LaPolice dons the thorns again

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2010 (5540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a odd statement, especially when you consider how close the Winnipeg Blue Bombers came to stealing one out of Regina Sunday afternoon.

Following the 27-23 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Labour Day Classic, Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice suggested that those looking for a scapegoat for the loss “put that one” on him — and not the players. This was not the first time LaPolice has pulled out the ‘mea culpa’.

No doubt Bomber fans recall this post-game responsibility from the 2009 campaign, when then-head coach Mike Kelly would fall on his sword from time to time. If you remember, not many believed his sincerity and he was often criticized for his ‘nice-guy with the players’ approach.

So given that recent history, coupled with the fact his club was one 91-yard Riders drive from winning the game and that two trick plays he called — the first half modified flea-flicker and the pass completion on the fake punt — both worked to perfection, why would LaPolice point the finger at himself?

“I want our players to believe that they played their tails off,” the coach said Monday. “That’s what I told the team. Your effort was good; we have to find ways to score more points.”

LaPolice said he insisted on taking the blame because he didn’t put the offence in a better position after the first down. The Bombers were a dreadful 2-of-16 on second down conversions, a stat that the coach just shook his head at a day after the game.

“We’ve got to be better than that,” LaPolice explained. “Obviously, we dropped some footballs and all those things, but we (coaches) have to come up with a better scheme for our players to do that. I’m part of the offensive staff, so I’ll take that responsibility. I don’t want those guys to get down, ’cause that effort was great.”

TRICK PLAY: That razzle-dazzle flea-flicker, which resulted in a 63-yard completion to WR Adarius Bowman, had the coach on the Riders sideline reminiscing about 2008 and 2009. Those were the years LaPolice served as offensive co-ordinator under Riders head man Ken Miller, and the two worked on that same play for the Saskatchewan offence.

“I’m sorry I taught him that one,” a jovial Miller told the Regina Leader-Post. “We worked on that last year. I couldn’t get him to call it last year. But he did call it on Sunday, to great effect. “

GREEN OUT: LaPolice has been on the sideline as a member of the Riders during three Labour Day Classics, a playoff game in 2007, and the West final in 2009. Despite that history, the Bombers coach was taken aback by the Mosaic Stadium crowd Sunday.

“Until you’re sitting down there and you look up at the crowd behind you, you don’t know how much green is there,” LaPolice said. “Everyone was in green that day. It was amazing.”

FINALLY: Only a handful of tickets are left for Sunday’s rematch at Canad Inns Stadium … Sorry Bomber fans. Two days after being cut by the Detroit Lions, DB Jonathan Hefney has accepted a spot on the Lions practice roster… In case you missed it Sunday, Bombers assistant GM Ross Hodgkinson confirmed that the club has explored the possibility of adding Canadian RB Jesse Lumsden to its practice roster. The oft-injured Lumsden hasn’t played in the CFL since the first game of the 2009 season.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca