3 Keys To Victory

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2010 (5902 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Free Press football writer Ed Tait outlines how the Bombers could win tonight.

1. PLUG THOSE SPECIAL TEAMS HOLES

Imagine the pain, the anguish — not to mention the flat-out embarrassment — of giving up a touchdown on the opening kickoff in the first game of the year AND in front of a home crowd, no less. And then imagine how the Winnipeg Blue Bomber special teamers felt giving up a 118-yard missed-field goal return in the same game. Think the foot soldiers weren’t exhaling a bit after the Bomber offence and defence did their thing to make everyone forget their miscues? Granted, the unit did contribute a score of their own courtesy the Brady Browne punt block that was scooped up in the end zone by Pierre-Luc Labbe, but surrendering the two kick-return TDs and having the long-snap problems that indirectly led to three Alexis Serna field-goal misses is far too much negative attention for special-teams co-ordinator Kyle Walters and his troops. The miscues already cost Adam Bestard his job — the long-snapping chores will now be handled by Taylor Inglis — and that transaction should be a hard slap to the face of the rest of the men who make up these units. Clearly the new boss won’t put up with these kind of mistakes for long. Paul LaPolice also did some serious evaluation of his own decision-making, admitting the call to let Serna try a 49-yarder with a 16-point lead — that miss was returned for a score — was a mistake. The team has added speedy defensive ends Odell Willis and Phillip Hunt to the long field-goal attempt team in an effort to have better tacklers on the field if the scenario unfolds again. But consider the entire special-teams units to be on probation.

2. MORE OF THE SAME, ‘O’

Little to complain about an offensive effort that saw the Bombers throw for two scores, run for more than 200 yards and hold the ball for 34 minutes. QB Buck Pierce was outstanding in his debut, twice connecting for TD strikes to Terrence Edwards. Fred Reid got it done along the ground and there were six different players to latch onto passes. One concern was the four sacks surrendered by the O-line, although LaPolice said after the fact that Pierce was to blame on one of them. But the men on the Bomber offence are no doubt well aware the Argo loss in Calgary last week was also a bit deceiving: Despite holding onto the ball for an unheard of 42 minutes and 14 seconds, the Stampeder offence was limited to just one TD and settled for five field goals. It was a trademark of the old Rich Stubler-led defences of the Argos early in this millennium — bend, but don’t break — and the Bombers will definitely need to be more productive in the score zone.

3. AND MORE OF THE SAME

FROM THE ‘D’, TOO

The optimists in the Argonaut camp are convinced that, given a few weeks to get accustomed to the Canadian game, former Miami Dolphins starting QB Cleo Lemon will evolve into a solid starter. There were some flashes in his first game in Calgary — he was 16-of-28 for 192 yards with one TD and one interception — but there were also long stretches when the Argo offence was completely ineffective (they managed just 11 first downs). The Bomber defence, which completely frustrated Kevin Glenn last week, can’t wait for Lemon to take that next step in his development and must instead go after him like a pack of starving wolves taking down a deer. Yes, the gentlemen on the Bomber defence need to go out of their way to hammer home this fact to Lemon: The ‘Friendly Manitoba’ slogan on the licence plates here does not extend to the football field.