Extended road trip could explain Blue’s latest loss

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This article was published 06/08/2019 (2270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We will never know precisely why the Bombers lost the past two games, but I can tell you, in my humble opinion, spending an extra week out East didn’t help.

Bonding is always a noble pursuit of football teams. Teams that like each other tend to play well together and enjoy each other’s company. That is the end goal. Of course, teams that have segments of their roster that don’t like each other can also play well together — but that’s not the point of this story. The team stayed out East in Guelph, to bond, but inadvertently, and possibly related, they also lost the two games they played out there.

If you’re going to play in the Grey Cup one day, you better get used to being on the road. If this team gets its act turned around, they could easily be a part of that conversation. But the difference between that scenario, and what they chose to do out East, is that the Grand Drunk usually has two teams that are on the road, and subject to the same disadvantages — not just one, like the Bombers setting up shop in Guelph.

So what did I hate most about extended stay-cations on the road? Mostly about how it affected your performances, and not in a good way.

First and foremost, staying in any kind of hotel for more than a day or two, when you are going to be asked to perform at a high level athletically, is difficult and contrary. It’s not the bed that you’re used to, you’re eating out all the time, your training and treatment schedule is thrown out of whack, and sometimes the roommate you have on the road is more odorous than your domestic partner. While I was lucky to room with some of the true “beauties” in the CFL, there is no denying that your sleep schedules, film study sessions and routines can be vastly different, and that can catch up with both of you over an extended period.

Even from a simple stance of hydration and nutrition, the road is inadequate and taxes you. You don’t have a car, you don’t know where the grocery stores are and, even if you lug everything you would normally ingest and drink up to your room, it’s not like you have a kitchenette and fridge waiting in there. When you travel you get dehydrated, and when you travel to hot and humid places for longer than usual, and eat out all the time, these scenarios get amplified.

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Parts of the routine you usually do during the week at home — like massages, working with personal trainers, ice baths or hot tubs, stadium workouts — get much harder to facilitate on the road. Even though Guelph reportedly offered excellent facilities for the team, athletes are creatures of habit. And when you take them out of their comfort zone, you can’t be surprised by uncharacteristic performances.

There are many former CFL players involved with this football club that have obviously had different experiences and results with extended road trips than I have, otherwise they wouldn’t have thought this was a good idea. But it was curious to hear how some of the athletes publicly admitted that they weren’t thrilled about it, and the fact that there was plenty of time between games to return home after the Hamilton loss.

Of course, a big part of the second loss on this Ontario olympiad can also be chalked up to human nature. When you have a QB that was overcorrecting, and overcompensating from his previous mistakes of turning the ball over three times, and a defence that appeared to get bored halfway through the second quarter, you have a perfect storm of variables for an eye-popping loss to the league’s worst team. The good news is that all, or most, of these elements should be out of the equation when Calgary comes to town on Thursday night to decide who will be the owner of the Western division standings.

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.

Twitter: @DougBrown97