bombers’ decision to dress Robert Marve but not have him replace the struggling Brohm Saturday is mysterious and confusing. The party line is Brohm is second on the depth chart because he has a better grasp of the offence and is more-likely to stick with the game plan, while Marve needs more patience rather than ad-libbing when a play is breaking down.

Marve would have played Saturday, we’re told, if Brohm had been injured, but the club wanted to get their No. 2 man as much work as possible. Marve has also been bothered by a nagging injury that flared up in the warm-ups in Calgary and has limited his work at practice.

The Bombers have Dominique Davis as their fourth-stringer and head coach Mike O’Shea was asked if he thought about dressing the former Stampeder prospect over Marve, especially if his No. 3 QB is on the mend. O’Shea’s answer is that Davis’s knowledge of the attack right now is too limited.

Digest that however you please, Bomber Nation.

4. Way back when the CFL schedule was released it was suggested if the Bombers could somehow be .500 or better after five weeks — their first five games featured road trips to Regina, Calgary and Edmonton, a home date with East Division champs Hamilton as well as Montreal — it would be an acceptable start to 2015.

Well, here the Bombers are at 2-3 and the sense is this club isn’t treading water, but sinking like a stone.

As impressive as the season-opening win was in Saskatchewan and the decent performance against the Alouettes that improved them to 2-1, the breakdowns over the last two weeks in Alberta have been so across the board, they must have the alarm bells clanging on Chancellor Matheson Road. Yes, the Bombers almost knocked off the Stamps, but that means little when this crew is constantly staring up at them in the standings.

Consider that since building a 16-zip lead on the Stamps in that game, the Bombers have been outscored 58-12.

5. In our setup of Saturday’s game we threw out for discussion how Bombers vs. Eskimos used to be a meaty CFL rivalry, as good as the Battle of Alberta or Winnipeg’s annual throw-down with the Roughriders. It was also suggested maybe Bombers-Eskimos was about to get some of its shine back, given the two franchises appear to be coming out of the black hole that swallowed them up over the last eight or nine years.

Well, about that… a rivalry only has legs if both of the combatants can throw punches. The Bombers have been beaten eight straight times at Commonwealth Stadium and have now been outscored 99-15 in the three meetings since Chris Jones took over as head coach in Edmonton. Winnipeg doesn’t have a TD against the Esks since a Jovon Johnson fumble-return score in a 35-27 loss Sept. 20, 2013.

That’s a long stretch featuring a whole lot of ugly in between.

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ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait