Monthly Archives: August 2008

Time for a major overhaul for Winnipeg’s beloved CFL franchise.

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Even the most rabid Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans are starting to think there might be a problem with their beloved football team.

 

This past week, as the Bombers prepared for Friday night’s home game against the Montreal Alouettes, head coach Doug Berry talked about the fact that at 1-5, his team still had a chance in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt. 

 

The latest Bomber cheer from that randy Blue Lightning outfit was a hearty, “Still alive at 1-5!”

 

Little did Berry know at the time that the only thing that was still alive was The Curse of Troy Westwood.

 

Friday night, the Bombers were drilled 39-11 by the Als at Winnipeg’s 54-year-old Canad Inns Stadium and for Berry, the story was getting as old as the ball yard.

 

A team that went to the 2007 Grey Cup game was suddenly 1-6 and the head coach had pretty much run out of answers. In the post-game interview Berry was so flustered, he blamed his field goal kicker, Alexis Serna, for the loss. The coach had just watched his team lose by four touchdowns and when it was over, all he had in his quiver was an arrow for a kid who made a field goal from 27 yards and missed once from 40 and twice from 49.

 

But while Berry continues to blame everyone but himself, he’s now in a heap of trouble.

 

Refusing to use his all-Canadian runningback Charles Roberts to any great extent, the Bombers had virtually no ground game – again. Roberts carried a mere 11 times for 61 yards, but as Hamilton, Montreal, Calgary and Saskatchewan proved this week, if you run the football in the CFL, you’ll control the clock and you’ll have a chance to win games.

 

Meanwhile, by replacing quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie with original starter, Kevin Glenn, late in Friday’s game, Berry opened the door to a distracting quarterback controversy. Coming off the bench, Glenn put up Winnipeg’s only touchdown on Friday and until the Bombers win again, River City will talk about little else than who should play quarterback for the Bombers.

 

Then there is the shaky defensive secondary. Berry and his GM Brendan Taman, didn’t re-sign safety Kyries Hebert (he jumped to the NFL) and cornerback Juran Bolden (he was released) and they’ve paid dearly for the loss of their two biggest, fastest, hardest hitters.

 

And, just in case all that wasn’t enough, there is the bad karma that’s wafting through a stadium that just might be in the final months of its existence. From the day Berry publicly humiliated 17-year veteran Troy Westwood, the Bombers’ karma (chemistry, for those who believe in such things) has been lost. Worse yet, Berry has also lost his locker room — despite what the players like to say publicly.

 

Meanwhile, the coach’s hand-picked successor to Westwood, young Alexis Serna is a mess. But, then again, putting Serna in that situation wasn’t fair either. Serna should be the kicker, not the punter, but he’s now 14-for-22 (63 per cent) in field goals and is dead last in punting at 32 yards net. It’s apparent the kid has lost his confidence so, on Saturday, Berry added Warren Kean, an Edmonton Eskimos cut, to the practice roster. That should save the season.

 

Although Berry said on Saturday that he just might let his quarterback, Kevin Glenn — again! — call his own plays against Hamilton this Thursday night, here in 1-6 country, it might be time to make some changes that are substantive. And perhaps this time, CEO Lyle Bauer, might want to orchestrate those changes.

 

Because with the right moves and with way things are in the CFL East, even at 1-6, this team still has a chance.

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The end of Week 7 in the CFL: Changes must be made in Winnipeg, Saskatchewan no longer undefeated and a great running game means big wins.

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

This week home teams split with visiting teams, the Saskatchewan Roughriders finally lost and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are so bad, it’s now time for a complete overhaul — at the top, not the bottom.

 

Because there are no crossover games again until Labour Day Weekend, the West continues to dominate the East, 10-2. In terms of home teams, however, it was a split this week. Hamilton and B.C. won at home, Saskatchewan lost and Winnipeg got its collective butt handed to it. The season total is now 17-11 in favour of home teams (17-7 if you remove the West’s victories in Eastern buildings).

 

Now to the trends. Hamilton is not as bad as we think, but Toronto could be as bad as we thought. At 36, Anthony Calvillo is the best quarterback in the CFL. No team will go 18-0, but you have to give that banged-up Roughriders side some credit (Five starters have broken legs for gawd’s sake!). They don’t quit and they are very well coached. And finally, with all the injuries in Regina, it’s very likely the West will not be settled until the final week of the season. 

 

Let’s look a little more closely at what we saw in Week 7…

 

1. Call it the Curse of Troy Westwood. The bad karma in Winnipeg is wafting through a stadium that just might be in the final months of its existence. From the day Doug Berry humiliated Troy Westwood in public, the Bombers’ karma has been lost. So, too, has Barry’s locker room — despite what the players like to tell the local papers. When Berry went public in order to make Westwood look like a fool and cut him at 10 p.m. on a Saturday, the gods of football looked down on Berry and said, “Enough already!.” Berry’s hand-picked successor to Westwood, young Alexis Serna is not very good, but putting him in that situation wasn’t fair either (even Westwood conceded the kid was a good kicker, but Westwood should have been kept around to punt). Sadly, Berry’s constant berating (OK, swearing at on national TV) of the kid has made him worse. Serna is now 14-for-22 (63 per cent) in field goals and is dead last in punting at 32 yards net (the first Bomber in 35 years to be last in punting). It’s sad, but on Friday night, you could see the rest of the Bombers hang their heads every time he missed a  field goal. Meanwhile, it doesn’t help that the offence is a joke. If you don’t run the football in the CFL, you can’t win and the coach’s pal, Kit Cartwright, won’t run the football. In Winnipeg, it’s time to make substantive changes or this team has no chance. Amazingly, even at 1-6, this team still has a chance if those substantive changes are made now.

 

2. Not to belabour the Winnipeg issue, but It would also help if the Bombers hired Mike McCarthy (whom the National Post reports is selling cars in Hamilton) to assist GM Brendan Taman. His expertise is more important to the future of this team than an airlift of expensive NFL cuts. Mike McCarthy is the best unemployed CFL GM in the country. Since the Ticats gassed him, they’ve been pretty lousy. 

3. You have to love what Marc Trestman, with no CFL experience, has done with the Montreal Alouettes. The Als are 4-3 and in first place in the East. However, one thing is troubling. All four of their wins have come against Winnipeg and Hamilton. The Als have beaten 2-5 Hamilton 33-10 and 40-33 and have beaten 1-6 Winnipeg 38-24 and 39-11. The Als have lost 23-19 at home to Calgary, 41-33 in Saskatchewan and 36-34 in B.C. the first-place Als are the statistical reason why four teams from the West and only two teams from the East will make the playoffs.

4. Although Anthony Calvillo has been damn good, it’s pretty tough to think of anyone other than Saskatchewan’s Wes Cates as the CFL’s most outstanding player. In seven weeks — the seven weeks in which the Roughriders have gone 6-1 with three different starting quarterbacks — Cates has carried 110 times for 652 yards and seven touchdowns (tops in the CFL). He’s caught 24 passes for 274 yards and another touchdown. And he’s second in the league in total yards from scrimmage (behind Montreal’s Avon Cobourne) with 924. He — along with Cobourne, and Calgary’s Joffrey Reynolds — is proof that if you get the ball to your No. 1 runningback on a regular basis, you will win more often than you lose.

5. Need proof that the CFL’s offences woke up after a wonky Week 1? How ’bout this? Late Friday night, the 28-27 first-half Lions advantage over Edmonton was the highest halftime score in any Lions game since 1994. This week, the CFL office in Toronto proudly released the following numbers: Heading into Week 7, touchdowns were up 19.2 per cent from the end of Week 6 in 2007; overall scoring was up 9.8 per cent (Whatever that means?)  and total penalties are down from 542 last year to 425 this year. Now, if the league can just make challenges move faster and then find a way cut out all the four-minute commercial breaks on TSN, this game would be perfect.

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CFL Picks Week 7. Can the Green Riders repeat against Stamps at home?

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

It’s Week 7 in the CFL and it could very well be another CFL “Homer Weekend.”

 

There are two things we know about the Canadian Football League: The West usually beats the East and home teams almost always win.

 

Granted, home teams have a record of 15-9 this season, but on four occasions Western teams beat Eastern teams in the Eastern team’s buildings. That means when you take the Western factor out of the equation, home teams have a 15-5 record. Now that’s significant.

 

This week there are no crossover games. The West does not have a holiday playing the East. That means, despite the records of the competing teams, the ones at home should have an advantage. 

 

In fact, something tells me that even though some visiting teams are prohibitive favourites, that might not matter this week.

 

Here’s a look at the games for Week 7… think home teams. 

 

Toronto Argonauts (3-3) at Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1-5)

 

Thursday, 6 p.m. CT, TSN

There is absolutely no reason to take the Hamilton Tiger-Cats this week. They are 1-5 (and lucky to be 1-5). They can’t figure out whether Richie Williams or Casey Printers should be the quarterback and their best player, Jesse Lumsden, is always hurt. And the smartest football man in Hamilton, Mike McCarthy, is in the Steel City, selling cars. How bad are the Ticats? How’s this? The top two tacklers in the CFL are Ticats. Trouble is they’re both defensive backs which means they can’t cover. Still, Hamilton is playing against Toronto, and as the Bombers proved in a 19-11 loss at Rogers Centre last week, Toronto isn’t that good — especially on offence. If the ‘Cats are going to win another game, this is it.

Pick: Hamilton

Calgary Stampeders (3-3) at Saskatchewan Roughriders (6-0)

Thursday, 9 p.m. CT, TSN

There is no sane reason to think the Saskatchewan Roughriders have a hope in this one. The Riders will likely go with Marcus Crandell at quarterback this week and despite a strong start, he wasn’t that good in Calgary last week. The Riders are also without receivers Matt Dominguez (who could be done) and Andy Fantuz (who won’t be back until October). This team is banged up and unbeaten and that means they’re ripe to take a beating. But then again, they’re playing at the friendly confines of Mosaic Stadium, they’re playing against a team with the worst defensive secondary in the CFL and they have the best defence in the CFL. Defence wins championships and until somebody can figure out a way to beat that defence, I’ll go with the home team.

Pick: Saskatchewan

Montreal Alouettes (3-3) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1-5)

Friday, 6:30 p.m. CT, TSN

This is a very interesting inter-conference game for those, like me, who bet home teams first. Montreal is 3-3 and their only three losses have come at the hands of Western Conference teams. The Als have already beaten Winnipeg once — 42-24 — and they have one of the two best quarterbacks in the league in Anthony Calvillo. The Alouettes are better in every sense of the word and Winnipeg is banged up. There is no possible way the Bombers can win this game. So I’m taking the home team. For no other reason than it’s the CFL East.

Pick: Winnipeg

Edmonton Eskimos (4-2) at B.C. Lions (3-3) 

Friday, 9:30 p.m. CT, TSN

The Eskimos have Ricky Ray while the B.C. Lions have Jarious Jackson and Buck Pierce. Ray is proving he can lead the Eskimos to victory without having to worry about Danny Maciocia. Jarious Jackson and Buck Pierce are having trouble winning without Dave Dickenson. Neither is a starter and neither one looks like a starter and that’s why Edmonton should win this game. But they won’t. The Eskimos are playing in a dome. B.C. is at home and in the CFL, home teams win.

Pick: B.C. Lions

Last Week: 4-0

Season: 13-3

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Week 6 in the CFL is over. Saskatchewan still unbeaten, Winnipeg and Hamilton still awful.

Posted on August 4, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Saskatchewan will find a way to win, Winnipeg and Hamilton will find a way to flush it down the toilet and home teams win a lot more than they lose.

 

On the one hand, through the first six weeks of the season, we’ve learned that the Western Conference is significantly better than the East. On the other, we’ve also learned that home teams will win most of the time. In fact, if you’ve done nothing but select home teams this season, you’re 15-9 through the first six weeks — 10-2 over the last three weeks.

 

So here’s the deal, when picking winners on your Pro Line tickets, take Western teams to beat Eastern teams first. However, if the teams are playing within their conferences, always take the home team. With the exception of Saskatchewan’s 22-21 squeaker in Calgary, it worked this week. (By the way, we went 4-0 this week, but we’ll brag about that on Thursday).

 

And that’s the good news for the 1-5 Blue Bombers. Their next two games are at home — against Montreal and Hamilton — and by the end of August, they could very well by 3-5 and back in the hunt. Montreal, however, plays two straight games on the road and just like Winnipeg, they could very easily be 3-5 by Labour Day.

 

While Winnipeg head coach Doug Berry whined about everybody else but himself, while the entire province of Saskatchewan praised the Riders defence for its 6-0 record and while the Edmonton Eskimos looked to injured Jason Tucker for the extra jump they needed to beat B.C., we learned a lot about the CFL through the first 1/3 of the season.

 

Let’s look closer…

 

1. An issue was made by Doug Berry this week that his running game hasn’t been very good. He made the point a day after his all-star runningback Charles Roberts had his best game of the season, carrying only 11 times for 66 yards. Berry even hinted that Fred Reid might start on Friday night against Montreal. What a maroon. This year, Roberts has carried 64 times for 263 yards. Last year, after six weeks, he had carried 81 times for 509 yards. Berry, who prides himself in the number of people he can throw under the bus, blamed Roberts — unbelievable — for the lack of production in the running game. Roberts carried the ball 262 times last year (in 2006, he carried it 303 times). He is currently on pace to carry it 192 times this year. Doug Berry has no clue.

 

2. So why is Saskatchewan 6-0 despite the fact that the team has had to use three different quarterbacks over six weeks? Defence. Sure it’s a cliche, but Saskatchewan has the best defence in the CFL and that’s why they’re unbeaten. The Riders are No. 1 in points allowed (131), fewest per game (21.6), total yards allowed (1,627), average yards allowed (325), average gain per pass allowed (7.0), lowest percentage of passes completed against (59 per cent). Winnipeg and Hamilton, by the way, battle for last place in most defensive categories. Anyone surprised?

 

3. Choosing the all-star quarterbacks this season shouldn’t be hard. Anthony Calvillo looks like a 27-year-old (he’s 36) while Ricky Ray might be putting together the best year of his career. The fact that Montreal (3-3 with three straight losses to Western teams) is first in the East and Edmonton (4-2) is second in the West, says a lot about the importance of the quarterback position to a team’s success. Not surprisingly, Hamilton and Winnipeg have struggled at QB all year, but that might be the fault of Doug Berry and Charlie Taafe, not the guys taking the snaps.  

 

4. Here is an interesting stat. The leading tackler in the CFL is Hamilton’s  Rontarius Robinson. Now, on the one hand, the leading tackler should be praised for his hard-hitting approach to the game. On the other hand, however, Robinson is a defensive back. At 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, he’s a tough guy, really hard-nosed. He also can’t cover. In six games, he’s made 66 tackles. Giving him credit for stopping the sweep on occasion, it still means that nearly 66 passes have been caught around him. No. 2 in tackles? Another Hamilton DB named Markeith Knowlton with 62. When two defensive backs combine for a league leading 128 tackles in six weeks, no wonder you’re 1-5.  

 

5. Here’s why the CFL is getting better as a league every year. It’s a news release from the league’s director of officiating, Tom Higgins, that was sent out on Sunday afternoon:

 

The Canadian Football League announced Sunday that it has conducted a supplementary review of a player ejection made during last night’s game between the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Calgary. During the game, Calgary linebacker JoJuan Armour was ejected from the game for making contact with a CFL official during the course of play.  Upon review of video footage, it was determined that the contact between Mr. Armour and the official directly resulted from prior contact between Mr. Armour and a Saskatchewan Roughrider player.  The ejection of the player was unwarranted.  CFL Director of Officiating Tom Higgins stated, “We sincerely regret that this officiating error was made and cost Mr. Armour the opportunity to play during last night’s game. Our officials are professionals and do a tremendous job, but when a call is missed we take it very seriously and have an internal review system to deal with it appropriately”.Mr. Armour will be eligible to play in this week’s rematch between Calgary and Saskatchewan in Regina on Thursday.

Everyone knows that officials aren’t infallible. They makes mistakes just like players. Higgins reviewed the tape and instead of blindly supporting the officials, he made the correct decision. That’s s step in the right direction. 

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Katz says announcement on new stadium for CFL’s Blue Bombers could come soon. If it doesn’t, look out…

Posted on August 3, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Appearing with myself, Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun and Jim Toth of Shaw TV on the Goldeyes-Schaumburg Northern League baseball game on Shaw Channel 9 on Sunday afternoon, Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said he believed an announcement on a new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is right around the corner.

 

In fact, David Asper’s dream of building a new football stadium in Winnipeg and, ultimately, taking over control of the city’s CFL franchise, is very close to coming true. 

 

“The city is ready to go and I know Creswin Properties (the Asper family’s real estate arm) has been working very hard on the project and my belief is we’ll make an announcement about a new stadium very soon,” Katz said.

 

“Now, understand, in my world, ‘very soon’ means 30-60 days. But I’m confident it’s going to happen. 

 

“But I will also say this: If it doesn’t happen soon, it probably won’t happen at all.”

 

Katz refused to say where the new stadium would be located, but one got the sense it won’t be at South Point Douglas, unless Creswin has secretly acquired a great deal of land.

 

“Here’s my argument with people’s concern over where the stadium will be located,” Katz said. “The Bombers play 10 games a year. Bomber fans will get to those games.

 

“I agree with you when you say the Bombers are important to our community and after 54 years they need a new stadium. The Goldeyes played in that stadium (Canad Inns Stadium) for five years and I knew back then that we all needed a new place to play. I don’t think anyone can say Canwest Park or the MTS Centre were bad for Winnipeg. A new stadium will be good for Winnipeg, too.

 

“I don’t want to say or commit to a site for the new stadium. But I will say this, no matter where it is, 10 times a year, Bomber fans will find it.”

 

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After the latest mess in Toronto, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are getting closer to requiring a new head coach.

Posted on August 2, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

After Friday night’s game at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Doug Berry told reporters: “If you’ve got any good ideas, I’ll listen to you.”

 

No he won’t.

 

People around town have been giving Doug Berry advice for weeks and while he seems to be listening to some of it, he isn’t listening to the good stuff. 

 

Oh, sure, he listened to people who have never played a down of football in their lives and yet were thrilled that Troy Westwood was publicly humiliated. And he listened to the whining masses who wanted Kevin Glenn removed and then chirped like The Joker when Ryan Dinwiddie’s lame ducks found their intended targets against Calgary’s rotten defensive secondary a week ago.

 

But on Friday, as he asked for advice following a 19-11 loss to an equally-as-inept Toronto Argos outfit (two teams needed a single on the final play of the game to put up a total of 30 points in a CFL game), he continued to forget the most important piece of advice of all: “Give Charles Roberts the damn football.”

 

There will be some who will suggest that Roberts had “another lousy game” against the Argos and will say “he is still struggling.” But let’s put our thinking caps on and look closely at what Roberts did on Friday. 

 

Charles Roberts carried the ball 11 times for 66 yards. The National Post reported that “the Argos shut down Roberts.” Held him, they did. In fact, the Post wrote: “From the opening whistle the Argos focused their attention on stopping Winnipeg’s all-star running back, Charles Roberts. Toronto’s defence — the worst against the run in the Canadian Football League coming into the game — loaded up on bodies on the line of scrimmage and gave Roberts little room to operate.”

 

Trouble is the Argos didn’t shut down Roberts at all. Doug Berry and offensive co-ordinator Kit Cartwright shut down Roberts.

 

Charlie Roberts gained 66 yards on 11 carries. That’s 6.0 yards per carry. Roberts was averaging 3.7 yards per carry heading into the game. It was his best game of the year. At 6.0 yards per carry, two carries per set of downs is 12 yards. That averages out to an unstoppable march down the field. Had the Bombers given the ball to Roberts 30 times, he’d have rushed for about 180 yards.

 

Of course, TSN’s on-line headline was “Argonauts Defence Steps Up To Stymie Blue Bombers.” The only people stymied were the head coach, the offensive co-ordinator and the quarterback.

 

Certainly Toronto’s front seven did a good job harassing Dinwiddie (much better than Calgary’s worthless three-man rush a week earlier) and the defensive secondary, as we suspected, was significantly better than that awful group the Stamps trot out every week. But to suggest the Argos shut down Roberts is to have missed the game entirely.

 

“If you know Charlie, you know he gets stronger as the game goes on,” said his former quarterback Khari Jones, as we did Mike Richards’ radio program on the FAN 960 in Calgary together the other day. “The more you give Charlie the ball, the better he gets.”

 

Giving Charlie the ball 11 times a game is NOT enough. In fact, Roberts also caught one pass for 14 yards, so in total, he picked up 80 yards on 12 touches. 12 lousy touches? No wonder the Bombers are 1-5. 

 

Dinwiddie, meanwhile, went 16-for-28 for 224 yards with one touchdown (and 85-yarder to Romby Bryant) and two interceptions. The Bombers had a grand total of just 13 first downs. On Friday night, Kevin Glenn’s replacement made last week’s win over Calgary look Troy Kopp-esque.

 

The Bombers problem is clearly coaching. The coach humiliated his veteran kicker publicly and half of his locker room lost faith. His new kicker is now 14-for-20 (70 per cent) in field goals and is the first Bomber punter in 35 years to be dead last in the league in punting average after the first six games of the season and now the rest of the room is starting to wonder about the decision to chase Westwood out of the game.

 

What could be worse, however, is that in a panic — or in an effort to find someone else to blame — the coach dumped his veteran starting quarterback and replaced him with a guy who admitted on Tom and Joe’s Show on 92-CITI-FM this week that he had trouble reading the extra man on defence in the Canadian game.

 

Oh, oh.

 

Doug Berry was a great assistant in Montreal. He could be a great assistant in Winnipeg. His 10-7-1 trip to last year’s Grey Cup notwithstanding, he has appeared to have lost his touch as a head coach. 

 

Working in Berry’s favour is the fact his Bombers now play two straight games at home against Montreal and Hamilton. If Winnipeg doesn’t win both, it will be the bye-week and it will be time to make a coaching change.    

 

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