The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are not going to the playoffs and now the Bombers, a team that finished 7-11 this season, have officially not won the Grey Cup in 19 years.
Sunday afternoon at Canad Inns Stadium in front of 29,038 loyal spectators, the Bombers offence just couldn’t get anything going. Quarterback Michael Bishop went eight-for-26 for only 122 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions and the Bombers fell 39-17 to Kevin Glenn and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Bishop was the 2009 winner of the ignominious Two-and-Out Award.
So next week, the Ticats will play host to the B.C. Lions in the Eastern semifinal at Ivor Wynne Stadium while the Bombers will disperse this week, but only a few players will have uncertain futures. For the most part, the rebuilding of the Bombers is done and while there is very little doubt that head coach Mike Kelly will go after depth and a quarterback this off-season.
Yesterday, Kelly spoke with Tom, Joe and The Coach on 92-CITI-FM and made his plans pretty clear.
“Defensively, we’re in good shape,” Kelly said. “Offensively, everybody was in a panic because we were forced to rebuild the O-line because a number of players chose to leave. I never wanted to force anyone to stay here and when players asked me before the season if they could go, I found a way to let them go. No one should play someplace against their will.
“So we rebuilt the offensive line and they really became pretty good by the end of the season. John Murphy (the player personnel guy) and I will go out and try to add some depth there. We have some good young receiver in Adarius Bowman and Titus Ryan and Brock Ralp did a nice job for us this year. We improved there and we have Fred Reid and Yvenson Bernard in the backfield and we’ll go out an add some depth there, as well.”
Kelly never mentioned the quarterback and his silence was deafening.
“We had to rebuild the defensive backfield and I think that’s really turned out well. We have some great young corners and DBs and we’ll look around to add depth there as well. Our young defensive lineman, Phillip Hunt, Odell Willis and Dorian Smith, really developed toward the end of the year and we’re pleased with them. We still need to add some depth and we’ll do that.”
While fans and the local mainstream media — ESPECIALLY the local mainstream media — called for Kelly’s head, it should be noted that those were the exact same people who demanded that Kevin Glenn be run out of town. I’d be surprised if Lyle Bauer makes the same mistake twice.
That’s because this Bomber team is on the right track. Winnipeg fans will always highlight the negative first. Like Philly fans, that’s just the way we are. But when you stop and think about how far this team — as a team, not just as a quarterback — has come, you realize that it’s closer to a championship now than it was in 2008.
To recap:
1) Kelly let all the players who didn’t want to play in Winnipeg go elsewhere. Two of the big shots who left, Joe Smith and Derick Armstrong didn’t find work. The players remaining want to be Blue Bombers.
2) Alexis Serna grew remarkably as a kicker under Kelly’s leadership and after one game handling both the kicking and punting duties, the boss knew that Serna was a kicker, not a multi-tasker.
3) Kelly brought Troy Westwood back and he punted quite well in what might have been his last game. At 42, if Westwood retires, he goes out a hero, not a worthless cog sent to the scrap heap as he was with Doug Berry.
4) Kelly rebuilt the worst defensive secondary in the CFL and made it one of the best. He rebuilt the defensive line and he rebuilt the offensive line. By the end of the season, the Bombers had a number of young star players signed to long term deals. The future is very bright.
5) Kelly didn’t let his ego get in the way of making the Bombers a better football club. When it was clear Stefan Lefors couldn’t get the job done, the coach admitted the mistake and went out and got Michael Bishop. In the end, Bishop let Kelly down (along with 29,000 fans), but despite losing the last two games of the season, at one point, Bishop was 6-6 as a starter. It’s unlikely Bishop will be back. It’s very unlikely he’ll ever play again. But he served a purpose in the short term and Kelly has to be credited with going to Plan B. many coaches wouldn’t.
6) Kelly gave the football team back to the fans. In fact, he had two fans speak to the team last Saturday. The Bombers no longer belong to the local mainstream media and that must really piss them off.
Mike Kelly has his shortcomings. Well, one, anyway.
He refuses to bow down on one knee to the mainstream media and that hurt him to no end. Nasty people with thin skins are pretty hard to trust and for Kelly, he was in big, big trouble the day he refused to answer the same question a different way after that question was asked eight times.
The reality is this: the less Mike Kelly says, the better.
In the meantime, the Bombers future is brighter than it has been in a long while. That is, if Kelly and Murphy and Bauer can find a quarterback. As Paul Robosn said after he was fired in Ottawa, “If you can’t find a guy who can fling it, you don’t have a chance.”
Sunday, when Bishop spent the second half going two-and-out, time after time, it was clear the Bombers had no one who could fling it.
If Kelly and Co. can find the guy, this will be a very good football team.