Now, back to task at hand

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/11/2009 (5873 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Forget Mike Kelly’s latest apology for a moment because, honestly, it really has no relevance to what is directly in front of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this week.

Sure, if the Bomber boss was somehow attempting to distract attention from the five-touchdown beat-down his team took from the Montreal Alouettes Sunday afternoon with his post-game reaction, the ruse worked — even if it’s a movie everyone has seen many times before this season.

But this latest sideshow shouldn’t mask some of the basic flaws of a 7-10 football team that were exposed again by the CFL’s elite outfit and will need to be addressed lickety-split before the Hamilton Tiger-Cats roll into town for Sunday’s win-and-you’re-in contest.

Among the three most-glaring concerns:

1. A GROUND ATTACK GONE SILENT — Bomber running back Fred Reid set a club record against the B.C. Lions with 260 yards rushing on Aug. 21, just 13 days after lighting up the Calgary Stampeders for 167 yards on just 17 carries. But the running game was non-existent against the Als as Reid’s first six carries were for a grand total of one yard as part of an afternoon in which he carried 11 times for only 37 yards.

In the first eight games this year Reid had 795 yards and a juicy 6.91-yards-per-carry average. In the nine games after that he has 499 yards and an average of only 4.62 yards.

“We’re definitely not happy about it at all,” said offensive lineman Brendon LaBatte. “It’s frustrating to go out there and not be able to move the ball like we did. We were pretty inept out there and that’s not a good thing. It seemed like all we were doing for a stretch there was two and outs, two and outs, two and outs.

“It’s not good… we’ll get to work right away.”

2. A BANGED-UP QB AND AN INCONSISTENT OFFENCE — Michael Bishop will never be mistaken for Damon Allen or Tracy Ham running in the open field. But he was pulled from Sunday’s loss after tweaking a hamstring and it’s obvious it is affecting his mobility, such as it is. Regardless, the veteran pivot will have to be a whole lot better if the Bombers are going to extend their season beyond this weekend.

Bishop is 6-7 as the Bomber starter and the numbers are very clear. In his six wins he has thrown for 10 TDs against five interceptions, but in the seven losses that ratio is 4:12. He also leads the CFL with nine fumbles. In other words, when he protects the football, the Bomber offence can be productive (Winnipeg is 7-3 when it wins or ties the turnover battle; 0-7 when it does not).

“I wouldn’t say it’s a step back. They did a good job of playing coverage,” said Bishop of the Montreal loss. “But we’ve been bouncing back all year. The outside world may think that we’re dumb, but we bounce back. Facing adversity is nothing new to us. We’ve put ourselves in a situation now where we know we have to go out and beat Hamilton.”

3. A SPECIAL BREAKDOWN — They have been a rock over the last couple of months, but the Bomber foot soldiers didn’t get it done against Larry Taylor and the Alouette kick-return units. Taylor’s 115-yard missed-field goal return was the first score surrendered by this crew all season and was part of a collapse that saw the Bombers give up four returns of 35 yards or longer.

But here’s the bottom line, big picture here: A Bomber win on Sunday would secure second place and a home playoff date. And given where this team was six weeks ago at 3-8…

“Look at this team this year… a lot of people counted us out early,” said Bomber defensive back Lenny Walls. “If somebody would have told me when we were one and whatever or two and whatever that at the end of the season we could have one game, at home, to win or get in the playoffs I would have taken that big-time.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca