Whipping boys

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This article was published 11/10/2014 (4071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Monday in Edmonton, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will attempt to accomplish something they haven’t done in eight years — win a football game in Alberta.

For all the problems that have bedeviled this Bombers franchise in recent years — and they are myriad — there has been nothing quite so confounding as the Winnipeg Football Club’s inability to win in either Calgary or Edmonton.

The numbers are eye-popping — the Bombers are 1-20-1 and in their last 22 trips to Alberta. And that lone victory? Well, that took something just short of divine intervention for the Bombers to accomplish — Milt Stegall’s 100-yard game-winning touchdown reception as time ran out on July 20, 2006 stunned the Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium and stands as one of the most memorable plays in CFL history.

And it also stands as the last time the Bombers won in Alberta. The Bombers are 0-11 in their last 11 trips to McMahon Stadium, a losing streak in Calgary that goes back to the 2002 season. And the Bombers are 1-9-1 at Commonwealth during that same period.

It would seem fair to say Winnipeg’s remaining schedule doesn’t favour a 6-8 team trying to stay in the playoff conversation with just four weeks remaining in the regular season. In addition to Monday’s trip to Edmonton, the Bombers also finish up their regular season on Nov. 1 with a visit to Calgary.

The bottom line? Whatever slim hopes the Bombers still have of making the playoffs must begin with this team first figuring out a way to start winning in Alberta.

“I don’t think it’s been any one thing that’s kept us from winning there over the years. It’s been a lot of things. But the bottom line is we just haven’t found a way to win there,” longtime Bombers offensive lineman Steve Morley reflected Friday following practice at Investors Group Field.

“And it’s not like we’re not capable of winning there. We just have to do it. There’s no excuse for not winning there. We were 5-1 to start this season and we have the same players now that we had then. We have the talent to win, we’re just not doing it.”

It’s a monument to just how long it’s been since Winnipeg won in Alberta that even six-year veteran Morley has never celebrated a victory in Calgary or Edmonton.

And neither has defensive lineman Bryant Turner, who’s in his fourth season with the Bombers. But as Turner sees it, this Bombers are well-positioned to shed an Alberta hex that seems to run so deep within this franchise.

“We’ve made so many changes this season that this really is a brand new locker room,” said Turner. “I feel like this is a completely different team. And it’s full of character guys.

“So yeah, we’re 1-20-1 out there since 2002. But get a win on Monday and that can change around. And maybe 10 years from now, we’re 20-1-1. You never know.”

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea refuses to be bound by his club’s unfortunate history in Alberta. “I don’t know how it’s relevant to this group — I really don’t,” said O’Shea. “Most of these guys weren’t part of that. There’s just a handful of guys who’ve been around here a few years. I believe — and I believe the players would say — that it’s a different team and a different organization really.”

Which is fair — as far as it goes. But what is relevant to this current edition of the Bombers — and also part of this same conversation — is the fact that O’Shea’s Bombers have struggled against the West Division in 2014, posting just a 1-5 record against division rivals heading into Monday’s matchup with the Eskimos.

O’Shea agreed the club’s looming schedule — with games against Edmonton, two games against Calgary and one against B.C .– means that will have to change immediately if this team still intends to play in the post-season.

“We’ve got four games left and we need some wins to put ourselves in the playoffs,” said O’Shea. “That’s where the importance lies. It has nothing to do with erasing a 22-game past.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek