O’Shea won’t admit to miscues

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This article was published 31/10/2014 (3993 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea volunteered Thursday his 6-11 football team “needs to get better, from me on down.”

But when O’Shea was asked by reporters if he was admitting he’d personally made mistakes in his rookie season as the Bombers’ field boss, O’Shea bristled.

“I’ll have to go back and go through everything and take some notes on that,” O’Shea replied.

So, no mistakes leap immediately to mind? O’Shea was asked.

“Nothing leaps to mind? No, because I’m solely focused on beating Calgary,” he said. “But I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

It was a rare testy exchange between O’Shea and local reporters and it came on the same day the Bombers held their last full practice of the 2014 season at Investors Group Field. The club will travel to Calgary today in advance of their final game of the season on Saturday at McMahon Field against the Stampeders.

The Bombers were eliminated from playoff contention with a 28-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last weekend in what was their eighth straight defeat — and 10th in their last 11 games.

While O’Shea has been reluctant this season to admit shortcomings on the part of his team and players, he hasn’t hesitated in the past to deflect attention from the mistakes of his players by taking responsibility upon himself.

But O’Shea was adamant throughout a brief media availability that any detailed discussion of what went wrong in 2014 will have to wait for another time.

“That’s what the off-season is for,” said O’Shea. “We’ve got a couple days left here… We can talk afterward all you want about this kind of stuff.”

Meanwhile, the Bombers will be without kick returner Troy Stoudermire in Calgary. O’Shea said Stoudermire — who had a turf toe injury and just came off the six-game injury list last week — isn’t fully healed and will sit out this week.

O’Shea declined to reveal his plans for a replacement for Stoudermire in Calgary.

Also Thursday, the Bombers announced they have released import linebacker Will Smith. Smith has re-signed to the practice roster of the Dallas Cowboys, who had released him earlier this fall to make room for Michael Sam.

Sam has since been released by the Cowboys.

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Bombers QB Drew Willy says a losing skid that would be exactly one-half season long if the Bombers lose their ninth game in a row this Saturday in Calgary is no reason to “blow up” the team in the off-season.

“I think the nucleus is definitely here. Blow it up? I think you could say you went from 3-15 (in 2013) to six, possibly seven wins — double your win total. Obviously, we feel we should have more wins than we do. But there were a lot of close games this year, a lot of single-digit losses that could’ve gone either way.

“To blow it up — I guess everyone has their opinion so you could make of it what you want.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek