They see what it will take

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This article was published 01/08/2010 (5540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — The look on the face of Terrence Edwards was telling. Call it a mix of disappointment, frustration and disgust.

"We feel that we could have won," Edwards said outside the Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker-room following Saturday’s 23-20 loss to the Calgary Stampeders. "We made some plays, but we didn’t make enough to win. (Calgary) is a good football team. We played hard, we played to the end, but next time we’ve just got to play harder to beat this type of team."

Edwards was one of the best Bombers on the night, finishing with six receptions for 162 yards, including a 61-yard TD. But he said afterward he’ll work to push his fellow receivers to get better in the days ahead and in advance of a critical doubleheader against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

"We’re not going to focus on the positive, we’re going to work on the negative," said Edwards. "Forget the positives because we didn’t win. We’ve got to go out there and take the negatives and get better at those negatives.

"This team is too talented to be talking about moral victories. There’s nobody in there talking about moral victories, we’re talking about not beating ourselves. Calgary is too good to beat ourselves on stupid mistakes that we made."

The Bombers trailed 17-8 at halftime, but were able to shut down the Stamps in the second half by limiting them to just two Rob Maver field goals. And while the offence began to move the ball in the final 30 minutes, it still wasn’t enough against a Stampeders team that is one of the toughest in the CFL.

"Our defence holds that team to 23 points, you feel offensively you’ve got to do more to win," said head coach Paul LaPolice. "I’ll say this: you can learn some things from a loss. We learned that this team competes and will play to the end. We really played well in the second half. This is a good football team we just lost to. We have two losses where we put ourselves in position to win the game. Now we’ve got to come out and win it. We’ve got to start winning those games.

"We’re not really happy that we almost beat the Calgary Stampeders. I don’t think there’s a guy in that locker-room that feels that way."

OUCH UPDATE: LaPolice confirmed after the game that starting safety Ian Logan has reinjured the hamstring that kept him out of two contests. Also injured were SB Terence Jeffers-Harris and DB Jerry-Ralph Jules.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca