‘We need to be better’: coach

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This article was published 23/09/2015 (3968 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in a place no team in the CFL wants to be. Well, minus maybe the 1-11 Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Either way, with a record of 4-8 and six games remaining on the schedule, the chance for a playoff berth is slim. It doesn’t help the next two games — Friday against Calgary and the following Saturday versus Edmonton — are against two of the league’s elite teams, and clubs who still have healthy, top-end quarterbacks.

The Bombers’ reality is especially daunting in a year when the city will host the Grey Cup game. All of this must have Mike O’Shea, now in his second year as head coach, screaming on the inside. But there he was Tuesday afternoon, standing tall in the Bombers’ media room, calm and collected as he took a number of questions from reporters eager to pick his brain.

One of the most interesting and most important, involved evaluation. In a year that started with so much promise with the addition of key signings on both sides of the ball and a contract extension for now-injured quarterback Drew Willy, does the man running this team see the 4-8 record as a proper evaluation?

“I would say we’re better in my mind but that kind of talk is probably cheap,” said O’Shea. “We’re 4-8 so that’s where we’re at. Do I think we could have won a couple games more? Absolutely.”

The latest defeat was a 35-14 loss Sunday to the Montreal Alouettes, who were 4-6 heading into the game and with a QB in Jonathan Crompton who was in his first game since injuring his shoulder in Week 1. It was a match that was seen as very much winnable for the Bombers despite being considered a 10-point underdog by those in Vegas. But once again, Winnipeg fell flat, victimized once more by an inconsistent offence and a horrid special-teams effort, traits that have quickly come to define this team. Oh, and of the Bombers’ eight losses this season, six of them have been by double digits, with five of those by at least three touchdowns.

“Doesn’t really matter what I feel,” said O’Shea. “It’s what we need to be (and) we need to be better than that. We need to take the field and win games. It’s that time of year.”

The Bombers’ inability to string together consecutive wins this season has also created the time of year where every play, every penalty and every turnover could prove costly, and a time when any loss could very well spell the end of the season. Injecting a sense of urgency, despite how critical each week is, isn’t the recipe for success for O’Shea, who still holds out hope for a turnaround.

“You’re always keeping them aware of the situation, but I think you have to go at it one game at a time still,” he said.

“I don’t think you need to, I don’t know if you can instill urgency. Just make them aware of where we’re at and where we need to be and I got a lot of faith that these guys, they get that.”

General manager Kyle Walters also provided a vote of faith in his team, deflecting the rumour he’s being pursued to leave the CFL for the athletic director position at the University of Guelph, a job set to become available in December.

“I feel it is necessary to state that I am dedicated wholeheartedly to the Winnipeg Football Club,” Walters said in a release. “Being the general manager of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is one of the greatest roles in Canadian sport, and I am extremely committed to continuing to guide our franchise in the right direction.”

Walters, who has played and coached with Guelph and was head coach from 2006 through 2009, also said he’s “had no contact whatsoever” with the university and has “no intentions of leaving” his position with the Bombers. Walters has two more years after this season remaining on his contract.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton joined the Free Press newsroom in 2015, reporting on the sports and investigative beats until he left the Free Press in July 2026.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produced was reviewed by an editing team before it was posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.