Why so surprised Bombers are bad?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2010 (5814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One day, some day — maybe even in this lifetime — the sun will shine on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers again.

Wins will come frequently and consistently. The brand will be healthy. And there will be no stadium issue hovering over the franchise like a big black cloud.

In the here and now, however, it ain’t easy being a fan of the Blue and Gold.

Unless the Bombers go on a seven-game win streak to finish the regular season — and, remember, this team hasn’t won consecutive games in more than a year — the franchise will complete another campaign with a losing record.

And for those of you still scoring at home, that will be three straight losing campaigns since the 2007 Grey Cup loss and mark the sixth time in the last seven years the Bombers have finished with a record of 9-9 or worse.

Over that stretch this franchise has the secondworst winning percentage in the CFL — only the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are worse — and sports an embarrassing 20-games-under-.500 record.

Maybe that, in part, explains why the last few days in Bomberland have felt like one long funeral procession. Oh sure, there is still hope — always is in a league where six of eight teams qualify for the playoffs — but Sunday’s loss to the Toronto Argonauts, fresh from such a dominant performance in the Banjo Bowl, has scarred many in the organization who believed the win over Saskatchewan would finally mark the beginning of the turnaround.

And then came the loss to the Argos…

“It’s not easy right now, but nothing good’s ever come from keeping your chin down,” said Bomber left guard Brendon LaBatte. “We’ve got to take the mentality that the tough times aren’t going to last, but tough people will. If we can just keep plugging away… we’ve got to get this team turned around here and we’re running out of time to do it.”

Now, some in the Bomber locker-room still take solace in the fact this team has now lost five games by a TD or less; that this is a squad that is close; that if they could just be consistent…

Trouble is, after the Banjo Bowl tease — and so many before that both this season and in years past that were followed by crushing defeats — the needle on their credibility tank is hovering just above ‘E’.

And many, quite frankly, are tired of hearing about potential. They want instead to see cold, hard evidence of it in the standings.

“I’m don’t blame ’em, I don’t blame fans for thinking that one bit,” LaBatte said. “We’ve been inconsistent and it’s tough to stay faithful and really stand behind us when we go out there and lay and egg. That’s what that game in Toronto was: we went out there and (expletive) the bed.

“All we can ask is they stay behind us. It’s not from lack of effort. We’re just not there yet where we can just make things happen. Some teams expect to win, they can sit back and when it matters, they get it done. With us, if we don’t get out to a big lead or have a great start our a – pucker up and everybody gets uptight.

“I don’t know where that comes from or how to correct it. But if everyone just did their job maybe we could get more results like the Banjo Bowl and not like last weekend.”

And so once again the Bombers are back slumped in their corner getting the blood from their busted lip wiped clean and having their swollen eyes slit open so they can see. The club’s brass will be seeing who answers the bell against the powerful Montreal Alouettes on Friday, not just for the short term but for the long-term attempt to get this right again.

But this isn’t just about the standings now. This is about players keeping their jobs. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the most powerful motivator of all.

“We’ve got man up and take it to them,” said receiver Terrence Edwards of Friday’s game. “They’re going to take it to us, so we’ve got to punch back. We can’t let them punch us and not punch back.”

No, you can’t. Bomber fans have seen that before, after all, over the last seven years. And the frequent beatings were old a long time ago.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca