Tag Archives: michael bishop

Buck Pierce: Michael Bishop 2

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Scott Taylor| 2 Comments

Until the re-signing of long-snapper Chris Cvetkovic on Friday, there were 17 Winnipeg Blue Bombers on the free agent list. Most of them have one goal: They really, really want to get paid.

Buck Pierce 300x221 Buck Pierce: Michael Bishop 2

Buck Pierce

Doug Brown will likely retire so signing NT Don Oramasionwu will be important as will getting Canadian safety Ian Logan under contract. After that, the contributing free agents all play on offense: Breandan LaBatte, Steve Morley, Glenn January, Andre Douglas and Ryan Donnelly make up an important part of the offensive line. Receivers Aaron Hargreaves and Greg Carr will be big signings as will quarterbacks Buck Pierce, Alex Brink and Joey Elliot. Well, maybe.

Pierce is one guy who has indicated he wants to be rewarded for taking the Bombers to the Grey Cup this past season, but based on Pierce’s numbers and penchant for injury, it might be worth GM Joe Mack’s while to think twice about breaking the bank for a guy whose numbers are no better than Michael Bishop’s.

That’s right. If you look at the hated 2009 Bombers and the beloved 2011 Bombers, you will see clearly that the QB in 2011 wasn’t a whole lot better than the QB in 2009. In fact, statistically, the two teams were not a lot different.

Sure this past year’s team went 10-8 and made it to the Grey Cup where it was drilled 34-23 in the national final. The 2009 team, meanwhile, went 7-11 and missed the playoffs. Clearly the reason for the three-game difference was points for and against. This past year the Bombers scored 432 points and had 432 scored against then. The 2009 team managed only 386 points and allowed 506.

jan12settlement 300x209 Buck Pierce: Michael Bishop 2

Mike Kelly

But the same statistics suggest that if it wasn’t for one horrendous 55-10 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, those point totals would have been virtually equal. And if the Bombers’ receivers coach doesn’t grease the skids in the final game of the season, a 39-17 loss to Hamilton in which the receivers were so bad, they quit completely (those inside still believe it was done to make sure the team missed the playoffs and Mike Kelly was fired) , the Bombers would have made the playoffs.

Regardless, that 2009 team was despised from coast to coast, the coach was hated and the local media did exactly what it set out to do, get that coach fired.

What it got in return is a beloved coaching staff that has put up the exact same won-lost record as the coach who was despised. Mike Kelly was 7-11 while Paul LaPolice and company has gone 14-22. The .388 percentage is the same for both coaches.

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Paul LaPolice

However, to be fair, LaPolice, with Pierce at quarterback, did make it to the Grey Cup this past season (OK, Doug Berry and Kevin Glenn got to the Grey Cup in our little eight-team house league). However, the team had a 10-8 record and finished first in the East. The other teams in the East had records of 10-8, 8-10 and 6-12. The 8-10 Hamilton Tiger-Cats made the playoffs.

The 2009 Bombers finished third in the East at 7-11 but missed the playoffs because B.C. finished 8-10, finished last in the West and won the crossover. The first place team in the East that year was Montreal at 15-3. This year Montreal was 10-8.

There are all sorts of comparisons between the 2009 and 2011 Bombers teams. Especially on defense. After all, it was the 2009 Bombers that created “Swaggerville.”

This year’s vaunted Bombers defense had 54 takeaways — exactly the same number as the 2009 defense. The 2011 team had 25 interceptions while the 2009 team had 31 interceptions. The 2011 team recovered 18 fumbles while the 2009 team recovered 16 fumbles. The 2011 team forced the opposition to turn the ball over on downs 11 times wile the 2009 team forced the opposition to turn it ober on downs seven times — 54 takeaways each. Hmmm.

BISHOP AND BUCK ARE THE SAME GUY

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Michael Bishop

But it’s on offense where Mack has to sit back and say, should we pay a whole lot of money to those offensive linemen and that No. 1 quarterback? Have we fixed all our problems on offense by firing Jamie Barresi? Or should we keep Joey Elliot and Alex Brink and save our money on Buck?

If I were Mack, I’d check these numbers first. After all, the Bombers went out of their way to run Michael Bishop out on a rail after the 2009 season. These days there are people within the organization who think Pierce is the answer, but his numbers wouldn’t confirm that.

In 2009, Bishop started 13 games. In 2011 Buck started 16.

Bishop had 405 passing attempts, Buck had 411 attempts.

Bishop threw for 3,036 yards Buck threw for 3,348.

Bishop threw 15 touchdown passes (3.7 per attempt). Buck threw 14 touchdown passes (3.4 per attempt).

Bishop threw 20 interceptions (4.9 per attempt). Buck threw 18 interceptions (4.4 per attempt).

Bishop had 204 completions in 13 games while Buck had 261 completions in 16 games, but don’t forget, this year the Bombers best receiver, Terrence Edwards, didn’t miss half the season with turf toe as he did in 2009.

If Buck Pierce intends to “get paid,” he might want to check out the free agent market. Because if the Bombers pay him, they’re paying for Michael Bishop’s numbers and in 2009, the same coach and GM that are here today thought those numbers were worthless.

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The Same People Who Called for the Head of Kevin Glenn Now Want Mike Kelly Removed. I Don’t Think I’d Listen.

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

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.

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Another Wild Week in The Mainstream Media Circus. And it’s Only Wednesday.

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It never fails to amaze, that ol’ Mainstream Media Circus. Is it because papers are folding left and right, layoffs are always imminent and changes are coming at people very rapidly, that the “journalist” of today needs to write about meaningless, stupid, personal, hateful crap to sell the product?

Where did actual reporting go? Don’t sport sections break stories  anymore or is that now reserved for websites and blogs like this one or hotdoghockey.com and the websites of the individual teams and leagues. There seems to be more news coming off message boards (How you doing, U of M Bisons?) than out of newspapers these days.

Anyway, let’s look at what’s transpired this week. And have a few laughs.

1) Here’s this week’s trade rumour report – rumours that NEVER seem to come to fruition – courtesy of Trade Rumour Central, the Midnight News of the World. Or, rather, the Ottawa Sun.

The Ottawa Sun now claims that the New York Rangers are trying to trade Christopher Higgins, the Anaheim Ducks are trying to trade Todd Marchant, the Leafs are trying to trade Jason Blake and I love this one: Because the Chicago Blackhawks have a limited amount of cap space, they’re looking to trade Jonathan Toews and/or Patrick Kane.

Yeah, right. And I’m playing point guard for the New York freakin’ Knicks.

These aren’t rumours. These are festering piles of manufactured crapola.

2) Mike Kelly gets smarter every day. And maybe he doesn’t even know it. The Winnipeg media has been obsessed by Kelly’s radio outburst after Sunday’s 48-13 loss in Montreal. If you believe the local hacks, Kelly is bad for football in this town and while it’s nice that he’s giving people who already don’t go to the games an apparently valid excuse to continue not going, he has done something that the last coach of this team would never, ever do.

Kelly has decided that when his team loses, he’s going to take responsibility. What a novel idea. The last guy, Doug (It’s not my job) Berry, would throw half-a-dozen players under the bus before he’d even hint that maybe he didn’t do everything humanly possible to have his team ready to play. In fairness, Berry was often criticized for that approach.

Now, when the local fishwraps get a guy who takes ALL the responsibility, it makes them crazy. “He’s rude,” they cry.

Yep, he’s rude. He’s also taken the spotlight away from a horrible effort in Montreal and taken all the heat himself. Football needs more Mike Kellys, not fewer.

3) Speaking of Kelly, the most interesting suggestion made by the media during the past few weeks is that people have decided NOT to go to Blue Bomber games because those people don’t like the coach. Apparently, since the beginning of the 2009 season, Winnipeg football fans, care only about the coach. The colour of the uniforms and the people wearing those uniforms, no longer matter.

Spare me that crap. People don’t want to go to Blue Bomber games because (a) the parking is lousy, (b) the stadium is a broken-down dump, (c) the post-game traffic is a mess (d) the tickets are a tad expensive and (e) the game is on TSN HD. A growing number of real sports fans in Winnipeg get TSN HD and that means they get every Bomber home game in their living rooms with a great picture and replays and they don’t have to worry about bad parking, warm beer and a rotting stadium.

Get a grip boys. If owners actually believed that people suddenly started buying football tickets to watch coaches, those owners would immediately hire Jessica Biel, Kaley Cuoco, Jennifer Garner and Kate Beckinsale… as coaches.

4) Thanks to cable TV and talk radio, the poor old United States media is slowly but surely becoming a dumping ground for the lunatic fringe. The far-right religious nutters who scream at the tea parties, don’t know where their Medicare comes from, support the Constitution- and Bill of Rights-destroying Patriot Act, think all Latino-Americans are illegals and truly believe their African-American president was, somehow, born in Africa, now have a new hero to go with Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs.

His name is Darren Rovell, another mainstream media hack who wrote that Meb Keflezighi, the American-citizen who won the New York City Marathon wasn’t really an American.

This mainstream media knucklehead wrote: “Meb Keflezighi is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he’s not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement.” Huh?

“Nothing against Keflezighi,” Rovell blurted, “but he’s like a ringer you hire to work a couple of hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.”

How do people like Rovell get work? And where did the mainstream media’s editors go? Technically American? Keflezighi chose to be an American. Guess he didn’t realize that 11 years after he became a citizen the “birthers” would come along and anyone in America who didn’t have a WASPy name and wasn’t born in Kansas or Indiana was to be considered as foreign as that Barack Hussein Obama guy.

As the Huffington Post’s Henry Blodgett wrote: “…this is seriously disturbing. It’s also probably racist. Would Rovell be saying the same thing if Arnold Schwarzenegger had won the marathon?”

If Rovell had been another far-to-the-right-of-Genghis-Khan nutbag blogger, you’d just laugh, but this was CNBC. Allegedly the big time, with the big money, and the big credibility.

Sad, but like a growing sea of insanity, the mainstream media, on both sides of the border, is becoming as nutty as a fruitcake.

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Kelly Says “B.S” on the Radio. And once again, he’s right.

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Let’s start with the apology. It arrived this morning in my e-mail box and it’s priceless.

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS RELEASE – 2009/167

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – November 1, 2009

WINNIPEG, MB – “To all Bomber fans and anyone who may have taken offence to my reaction and comments to interviewers during the post game show following our game against the Alouettes, I extend my sincere apologies.”

“I could not concur nor accept the assertions made by the interviewers that our players were ‘unfocused’ and looking towards our next contest. As the Coach of these men I know the professionalism and dedication which they commit in their preparation for each and every game. This group leaves it all on the field week in and week out, regardless of the outcome.”

“The fact of the matter is that on this day we were not the better team, which I take responsibility for and congratulate the Montreal Alouettes on their win.”

“I remain steadfast in my support and defence of our players, their professionalism, and commitment to our fans and the Blue Bomber organization. This is a special group of men who have fought through significant adversity this season and a group I am very privileged and pleased to have the honour of coaching.”

“Once again, my apologies go out to those who may have been offended by my comments this afternoon.”

That’s beautiful. Kelly said “bullshit” on CJOB and 100,000 seniors wet their diapers.

I hope no one was offended. I’m a senior and I’ve played on sports teams and heard plenty of uglier epithets than “bullshit.” Damn, I heard one at the gym this morning.

Kelly’s problems with the local mainstream media continue unabated for two reasons (a) the local mainstream media asks stupid questions and (b) because the local mainstream media doesn’t know anything about football and can’t analyze the games properly, fighting with Mike Kelly fills the pages they can’t fill with analysis.

So knock yourself out kids. Despite his petulance (the content was right, but the reaction was wrong), Kelly was absolutely right, again. However, it’s clear that in this town, if you don’t kneel at the altar of the mainstream media, your life can be made very miserable. Fortunately, Kelly appears to be a guy who can handle miserable. Others on his team can’t.

And that’s why, once again, Kelly — even if he wasn’t trying — proved to be brilliant. There was so little criticism of his quarterback, Michael Bishop in today’s local fishwraps, that you get the sense Kelly did everything he could to take the ugly spotlight off a guy he needs to be in the right head-space this Sunday against Hamilton.

If the bad Michael Bishop shows up on Sunday, the season is over. If the good one shows up, the Bombers are only three weeks away from the Grey Cup. The last thing Kelly needed was another hatchet job on his quarterback, a guy who went eight-for-21 for a measly 145 yards.

In fairness, Bishop is injured. He’s playing with a bad hamstring and a hand that gets so numb, he can’t feel the football. But he was simply atrocious on Sunday and probably shouldn’t have played.

And that’s why Kelly was angry. His team got thumped, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Montreal Alouettes are the best home team in the CFL and they proved it again on Sunday. That’s why it’s unlikely anyone in the East — no matter how hard they try — will beat the Als at Molson Stadium this season.

So, while protecting his players, Mike Kelly said, “bullshit” on CJOB. Hope no one passed a kidney stone.

In the meantime, the franchise has to punish Kelly. You can’t rip the broadcast rights holder and get publicly angry on a medium that leads the cheers, without some repercussions. A fine is in order and then everyone should just move on to Sunday. Although I might agree with Mike Kelly, his response to the CJOB inquisitors was amateurish and his actions have hurt the Blue Bombers brand.

But yeah, he was right.

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Bombers Win. Kelly Looks Like A Genius. TSN Doesn’t Understand the Playoff Structure. There Are, Officially, 21,000 Bomber fans.

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Saturday afternoon at Canad Inns Stadium, in front of one of the smallest crowds since Lyle Bauer took over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Bombers drilled the first-place Montreal Alouettes 41-24.

With the win, the Blue Bombers put themselves in a position to finish second in the Eastern Division. In fact, with a victory in the final game of the season, against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Canad Inns Stadium, the Bombers will finish second and play host to the Eastern semifinal on Nov. 15.

Incredibly, TSN had no idea that next week’s games didn’t matter one iota in terms of second-place in the East. Not one clue. They nattered on and on about the importance of next week’s games. Those games might be important in the world of the crossover, but they mean nothing in terms of second place in the East. 9-9 or 8-10, it doesn’t matter. The team that wins on Nov. 8, in the game between Hamilton and Winnipeg, makes the playoffs — guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Bomber fans are an odd lot, aren’t they? They have now clearly stated that they prefer a coach riding a Harley who loses for fun, than a hard-ass, take-no-crap football coach who has re-built a team right before their eyes. They clearly prefer a lovable loser to a guy who refuses to genuflect at the altar of the daily newspaper and even more assertively, refuses to suck up to people who know absolutely nothing about football.

Having said that, the 21,000 who attended Saturday’s game were young, smart, generally un-drunk fans who wanted to watch an improving football team win. They were into the game and didn’t care that the coach doesn’t like telephone calls from faceless, nameless, gutless whiners. They didn’t care that the coach tells the media how it’s going to be rather than vice-versa.

I love this.

The local bird-cage liners, dead trees that devote three-to-six pages almost daily to Blue Bomber coverage, have told their readers that the coach is a jerk and the team is lousy and some of their favourite players have been run-off and therefore people will (read: should) stop going to the games. Our local media is its own self-fullfilling prophecy. It has no sense of humour and believes it should run the local sports teams and when those teams don’t do as they’re told, they should be punished. All the while, they’ll continue to run three-to-six pages of coverage a day for reasons nobody quite understands.

However, to lay blame fairly, the real problem appears to be the growing feeling that the Bombers marketing department doesn’t have a Plan B. If all the free media coverage doesn’t sell tickets for them, they have no plan to sell tickets. If the media isn’t doing the job, the Bombers appear to have nowhere to turn.

Which creates an amazing dynamic for a football team that has won four of its last five, beaten a team that came in 13-2 (albeit without its starting quarterback), almost completely rebuilt itself on the fly and has become a force in the CFL’s Eastern Division.

The Bombers have a good football team. On Saturday, that team probably played well-enough to beat an Alouettes team WITH Anthony Calvillo. And yet crowds keep dwindling because the Bombers themselves don’t know how to sell the positive side of a football team that has had a major falling out with the local media.

Sadly, the world is changing. As the Free Press dumps its Sunday broadsheet and Sunday home delivery and the Sun’s circulation continues to fall, free “advertising” is going the way of the doh-doh. “Publicity” as we know it is changing and sports teams, no matter how popular they are with the media, will eventually have to learn how to actually sell their products.

Granted, the Bombers aren’t there yet and neither is Winnipeg, but the inevitable is coming. Saturday’s tiny, but nonetheless, intelligent crowd, was an example of that.

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My Head is Spinning Again. People Say and Do Weird Things.

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s been an interesting week. Lots of people doing lots of odd things.

In some cases it’s because business is bad and desperate people try desperate things to make businesses work — even if their business model is dead. Sometimes it’s because media people are like puppies. They get something in their heads and even if they’re wrong they just keep doing what they’re doing.

In other cases, it’s just people trying their best, but by being a tad misguided, they tend to do head off in the wrong direction. Rather consistently, sometimes.

Let’s take a look at the goofiness that surrounds us. A week in the life of the sporting world.

1) Sitting in the lat machine, between sets, at my gym this morning, I picked up the free Winnipeg Sun that our gym manager provides. Yeah, I know, I should know better.

Sports columnist Paul Friesen, the man with the world’s thinnest skin, is going off on Bomber head coach Mike Kelly again. But this time, it just seems silly. Friesen wrote: “Even Bomber staffers were left shaking their heads when the coach changed practice time without informing anybody, causing TV and newspaper photographers to forego an opportunity for pictures, others to miss chances for interviews.

“This, at a time when the 6-9 Bombers, struggling to sell tickets, need all the publicity they can get for today’s game against the visiting Montreal Alouettes.

“I can only imagine how the marketing department felt about this one.

“After fielding complaints, including one from a miffed female reporter, the Professor offered this tasteful ‘apology’ at his media briefing.

“‘I hate when the media’s so angry,’ Kelly began. ‘I want to apologize to everyone who had their panties in a ball.’”

I love Mike Kelly. Friesen? I don’t get.

While Friesen rips Kelly, suggesting that he’s the cause of a lack of publicity, he’s writing in a newspaper that has six — count ‘em, SIX! — full pages of Bomber and CFL coverage. The city’s broadsheet had three full pages of Bomber-Alouettes coverage.

Lack of publicity? Read your own paper. No wonder circulation is dropping at both local fishwraps. Other that the craziest of crazies, who would bother to read pages and pages of the same stories on the same football game? A game that hasn’t even been played yet.

2) The Blue Bombers lost a 24-21 heartbreaker to the B.C. Lions last Sunday, but it was a heartbreaker of the Bombers own making. Once again, turnovers killed Winnipeg.

Michael Bishop went 13 for 32, just awful, with one touchdown and three interceptions. He also lost a fumble. Four turnovers means one big loss.  Bishop must learn to protect the football.

3) We’ve talked about this about 100 times since last year’s playoffs, but it’s becoming more apparent that the Montreal Canadiens do have a goaltending problem.

Despite a terrific opening night, Carey Price is at best inconsistent and last Saturday night against Ottawa, he allowed three goals on only 21 shots. That’s not good enough. Perhaps, Montreal needs to look around for a Price replacement. Perhaps that replacement is their No. 2 netminder, Jaroslav Halak.

4) I just love how Winnipeg’s mainstream media has now decided that Mike Kelly has had nothing to do with the resurgence of the suddenly 6-9 Winnipeg Blue Bombers and it’s now all Manny Matsakis.

Kelly has re-built the Blue Bombers and the fact the he hired Matsakis to work with Michael Bishop and make Bishop better, is just another example of Kelly’s coaching prowess. The Bombers lost a heartbreaker last Sunday, but Kelly is still proving just how great a coach he is.

5) Oh, oh, it’s Saturday afternoon. I have the Bomber game on TSN HD and I have to hit the mute button.

Why do colour commentators think they have to say something after EVERY play even if they have absolutely nothing to offer? And why do they consistently say things they know are not true. The constant chatter is annoying not informative.

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Bombers Lose Heartbreaker, Add Westwood to Roster

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost a 24-21 heartbreaker to the B.C. Lions on Sunday, but sadly, it was a heartbreaker of the Bombers own making. Once again, turnovers killed Winnipeg.

Michael Bishop went 13 for 32 – just awful – with one touchdown and three interceptions. He also lost a fumble. Four turnovers means one big loss. Bishop must learn to protect the football.

With two games coming up against Montreal, turnovers will end the playoff dream. The Bombers have a very good football team, but as soon as they start turning over the football, everything unravels.

Meanwhile, I just love how the largest local newspaper has now decided that Mike Kelly has had nothing to do with the resurgence of the suddenly solid 6-9 Winnipeg Blue Bombers and all the credit should go to Kelly’s pal, Manny Matsakis.

Cut the crap. Kelly has re-built the Blue Bombers and the fact the he hired Matsakis to work with Michael Bishop, and hopefully make Bishop better, is just another example of Kelly’s coaching prowess. The Bombers lost a heartbreaker on Sunday, but Kelly is still proving just how great a coach he is.

The Bombers will win one of two games against Montreal and finish up the season with a win over Hamilton. They will make the playoffs. And in the playoffs, as we all know, anything can happen.

I mean, what the hell, the Bombers have brought back Troy Westwood. Anything can happen.

Dumped by Doug Berry because Berry didn’t like Westwood’s haircut, or something like that, Kelly called Westwood on Monday, hoping to get a little help with the punting game. With a season-ending injury to Mike Renaud, Kelly needed a legitimate punter and who better than a full-time radio announcer who sings aboriginal country music in his spare time.

“This is not a condemnation at all of anything that Alexis Serna did (Sunday),” Kelly said on Monday. “I thought he did a fine job for us. But we also played a Canadian down and this gives us an opportunity to bring Troy in on the practice roster and take a look to see how he can do. If in fact, we feel he can help us, then we will activate him.”

Westwood, now 42, will punt on Saturday against Montreal.

“Someone asked me early in the day on Sunday about coming back to punt and I said there is absolutely no hope whatsoever of that,” he said. “So, I just about fell over when I checked my phone at the movie theatre. I was very surprised and I have more or less been trying to contain and control my emotions since that time.”

Westwood will wear No. 74 on Saturday. He spent 17 seasons with the Bombers before being released, in a nasty, personal move by Berry during training camp last June. In his first stint with the club, he played 278 games. He holds more than 35 club records and is the team’s all-time leading scorer with 2,741 points.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers took a bold step into the past simply by calling Westwood. Frankly, it was a terrific decision by head coach Mike Kelly. This allows Alexis Serna to concentrate on his kicking duties and leaves Westwood, one of the best punters into the Canad Inns Stadium wind, to handle the important punting duties. It also shows that the Doug Berry Era is long gone and the Bombers are looking to rebuild their future by embracing their past.

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Bombers Win Again (Just As We Called). It’s going to Be Fun in the Playoffs.

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Wonder what all those misguided fans (it’s not their fault, they just read daily newspapers) and the thin-skinned Winnipeg mainstream media think of Mike Kelly today?

Didn’t that Bomber ream look terrific on Monday in their 38-28 road shellacking of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats? Pretty much as we called it, by the way.

I will reiterate, Mike Kelly is the best coach the Bomber organization has seen since Mike Riley. And there IS a Grey Cup in his future. Probably sooner than later, too.

Monday, Michael Bishop threw three touchdown passes as the Bombers won their third straight game, improved to 6-8 and pulled into a second-place tie with the Ticats in the Eastern Division.  The Bombers have four games remaining, three of them in Winnipeg and with a victory this week against B.C. at Canad Inns Stadium, they might just eliminate the crossover playoff format.

Can anyone say, “10-8?” Granted that would take two wins over Montreal, but right now, I wouldn’t call that impossible.

Monday, Bishop went 21-for-38 (not great) for 356 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions (not at all good). Bishop also lost one of two fumbles as the Bombers once again turned it over too many times.

However, since Bishop took ownership of this football team and Kelly weeded out the wideouts who didn’t want to play (Armstrong and Bryant), this football team has come together. Unlike the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl, the Bombers can now score enough to overcome three turnovers.

Monday, Adarius Bowman had 10 catches for 213 yards and two TDs while Brock Ralph had five catches for 98 yards and one touchdown and even Lenny Walls got into the act with a fumble return for a TD. Until the Bombers went into a strange prevent-defence type of thing in the fourth quarter, they completely dominated that football game.

Still, based on the e-mails I receive from many fans — and the argument I had with my old friend Joe Daley last week — a lot of Winnipeggers simply hate Mike Kelly. Still.

It’s an odd thing, but when I mentioned earlier that Winnipeggers would rather have an outgoing, humble coach they liked, even if he couldn’t win, as opposed to a guy who was blunt and honest even when blunt and honest hurt, but knew exactly what he was doing and won football games, it appears they would indeed rather have the lovable loser.

It’s weird, but it’s Winnipeg.

And no need to worry. Those fans will still have fun in the playoffs.

(Don’t forget to listen to Coach Kelly with Tom & Joe this week on 92-CITI-FM.)

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Bombers Lose. It’s Becoming a Habit. But it’s Fixable.

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Last Sunday afternoon in Regina, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were drilled 29-14 by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

I must admit, I thought the Bombers would win. I thought the team that played in B.C. one week earlier was the real Bombers. That team won 37-10. This past week’s team didn’t look like the real Bombers. It looked like some absurd, talentless, faux Bombers.

Oh well, here’s the deal: When you have six turnovers and the other team has one, you lose. More often than not, you get clobbered. The Bombers got clobbered.

However, until the fourth quarter disaster — three of the six turnovers came in the final 15 minutes — I watched a team that still had a chance to win. Fact is, the Roughriders might be a 5-4 first-place team, but they aren’t Montreal or Calgary and they  probably aren’t even Hamilton (Boy, that Kevin Glenn has played well, hasn’t he?). The Riders are beatable. They aren’t Grey Cup contenders at all. And with 30,000 crazies at Canad Inns Stadium this week, Winnipeg can certainly win.

We talked about this on The TEAM 1260 in Edmonton this morning. The only team that really doesn’t have a chance to win its post-Labour Day Classic re-match is the Toronto Argos. This is, after all, the CFL. Home teams win a lot and there is no reason to believe Montreal, Edmonton and Winnipeg won’t win at home this week. Toronto, on the other hand, is just a mess and you have to wonder how long head coach Bart Andrus will keep his job.

Now, I’m not naive. I still believe the Bombers must improve at quarterback if they’re ever going to become a .500 football team. But they should win this week.

What happens in Montreal in Week 12, however, is a whole ‘nother deal, but still, if the Bombers are 4-7 with Toronto coming to town on Sept. 26, they’ll make the playoffs. In fact, even with Michael Bishop at quarterback, this looks like a team that will be no worse than  8-10.

Check the schedule. There are a load of home games, and plenty of wins out there.  Just win on Sunday and everything should be fine. Lose, and well…WTF.

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More Stuff Banging Around in My Noggin…

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I was sitting in the press box at Canwest Park last night waiting for the Goldeyes and Joliet to get it on when my brain started to go thump, thump, thump.

Here’s what fell out onto the page…

1) Last Friday night, Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress felt that Brett Favre would play at least a half against Houston next Monday night.

Childress said all he wanted from Favre last Friday night in Minneapolis was to complete all the exchanges from centre-to-quarterback ad to hand the ball off to Adrian Peterson.

“If he completed a couple of passes, great,” Childress added. “That’s not what we were after. We have a 39-year-old guy playing his first game of the year after 2 1/2 days of practice. Taking the exchange from centre was a good first step for Brett.”

I asked Childress during the news conference how long he felt it would take Favre to get used to his teammates, the terminology, the surroundings and his own physical capabilities and Childress was forthright.

“Two weeks,” he said.

That sounds about right. Sounds like it was about right for Michael Bishop, too.

2) A website/newsletter/journalistic-type-place called the Bleacher Report, picked the Top 100 players in baseball this month. No. 1 was Albert Pujols. No argument there.

However, at No. 5 was Minnesota’s Joe Mauer. No. 5? Number Freakin’ 5?

I cancelled my subscription. Anyone who picks Mauer No. 5, hasn’t ever seen Mauer play and if they haven’t seen Mauer, they have nothing of interest to a baseball fan.

Mauer is a freakin’ catcher for goodness sake. He plays the toughest position on the field and throws bee-bees from his knees to each of the bases. He handles a pitching staff. He calls for pitches. He has to know everything going on out on the field at all time.

Meanwhile, he hits .380. And he’ll win the American League batting title this year with at least 30 home runs, 100 runs scored and 100 RBI even though he didn’t play a game until May 1.

However, he’ll also lead the AL in slugging percentage (.635) and on base percentage (.449) and right now, he leads Pujols in batting average and on-base percentage (Pujols is slightly ahead in slugging percentage, .665 to .635).

Mauer is a lifetime .328 hitter who won the AL batting title in 2006 (.347) and 2008 (.328) and he’s a freakin’ catcher. Oh yeah, and he’s only 26.

Hanley Ramirez and a couple of pitchers couldn’t carry Mauer’s 6-foot-5, 235-pound jock to the ballpark. The Bleacher Report is not a report. It’s a bunch of dudes farting around.

3) They say female South African runner Caster Semenya is not a woman, but a man. The IAAF is forcing her to undergo tests to determine that she’s indeed a woman. As it is for most sports governing bodies, humiliating people is an easy thing to rationalize. In fact, the IAAF “ordered” her to take the tests. Ordered.

Hey, I don’t know if she’s a man or a woman, but if she says she’s a woman, she’s a woman. What real man would want a woman’s medal anyway?

And besides, despite the humiliation she’s been forced to endure, one thing is certain. She has the best abs in sport … anywhere, anytime, any sex.

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