Wrapped in an enigma

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/10/2011 (5164 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are on the road again this week. Their past performance this season suggests there couldn’t be a better place for them.

The Bombers will take a sparkling 5-2 road record into Commonwealth Stadium Saturday evening against the Edmonton Eskimos — and with it, the kind of confidence in an opponent’s building that has been distinctly lacking in these parts recently.

Remember, this is, more or less, the same Bombers team that went winless on the road in 2010 — a perfect 0-fer in nine games.

And yet here we are with less than a month to go in the 2011 regular season and what can be said without qualification is that the very best part of this edition of the Bombers has been what they have done to opponents on the road this year.

They have beaten Hamilton at Ivor Wynne twice. They beat B.C. in Vancouver and Toronto at Rogers Centre. And, most impressive of all, they beat Montreal at Percival Molson Stadium.

Indeed, the only two games the Bombers have lost on the road this season were games they probably never should have lost at all — to league also-rans Saskatchewan (in a Labour Day Classic that was anything but) and in a Rogers Centre rematch with Toronto in September (in which the Bombers lost seven players to injury).

Take away those two speed bumps and you have in Winnipeg a team that has been dominating on the road. So much so, in fact, that it has created the curiosity of a Bombers club that has sold out its last five home games in a row — and yet have a better road record this season at 5-2 than a home record at 4-3.

You’d think it would be the opposite — in this season of all seasons. And there are differing theories, but following a similar theme, as to why that might be.

Defensive coordinator Tim Burke attributes it to an uncommon focus by the Bombers players on the road, while veteran lineman Doug Brown wonders if a lack of focus at home might be at the root of it.

“Some teams get distracted when they go out on the road,” said Burke. “This team doesn’t have that problem with getting distracted.”

Except maybe, ventures Brown, when they’re at home before a rabid and overflowing crowd at Canad Inns Stadium. “It’s been so fun playing here this year,” said Brown, “there’s so much energy, it’s such an experience, it’s such an event for guys — that you can very easily lose focus when there’s so much euphoria.

“If you’re elated all the time, you can lose the focus you need on what your responsibilities are as a player to win.”

The flip side, however, has been a steely-eyed determination on the road that Bombers quarterback Buck Pierce says is becoming self-perpetuating.

“We’ve won in hostile environments. We know we can win close games. We’ve faced a lot of challenges this year and overcome those,” Pierce said. “And that’s what gives us the confidence to say, ‘Hey, we’re on the road in Edmonton, it’s going to be hostile, it’s going to be cold and it’s going to be against a team who are on the rise.’

“And you know what? So what, we’ve been there before.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca