Another decision backfires on coach

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This article was published 24/10/2010 (5460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Microscope… meet Paul LaPolice.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach — 4-12 in his first season wearing the big headset — made one of those coaching decisions in Saturday’s loss that will be debated around the water cooler and light up the lines on talk radio.

And it’s not the first time this year he’s made a call that has bit him on the backside.

Rationale

Trailing 10-5 with 22 seconds left in the first half, LaPolice opted to have Justin Palardy attempt a 51-yard field goal into a north wind. The try fell short and was returned 109 yards by Chad Owens for a TD — his third against the Bombers this year.

LaPolice’s rationale?

“If Steven Jyles was in the game and still playing we wouldn’t have done that or I wouldn’t have made that call,” he said.

“But I knew we were in a defensive struggle and we were struggling to move the ball, especially with our second-string guy. And he had been hitting 58-57 (yards away in the warm-up) so I made the call to go for the long field goal. I felt we needed those points and that’s why I went for it. Unfortunately we lost contain and they returned it.

“If Steven was in I wouldn’t have done it. I just didn’t think we were moving the ball and we needed help to get as many points as we could with our backup quarterback in.”

Couple that call with the decision to run a hand-off to Andre Sadeghian on a third-and-two situation in Toronto last month, with having Terrence Edwards attempt a pass in a loss to Montreal while ahead and opting to start Alex Brink against the B.C. Lions on Thanksgiving and there is enough fodder for critics to spend the offseason debating LaPolice’s decision-making.

In Saturday’s loss to the Argos, LaPolice watched helplessly as Jyles was injured in the first quarter before Brink exited in the second half. And just like that, the Bombers were trotting out Joey Elliott to try and keep their playoff hopes alive.

Asked if he sometimes felt like looking to the heavens and asking, ‘What the…?’ LaPolice offered up this:

“I can’t. If I do that. what do my players do? What do my coaches do if I say, ‘Oh, what’s going on?’ If I put my hands up and say ‘What’s going on?’ that gives the right to the players to do the same. I’ve got to keep fighting.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca