Off-season of our discontent

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This article was published 09/11/2009 (5867 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

And so begins another off-season for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers that will include — again — more self-examination, more questions and more frustration about another campaign that ends without a Grey Cup championship.

For the record, that’s now 19 years and counting of the same old, same old, for a team that hasn’t won it all since 1990 and is suffering through the longest current Grey Cup drought in the Canadian Football League.

The Bombers’ 2009 season came crashing down in front of 29,038 fans on a perfect Sunday afternoon at Canad Inns Stadium in a 39-17 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that mirrored Winnipeg’s entire season. To sum up, a putrid, ineffective, turnover-prone offence spoiled a valiant defensive effort as the Bombers fell to 7-11.

The Ticats, who ended the season on a three-game win streak to finish 9-9, will now play host to the B.C. Lions, 8-10, in next Sunday’s East Semifinal.

"There’s no way we should lose by 22 points at home to a team that’s already made the playoffs," said Bombers defensive tackle Doug Brown. "The way we played out there… it looked like (B.C. Lions owner) David Braley owned a part of this team, not just Toronto. It’s inexcusable.

"We had a sold-out crowd. The Blue Out’s happening and we had a province that really didn’t have a lot of reasons to get behind us and they did. We let everybody down. At 7-11… you can only put so many fingers in the dam and mask the issues. The problems we’ve been trying to address came up and bit us in the ass today.

"We got what we deserved."

Yup, Brown pretty much summed up the Bombers’ campaign in one breath.

Among the many lowlights Sunday:

"ö The Bombers managed just seven first downs the entire game — Hamilton had 24 — as part of an atrocious performance that included only one first down in the second half.

"ö Quarterback Michael Bishop, who connected with Titus Ryan for a 60-yard score on the Bombers’ first possession, finished 8-of-26 for 122 yards with two interceptions — both returned for touchdowns. Bishop was just 2-of-13 in the second half as part of a complete meltdown that saw receivers drop passes and looked so confused it looked more like a pre-season game than a win-or-go-home tilt in November.

"ö Hamilton’s offence, led by ex-Bomber Kevin Glenn — he was 28-of-42 for 316 yards with one TD and two interceptions — finished with 396 yards while holding onto the ball for 39 minutes and eight seconds, or 17:16 more than Winnipeg.

"We didn’t do anything right," said receiver Terrence Edwards. "We didn’t run, we didn’t catch, we didn’t throw… we picked the last game to play one of our worst games. Something on the offensive side has to be changed. I don’t know exactly what that is. We don’t need to change the players, we just need to change the system. We’ve got to get our chemistry together."

The 7-11 finish is Winnipeg’s worst since going 5-13 in 2005. The organization has had just one winning season — 2007’s 10-7-1 — in the last six years.

"It’s just unacceptable, in a game like this… this was our Grey Cup and for us to come out and play the way we did, it’s ridiculous," said Ike Charlton. "Me, personally, I want to apologize to the fans for the way we looked this year, especially today. We’ve GOT TO SCORE POINTS and we’ve got to stop people. If you don’t score no points in this league, it’s just not going to happen."

Afterward, several Bomber players were already cleaning out their lockers. Others were still in their full gear, head in hands, a good 45 minutes after the final gun had sounded.

"It’s just so frustrating," said defensive back Lenny Walls, who had two interceptions, including one for a touchdown as the Bombers took a 14-7 lead in the first quarter. "Every man that is a part of this organization has to take it upon themselves to get better and do what they have to do. The guys that didn’t play well, the coaches that didn’t coach well… we all know as professionals if we didn’t bring what we needed to bring.

"You have to seize the moment. We didn’t. I’m just so disappointed."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

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