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Bombers Lose Again … so is that a surprise? I mean, really?

Posted on August 8, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I love reading the comments lists at both winnipegfreepress.com and winnipegsun.com. Everybody has an answer for what ails the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but few want to admit that this re-building team (yes, rebuilding again) isn’t quite good enough yet.

Saturday night the Bombers lost 29-22 in Hamilton. The CFL, being what it is, the Bombers will likely beat Hamilton when the teams return to play in Winnipeg this Friday night (The Bombers and Ti-Cats play four times in the first seven weeks. If that’s not the worst schedule in the history of professional sports, I’d like to see what is.).

Seems folks really want to blame kicker Alexis Serna for the loss, but to his credit, head coach Paul LaPolice took the blame. The team’s offence isn’t much, but it did get the ball to the Hamilton three and did  have a chance in the dying seconds to tie the game at 29 thanks to Hamilton coach Marcel Bellefeuille’s boneheaded decision to go for two instead of kicking the extra point with an almost eternal seven minutes left to play.

That’s what I still don’t understand about CFL coaches. They all seem to panic (with perhaps the exception of Montreal’s Marc Tretsman or Calgary’s John Hufnagel) in the final eight or nine minutes, but the final eight or nine minutes can take hours of real time to play. The final three minutes, in which the clock stops after EVERY play, probably allows for six possession changes.

Oh well, Bellefeuille dodged a bullet and the Bombers gassed it on the Hamilton three-yard-line and now Winnipeg and Hamilton are both 2-4 and nobody should be surprised. After all, Winnipeg knew all week — hell, they talked about it all week — that they had to shut down Arland Bruce III and yet he still caught 11 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown. C’mon people.

Of course, that’s the price you pay when you re-build a franchise every year or so. It takes time to build a winner and the Bombers often find themselves using the first eight to 10 weeks of a season to get their personnel arranged and their act in gear.

The concern this year is a more simple one, however. It’s the lousy schedule. After playing the stinky Ti-Cats this Friday night, they go to Montreal and Regina, get the Roughriders back in Winnipeg on Sept. 12, go to Toronto on the 19th and then get Montreal — on a short week — back in Winnipeg on Sept. 24. It’s conceivable this Bomber team could head into October at 3-9 and that wouldn’t be good.

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Week 19 in the CFL. The final week of 2008. Bring on the playoffs… please…

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Thank goodness it’s over. After all, with the exception of the battle for playoff positions in the West, the CFL hasn’t been particularly interesting for the past three weeks.

Could it be that 18 games are too many?

 

This week, we will get to find out whether it will be Saskatchewan or B.C. playing host to the Western semifinal. And that’s it. On Pro Line, three of the four games are considered blowouts this week. Winnipeg will play host to Edmonton in the Eastern semifinal at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg (1 p.m. CST on TSN) while Calgary and Montreal have each wrapped up first in the West and East respectively.

 

Other than that, the only worry this week is who or how many will be banged up and unable to perform in the playoffs.

 

In the meantime, let’s take as close a look as we possibly can at Week 18, a week that look an awful lot like pre-season…

 

Saskatchewan Roughriders (11-6) at Toronto Argonauts (4-13)

 

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

 

Michael Bishop is back in Toronto for a rare end-of-season Thursday night game, even though there is a chance he might not play all that much. Riders head coach Ken Miller also has Derian Durant and Steven Jyles and who knows? All three of them could play. As Saskatchewan gets more of its players back from injury, the team just could be playing its best football of the year (judging from last week’s 55-9 demolition of Edmonton, they probably are). Kerry Joseph, meanwhile, has been a bust in Toronto, ever since he was dealt from Saskatchewan to the Boatmen before the season began. Last winter, GM Eric Tillman lost his Grey Cup-winning quarterback (Joseph just wanted too much money and was too old) and his Grey Cup-winning coach (not many people thought Ken Miller would be a significantly better coach than Kent Austin) and his team is even better than it was last year at this time. But who knows? Prhaps the Argos will win one for coach Don Matthews. Or, maybe not.

 

Pick: Saskatchewan

Montreal Alouettes (11-6) at Edmonton Eskimos (9-8)

Friday 8 p.m. CT, TSN

Hard to imagine what’s worse. Last week Montreal was beaten 24-23 at home by the then-6-10 Winnipeg Blue Bombers while Edmonton went on the road and lost 55-9 in Regina. In their own special ways, both games were lopsided upsets (Montreal should have won by three TDs) and both losing teams left the field embarrassed. The Eskimos have been blitzed in their last two games and have allowed 98 points. The Edmonton defence is ready for an overhaul except that there is only one game in which to do the overhauling before the Eskies haul ass to Winnipeg for the Eastern semi (isn’t there something odd about an Edmonton-Winnipeg Eastern semifinal?). Marcus Brady is set to start at quarterback for Montreal.

Pick: Edmonton (holding my nose)

Hamilton Tiger-Cats (3-14) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7-10) 

Saturday 1 p.m. CT, TSN

Wouldn’t you love to be Marcel Bellefeuille? He was the interim head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, went 1-6 in the job and because of all that success, had the interim tag removed from his title. His record isn’t as good as the guy the ‘Cats fired, but Bellefeuille got the guy’s job anyway. Poor Charlie Taafe should sue for unlawful dismissal. The ‘Cats are awful and Bellefeuille hasn’t done much to make them any better. Winnipeg, meanwhile, has improved dramatically since the addition of Jason Armstead, Kai Ellis, Zeke Moreno and Joe Smith. Brendan Taman should be executive of the year. The Bombers have won five of their last seven and should win again this week.

 

Pick: Winnipeg

B.C. Lions (11-6) at Calgary Stampeders (12-5)

Saturday, 4 p.m., CT, TSN

If Calgary actually tries, the Stamps should blow away a B.C. Lions team that is pretty good, but not that good. If Toronto happens to upset Saskatchewan (which they won’t), the Lions could be playing for home-field advantage in the Western semifinal. As they probably won’t be playing for anything at all, this will simply be a battle of two of the league’s superstars: B.C. defensive lineman Cameron Wake and Calgary quarterback Henry Burris. I like Burris, if he plays more than a quarter.

Pick: Calgary

Last Week: 2-2

Season: 41-19

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It’s Week 12 in the CFL. Think, West. Think home teams.

Posted on September 12, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 2 Comments

It’s Week 12 and the first thing you have to think about, if you want to pick winners this week, is West vs. East. West usually wins.

 

In fact, in 16 meetings between Western Conference and Eastern Conference teams this season, the West leads the season series 13-3.

 

This week, Montreal plays in Calgary while Hamilton plays in Edmonton. Take the Western teams in both meetings. If, for no other reason than this: Avon Cobourne is not playing for Montreal and Edmonton is simply a better team than Hamilton.

 

In the other two games, take the home teams. Home teams are up 22-18 this season, but remember one important thing, in West at East matchups, the West is 6-2 — on the road. Take those games out of the equation and home teams beat road teams 20 out of 32 times.

 

This week, we have two Western teams at home and those teams will win. We have an Eastern team at an Eastern team and the home team will win and we have a Western team at a Western team and the home team will win.

 

This week, if we stick to our theories, we should go undefeated.

 

Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2-8) at Toronto Argonauts (4-6)

 

Friday, 6 p.m. CT, TSN

 

The Bombers head into Toronto with a revamped defence featuring Stanford Samuels at DB, Kelly Malveaux and Zeke Moreno at linebacker and Kai Ellis at rush end. It’s certainly a new look, but not as fearsome as the new look in Toronto. Don Matthews is back. How scary is that? Here’s the difference, Toronto won 19-11 the last time the two teams met in Toronto and Winnipeg’s offence isn’t any better than it was two months ago. However, the underlying story of this game is, once again, Winnipeg slotback Milt Stegall. Stegall can become the Canadian Football League’s all-time leading receiver tonight as 14-year Bomber veteran is just 17 yards shy of the league’’s all-time pass receiving record of 14,891 yards, currently held by Calgary’s Allen Pitts. That should give the Bombers a little incentive. Too bad he didn’t need 117 yards. Toronto is a dreadful football team but Matthews will make them better.

 

Pick: Toronto

Montreal Alouettes (7-3) at Calgary Stampeders (6-4)

Friday, 9 p.m. CT, TSN

Most outstanding player candidate, tailback Avon Cobourne, is not playing tonight and that will obviously hurt the Alouettes. But will it hurt them enough to lose this football game? Calgary has won three of its last four and had an impressive 38-33 win IN Edmonton last week. Montreal has won five in a row, but their last loss, a 36-34 defeat, took place at B.C. Place. The Stamps beat the Alouettes 23-19 back in Week 3 in Montreal. It’s two months later and it’s still hard not to like the Stamps.

Pick: Calgary

Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2-8) at Edmonton Eskimos (6-4)

Saturday, 6 p.m. CT, TSN

This one is a no-doubter. Ricky Ray, A.J. Harris, Kelly Campbell… Edmonton by three touchdowns. Not even Marcel Bellefeuille, who replaced the fired Charlie Taafe this week, can stop the implosion in Hamilton.

 

Pick: Edmonton

Saskatchewan Roughriders (8-2) at B.C. Lions (5-5)

Saturday, 9 p.m. CT, TSN

This could be the game of the week. Saskatchewan is playing with a pre-season roster and yet behind a terrific performance by quarterback Michael Bishop, they overcame a 31-14 deficit in Winnipeg last week,  scored 20 unanswered points in the final quarter and won 34-31. B.C., meanwhile, went into Hamilton and blasted the Ticats 35-12. It was a terrific road win and this week, the Lions add small, feisty and gifted tailback Charles Roberts. Saskatchewan can’t continue to win with 14 players in the injured reserve. Can they?     

 

Pick: B.C.

Last Week: 2-2

Season: 21-11

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