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This article was published 01/11/2010 (5453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HOLD off on storming Maroons Road, Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans. It turns out head coach Paul LaPolice & Co. did not mismanage the final moments of regulation time in Saturday’s overtime loss to the Edmonton Eskimos.

To recap a crazy scene that saw LaPolice and defensive co-ordinator Kavis Reed, among others, going berserk on the sidelines in the final minute, here’s what unfolded:

With the Bombers trailing 10-7 quarterback Joey Elliott had driven the club to the Eskimo 23-yard line with 55 seconds left. On a secondand- five play he was sacked for an eight-yard loss, pushing the ball back to the Eskimo 31.

Elliott was told to stay on the field and wait for 19 seconds to tick off the clock before calling a time out. At that point Justin Palardy and the field-goal crew would trot out for the potential game-tying three.

Instead, the 20-second play clock counted down but not the time clock — the two should have been running simultaneously — and the Bombers, watching the time clock, were nailed for a time-count penalty.

It pushed the club back another 10 yards and forced Palardy to connect on a 48-yarder instead of a 38-yard attempt. The call incensed LaPolice.

Sunday morning, Tom Higgins, the CFL’s director of officiating, spoke to LaPolice. Here’s what Higgins then told the Free Press:

“Paul and his staff did everything right. What occurred was an official error that occurred on the field. The delay-of-game penalty never should have happened. The quarterback was waiting for the time clock to go and the time clock wasn’t going, and when the 20-second clock expired the referee called a delay of game.

“Thankfully, it didn’t cost them anything because they kicked a field goal and there was a roughing-thekicker penalty that moved the football closer and they kicked a field goal again with no time left. It’s nice how that worked out.”

Well, that part worked out. What unfolded in overtime is a different story.

But the screw-up Saturday is also the latest example of some officiating mistakes that have hurt the Bombers this year, including a quick whistle that took a turnover away from the Bombers in a loss to Hamilton and some iffy work in a 44-40 home defeat to Montreal.

All of this just further fuels the frustration of the 2010 season.

“I think I might have gotten excited, too, although I’ma very calm person,” said Higgins. “I just talked to Paul and told him I’m disappointed it happened but appreciative that they worked their way out of it.”

Told LaPolice was getting criticized by fans for a perceived timemanagement error, Higgins was quick to rush to the defence of the Bombers head coach.

“That’s what hurts me,” he said. “There’s three teams on the field (the two squads and the officials) and that third team, every once in a while, they’re not perfect either.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Blue autopsy No. 13

— How the Bombers lost 16-13 in OT Saturday night in Edmonton to fall to 4-13:

Starting a fourth-string QB in Joey Elliott doesn’t help, although he certainly protected the ball much better than his counterpart, Jared Zabransky. Making his first pro start, Elliott was good on 15 of 29 for 130 yards with zero TDs and interceptions while being told to run a very conservative attack.

Zabransky, meanwhile, rushed for 97 yards, but was intercepted four times (twice by Jonathan Hefney, also by Ian Logan and Jovon Johnson) as the Bombers served up a valiant defensive effort.

But when it mattered most — again — the Bomber defence surrendered two runs totalling 35 yards by Eskimo RB Daniel Porter in OT, the second run an 11-yarder for the game-winning score.

— WHAT IT MEANS: Nothing in the standings. At 4-13 the Bombers were eliminated from the playoff race a week ago.

— NOTEWORTHY NUMBERS: 9 — Road losses by the Bombers this season, the first time since 1998 the team has gone winless on the road.

16– Sacks this season by Phillip Hunt. He had one Saturday, meaning the Bomber defensive end has posted the third-most QB kills by a Winnipeg defender in club history. Tyrone Jones holds the club record with 20.5 sacks in 1984. He had 17.5 in 1983.

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65– Penalty yards by Bomber DE Odell Willis, on five infractions. All told, the Bombers were nailed for 15 penalties totalling 145 yards.

— FYI: The 13 losses by the Bombers this season are the most since the 2005 team went 5-13. Over the last three years the Bombers are an ugly 19-34.

— QUOTABLE: “We’ve got every component to be a good team, we just make mistakes at the worst time and it’s been killing us all year. We’ve got to be a smarter team in a lot of areas. It ain’t about individuals, it’s about the team and sometimes we get caught up in the individual stuff and not the team.”

— Slotback Terrence Edwards.

— Ed Tait