On the same day, the Winnipeg Goldeyes ended a disappointing season with a win, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers did their best impersonation of the Cleveland Browns.
Juan Diaz hit his team leading 24th home run of the year and drove in his team-leading 75th run of the year as the Goldeyes beat Schaumburg 4-3 in the final game of the 2010 campaign. Kevin West drove in his 70th run of the year and won the “Hit the Cover off the Ball” Trophy as the team’s leading hitter by finishing the season with a .337 average, just barely ahead of Diaz’s .335. The Goldeyes finished 46-53 and there will be plenty of soul-searching in the off-season.
But enough of the good news. In Regina yesterday, the Bombers were beaten 27-23 by the heavily-favored Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Labor Day Classic. The Bombers covered the 10 1/2 points, but they also fell to 2-7 on the season, and also fell further into last place in the CFL East. With the loss, the Bombers also fell out of the lead in the crossover playoff with the two dogs in the West.
It was a game the Bombers should have won. Easily. But because they play like the Browns, every time it looked as if they just might steal a win, they turned the ball over or dropped a pass or got sacked. It also appears as if they’ve lost No. 1 quarterback Buck Pierce for an extended period of time after he injured his arm late in the fourth quarter on a play that might have been called roughing the quarterback in a different game with a different group of officials.
On Sunday, the Bombers had 391 yards of total offence to 359 for Saskatchewan (without losses), but they never held the lead. The Riders jumped out to a 1-0 lead, a 4-0 lead, a 4-3 lead, an 11-3 lead, and 11-6 lead and an 11-9 lead at the half. Then they held an 11-10 lead, an 18-10 lead, an 18-17 lead, a 25-17 lead, a 26-17 lead, a 27-17 lead and a 27-23 lead. They won 27-23, because the Bombers holder, Mike Renaud, mishandled the snap on the convert attempt with 10 seconds remaining. It was Browns-like.
All in all, it was an ugly day for Winnipeg. If they weren’t turning it over, they were taking a bad penalty. Every time it appeared they were going to take over the game, they screwed up. It was not a lack of effort. It was a lack of concentration against a team that, on this Sunday afternoon, was just that much better.
The Bombers are the best 2-7 team in CFL history, but they’re still 2-7. That means they are still a lousy football team.
And yet, I’ll wager two Sport Select tickets that they win the Banjo Bowl.
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