Give us one for the road… please

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2010 (5808 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ask members of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers why they haven’t been able to win on the road and you’ll find yourself wading through 40 to 50 different reasons.

But that mountain of explanation is a walk in the park when compared to what the club has gone through away from Friendly Manitoba this season. With a 0-7 record in their road whites heading into Molson Stadium to face East division-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-4) Sunday, the Bombers (4-10) are in danger of matching dubious win-loss records achieved from seasons past.

In 2005, Jim Daley’s Bombers put up a miserable 1-8 road mark en route to a 5-13 campaign. Seven seasons before that (1998), the forgettable Jeff Reinebold/Gary Hoffman experience bombed out with a winless 0-9 road record — a mark of futility that stands alone in the club’s 80-year history.

More inauspicious stats: Dating back to last year, Winnipeg has lost eight straight as the visitors. The record for consecutive losses when sleeping in a hotel room the night before is 13, set during the 1997-99 seasons.

This team isn’t quite there — yet — and it won’t be easy to crack the current goose egg Sunday (noon, TSN, CJOB). The Bombers have lost three straight in La Belle Province by an average of 25 points (including a 39-17 decision earlier this year).

“This is my fifth year and I can honestly say there isn’t anything different that’s kept us from playing better on the road,” safety Ian Logan said, reciting a common theme from most of the veterans on the club. “You can’t point to one specific thing as to why we haven’t been better on the road.”

Logan has been a regular in the lineup and has made most of the trips, so maybe he’s too close to things. Maybe a solution to the road woes — an antidote to the travel ills — lies in other areas of the club.

Rookie receiver Cory Watson says he’s been through this before. In his second year at Concordia, he recalled how the Stingers struggled away from their home park, eventually becoming so desperate for any kind of success that it became a rallying cry.

Might be too late for the Blue and Gold to try that, but any positives are welcome at this point.

“I don’t know what the thing is that’s holding us back,” Watson said. “I’m not sure anyone does.”

Second-year running back Yvenson Bernard — who has dressed for just one game this season (last Monday versus B.C.) — puts a disclaimer on his thoughts about the road problems: He hasn’t been in the locker-room or with players the night before, so he can’t speak to those factors.

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“But it doesn’t look like anything mental or anything like that,” he said, having watched the team play away from home on television. “I just think we’ve lost some games on the road — period. Watching it… it’s the little things, from dropped balls to fumbles to missing an assignment. It’s those little things that are the difference.”

Perhaps there is more to this than just football. Maybe the Bombers’ troubles on the road have less to do with doing the little things on the field and more to do with a spurned Lady Luck, who’s obviously upset at the Blue and Gold about something. If that’s the case, members of the club might want to ship a glass of wine over to her perch at end of the hotel bar — just to make sure she goes to bed with a smile on her face tonight.

“If you believe in what you’re doing and you know it’s the right thing, eventually you’ll be successful,” Logan added, not subscribing to the superstition angle. “I really believe that.”

Fair enough, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to send over a drink regardless, right? Just to make sure everything is cool.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca