Who to blame and why Sifting through the wreckage of 2008

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2008 (6507 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bear with us here as we toss out a theory while conducting the post-mortem on the ugly corpse that is the 2008 Winnipeg Blue Bombers…

First, let’s all agree that losing sucks and a Grey Cup drought that dates back to 1990 — the second-longest in franchise history next to the 1962-’84 dry spell — is simply unacceptable. But it also says here that what happened in Saturday’s East Division Semifinal loss to the Edmonton Eskimos is actually a good thing for the Bomber organization.

And here’s why:

This is a flawed football team with some serious issues that would have been potentially glossed over with a win. But exposing them now means they are brought front and centre and — you would hope — will soon be dealt with.

As we do every November while sifting through the wreckage of another disappointment, we toss out our take on where the Bombers are and what steps they must take to end their absence from the winner’s circle:

111Brendan Taman has just completed his 10th year with the franchise, currently the longest run with the same team of any GM in the CFL. The Bombers have been to two Grey Cups during that span and qualified for the playoffs seven times. He has a tendency to occasionally opt for the quick fix — usually at the expense of coveted draft picks — but is a solid scout and adept trader.

Every organization makes personnel mistakes, but Taman’s moves in-season this year — among others adding Jason Armstead, Kai Ellis and Stanford Samuels, trading for Joe Smith and Zeke Moreno — all made this football team better. Couple that with a superb ’08 draft class that made an immediate impact and the additions of new faces like Romby Bryant, Willie Amos, Jovon Johnson, Joe Lobendahn and Taman gets more than just a passing grade on ’08.

111No matter how the 6-2 finish to the season is spun, there’s no escaping this fact: Year 3 under Doug Berry saw the Bombers regress as a football team. They were 9-9 in his first year — when he was a coach-of-the-year finalist — advanced to the Grey Cup game in ’07 after a 10-7-1 regular season, but were just 8-10 in ’08. Three years, three playoff appearances and a record of 27-26-1.

We think the personnel is better than 8-10 and the fact that the offence — Berry’s offence — struggled for consistency reflects poorly on the boss. If the Bombers opt to keep Berry (he did sign an extension before the season) in place he needs to find the same kind of proven offensive co-ordinator — an ‘O’ version of defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall — that he can trust to run that side of the show, or get more hands-on and run the attack himself.

111Kevin Glenn has his critics — even more after a sub-standard playoff effort against the Eskimos. Some numbers to consider: He threw for a league-high and career-high 20 interceptions this year while five quarterbacks — Montreal’s Anthony Calvillo, the Eskimos Ricky Ray, Calgary’s Henry Burris and Hamilton’s young gun Quinton Porter — all had better ratings.

Some intangibles to remember: Glenn will be just 30 by the time the ’09 season opens and the decision to have him call the plays, while occasionally successful, was also a damning indictment of the whole offensive game-planning. Put it this way: we wonder what kind of numbers Glenn would put up with a co-ordinator like George Cortez of Calgary or Edmonton’s Rick Worman or Mike Kelly running the show?

This is the toughest personnel call for the organization: can Glenn improve with better coaching or, as one GM said of him three years ago, is he a guy ‘just good enough to get you beat.’ Ryan Dinwiddie and Bryan Randall are intriguing prospects but need more snaps.

111The math doesn’t make sense: three 1,000-yard receivers, a ground game that churned out well over 100 yards per game down the stretch, an offensive line that surrendered the second-fewest sacks and yet dead-last in scoring with just 20.9 points per game? An overhaul is needed.

111The Bombers head into the off-season with 14 free agents. They are: fullback Graeme Bell, running back Fred Reid, linebackers Ike Charlton and Cam Hall, offensive linemen Alexandre Gauthier, Matt O’Meara, Dominic Picard and Kyle Koch, defensive linemen Gavin Walls, Jerome Haywood, Shawn Mayne and Jon Oosterhuis, defensive back Kelly Malveaux and long snapper Chris Cvetkovic.

111The Bombers have done a solid job over the last few years adding pieces to their receiving corps to prepare for the inevitable retirement of Milt Stegall. Derick Armstrong, Terrence Edwards, Romby Bryant and Arjei Franklin are a solid corps all currently under 30. Kerry Johnson provides depth and the negotiation list has a prospect or two, including former Oregon State star Mike Hass, who could be on the horizon in ’09. Replacing Stegall’s leadership, however, won’t be as cut and dried.

111We’ve been dumping on Alexis Serna off and on all season, but he finished the regular season hitting 10 of his last 11 and was good on two of three in the playoff game. He should still be pushed, but he showed something down the stretch.

111Now that the season is over, the focus will be turned not only to the on-field product, but to the pending ownership change/stadium issue. Will the keys finally be handed to David Asper?

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca