Bombers frustrated with illegal procedure call

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This article was published 25/09/2015 (3987 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have enough issues to overcome, what with Drew Willy still injured and their losses piling up again.

And now, to top it all off, they have a big-time bone to pick with the officials from a call made in the critical moments of Friday’s 25-23 loss to the Calgary Stampeders.

Trailing 25-22 with 55 seconds left in the contest the Bombers were flagged for illegal procedure — no end — on a successful third-and-one sneak by Matt Nichols at the Calgary 37-yard line. The first down would have moved them deeper into Stampeder territory with a fresh set of downs but, instead, they were pushed back five yards and had to settle for a 49-yard-field goal attempt by Lirim Hajrullahu that had plenty of leg but sailed right.

Now, the Bombers insist wide receiver Darvin Adams was set and on the line — plus he had confirmation from the sideline official — on the Nichols sneak. That much was confirmed from the TSN television feed.

“I can tell you exactly what happened,” began Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “Darvin Adams is walking to the far sideline official, the usual routine is the on-the-line receiver points to the official to ask him if he’s on the line. The video shows the official points back which means, yes, he’s on the line. Darvin Adams confirms that when he asks, ‘Am I on the line?’ (The official) says ‘Yes sir.’ He turns and it’s right there on the spot.

“It’s a real late flag, too. I’m standing right there. We made this mistake quite a bit earlier in the year and we’re not going to make that again. They check in with the officials, that’s their routine, and he did. The video shows he checked with the official and the official pointed back, meaning yeah.

“The simple answer (from the league) is going to be ‘We’re sorry.’ That’s OK. We made enough mistakes in other parts of that game that contribute to this, too.”

Asked if they planned to send in videotape evidence of the play to the league, O’Shea added:

“We don’t need to send it in. They’re (the officials/league) probably watching it right now.”

O’Shea is right: the Bombers made just enough mistakes to cost them against the defending champs. But for a team that is now 4-9, the late penalty is exactly the kind of call that can yank the heart out of a team scrapping for its playoff life.

“A lot of time when we do that quick sneak, it’s a hurry-up thing and those kinds of things can happen,” said Nichols. “But after a measurement, our guys knew what we were doing. We’ll have to see on film whatever they saw, but it’s tough.

“But like I said, it’s really out of our control as players. Obviously, it’s incredibly frustrating. I felt like we put ourselves in a position to at least go to overtime.”

All this aside, O’Shea refused to blame the officials — at least not publicly — for the loss. Instead, he pointed to the 12 penalties the club took for 100 yards, including three procedure infractions.

“We took three or four pre-snap penalties on offence, which changes drives, changes field position, changes the way we play our special teams,” he said. “We took penalties on special teams that got us backed up.

“There’s plays that every player would like to have back. We’ve got to clean that stuff up, too. We cannot rely on the officials. You have to win games in spite of that. You can’t make an excuse. This type of outcome has been happening since officials were involved in any sport from the beginning of the history of sport with officials. I mean, it just happens. Human error.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait