That was stinky. It was stinky early and stinky late and it left Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice with some real decisions to make.
Friday night’s football game at Canad Inns Stadium smelled funny. Hamilton 39, Winnipeg 28. In Winnipeg. A week after the Bombers should have won in Hamilton.
In four meetings during the first seven weeks of the season, the Tiger-Cats beat the Bombers three times. So now, before Labour Day, the Tiger-Cats have wrapped up the first playoff tiebreaker with Winnipeg. Throw in the fact Winnipeg is not only 2-5 on the season, but 2-2 at home and 0-3 on the road and you have a team that seems considerably worse than it was last year. And it wasn’t very good last year.
The Winnipeg media got its wish when the Bomber board of directors fired Mike Kelly, but the pleasant, new regime, the one that seems to respect the the local papers, the city’s TV stars and the club’s rightsholder, hasn’t been very successful. In fairness, it certainly didn’t help that Buck Pierce got hurt and you have to admit that injuries have definitely affected LaPolice’s plans this season, but just when it appeared that the Bombers were in a position to get to 3-4 before heading off to Montreal and Regina in successive weeks, they lay an egg at home and now there is a reason to believe that this team could be 2-11 by Oct. 1.
The Bombers are now, officially, not very good. Friday night’s game at Canad Inns Stadium was over early and all that was left by the end were a few die hard fans scattered in the stands and a head coach wondering how it could all have gone so badly.
After all, this was a Bomber team that looked good in its opener, a 49-29 shellacking of these same Tiger-Cats. Seven weeks ago this team looked pretty decent. Now, it looks like it needs a makeover. When the defence couldn’t stop Kevin Glenn, LaPolice gave up on Pierce. When the offence got going, a penalty or a turnover stopped the threat.
The Bombers did put up 290 yards passing and 121 yards rushing (with losses, 393 total yards) and four touchdowns, but Glenn threw for 306 yards and three touchdowns and more than 90 yards in penalties didn’t help the Bombers much either (Philip Hunt picked up four 15-yard penalties, himself).
It was just a lousy football game from the Winnipeg standpoint. The worst effort of the season. And now the schedule gets really difficult.
I know we’re only seven weeks in, but perhaps this team should start thinking about next year. Get rid of the old, slow guys and give the youngsters a shot right across the depth chart. Because the veteran players Paul LaPolice has been depending on, haven’t done the job.
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