Quick-starting Ticats caught Blue napping

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This article was published 14/08/2010 (5835 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WHILE the skies above Canad Inns Sta­dium were clear for most of the game, the mood in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker-room was grey and gloomy.

To a man, members of the local CFL club just shook their head when asked to account for the slow start that served as the opening credits to a 39-28 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Friday night. The visitors, who improved to 3-4 and move a game ahead of the Bombers (2-5), came out fast and furious, jumping out to a 14-point lead before the game was even five minutes old.

With all the talk of finishing these close battles with a stronger effort, and the determined effort needed to make that promise a reality, take a mo­ment to measure these factors why the Bombers should have come out guns-a-blazin’ before the game:

❚ The club had lost two straight games to the Tabbies and two straight games overall. Those were on all the road — so a good start at home wasn’t only in the game plan, it was expected.

❚ Winnipeg needed this game to even the season series with Hamilton and put themselves in a position to come out on top for any tiebreakers at the end of the season.

❚ Finally, the Bombers were celebrating the 1970s era, wearing the royal blue and gold throw­backs.

Looking sharp on the field wasn’t enough, though.

"That’s pretty disappointing," said veteran defensive tackle Doug Brown. "We’re supposed to be out here celebrating, or paying homage to the (1970s) era, that was a disrespectful display in the first (quarter). You can’t be so tuned into finishing you forget to start."

"You can’t start the game playing Pop Warner and then start playing professional football later on," Brown continued. "Things happen too fact in the CFL, and you dig yourself a hole and you get behind, and the dynamics of the game change.

There’s no excuse for starting the game like that."

Brown pretty much summed up the shock that was left in the Winnipeg locker-room. Players were in disbelief with the way the game started — watching a 14-0 deficit morph into a 31-7 crater before halftime.

"It’s hard," said quarterback Buck Pierce, who was yanked from the game before the break.

"We just have to find a way to get things going early. We can’t be playing from behind all the time. That’s a very tough position to be put in."

Head coach Paul LaPolice was also left scratching his head. His club did have some adversity before kickoff, as new kicker Louie Sakoda came up lame in warm-up and couldn’t dress for the game, but the first-year-coach wasn’t willing to use that excuse for a sub-par start.

Losing a kicker hurts the overall product but it shouldn’t deflate a team, right?

"That shouldn’t affect us. It’s something (our players) can’t control, it’s something I can’t con­trol," LaPolice said.

"I fully expected to win the game; we’ll find the way to win. It’s something I’ve never heard of in the league, but we’ll find a way to get it done. Certainly, you don’t blow the first two plays (long passes by the Ticats that led to and resulted in touchdowns) — that isn’t the fault of not knowing the kicker’s in the game."

The Bombers return to the practice field Sunday.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca