Bombers field goal attempt sails away, takes with it team’s chance at topping division

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2017 (2371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — The Winnipeg Blue Bombers went a second straight week without clinching a home playoff game on their terms and will have to wait another season to finish atop the West Division.

Both slipped through their fingers Saturday night when kicker Justin Medlock, with the game on his foot, shanked a 40-yard field goal with no time left on the clock, sealing a 29-28 loss to the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field.

Medlock’s kick sailed wide right and into the hands of Argonauts kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, who promptly booted the ball back in the other direction to prevent the one-point play that would have tied the game, the ball eventually bouncing out of bounds near the Bombers bench.

“I didn’t come through for the team. It’s definitely shocking,” said a visibly emotional Medlock after the game. “I felt good going into it.”

Once the Bombers’ most consistent player, Medlock has struggled this season to put up the kind of numbers he did last year when he set a CFL record for most field goals made in a season, with 60, and was named the CFL’s most outstanding special teams player.

Saturday, Medlock finished two-for-four, with his second attempt of the game missing wide-left from 39 yards, on the Bombers’ final possession of the first half. He has now missed six of his last 13 field goal attempts over the past four games and is 46-for-60 on the year, a success rate of just 76.7 per cent.

“Just in a little drought, I guess, right now,” added Medlock, before describing, with few details and his lip quivering, the final kick.

“I don’t know, just got to look at the film.”

Like Medlock, many in the Bombers locker room took a similar approach to the loss, mimicking a need to look at the game film before making any definitive assessments. Some lamented a slow start, with the Argonauts scoring touchdowns on their first two drives — a 12-yard run by James Wilder, followed by a six-yard grab from Declan Cross — while others spoke about the need to close out games. The Bombers held a 25-14 lead late in the third quarter, only to be outscored 15-3 in the final 18 minutes.

“We have to finish games,” said Bombers rookie defensive back Brian Walker. “I feel we got our momentum back in the second quarter and in the third I felt like we salvaged ourselves but we have to stop the running game – that really hurt us.”

Missed tackles, undisciplined play — the Bombers finished with seven penalties for 58 yards, including two by Brandon Alexander on the Argonaut’s game-winning drive — and inconsistency will all be under heavy review when the team reconvenes this morning to look over game film.

What probably lingered through the night and should sting for the remainder of the regular season is what the loss meant in the standings. A victory would have earned Winnipeg a home playoff date and, with the Calgary Stampeders (13-2-1) losing to the Saskatchewan Roughriders (9-7) on Friday, kept their chances alive to finish atop the West.

Instead, the loss ensures the Stampeders will finish first, while the Bombers, who drop to 11-5, need one win in their final two games to finish second in the division, or could have achieved that with an Edmonton Eskimos loss to the B.C. Lions latwe Saturday night (the game was ongoing by press time).

“Everyone is playing good football this time of year,” said veteran receiver Weston Dressler, who dazzled in his return after three games on the injured list, finishing with a team-high eight catches for 128 yards and a touchdown.

“It’s one play here and there — and you don’t know when it’s going to be — that can decide a game so you got to give everything you got every single play of the game.”

The Bombers struggled on both sides of the ball. The offence put up a dismal 301 yards of net offence, even if they did rebound from last week’s zero-touchdown win over the Lions by putting up three scores. Dan LeFevour rushed for two touchdowns — both on one-yard runs — and Dressler accounted for the other — a 28-yard strike midway through the second quarter that made it a 14-14 game by halftime.

Matt Nichols, who finished the night 25-for-33 for 268 yards, found little success with any of his targets, other than Dressler. The running game was also non-existent, with Andrew Harris racking up just 32 yards on nine carries. Harris, who was asked daily this week about his chances of reaching 1,000 rushing and receiving yards this season, took a major hit in his quest to reach that historic mark.

Harris added two catches for four yards, meaning to make history as the first player to record a 1,000-1,000 season he’ll have to average 90 receiving yards and 48.5 rushing yards over the final two games. The Bombers play the Lions at home next week before wrapping up the season against the Stampeders in Calgary.

It was also the first game the Bombers have been without their top receiver in Darvin Adams, who remains questionable to return this season with a shoulder injury. Timothy Flanders, another key cog in the offence, missed his second game.

“That’s not an excuse,” Harris said of the injuries. “This is a high-calibre team and we’re gunning for something great here. There shouldn’t be any excuses for that.”

On defence, it was another tough night for defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall and his group. Ricky Ray, needing 335 passing yards to finish with 60,000 in his career, finished the night with 423. It was the second most he’s thrown for this season, next to his 506-yard night in a win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the season-opener and the 12th time this year he’s thrown for at least 300 yards.

As good as Ray was, it was dominant running back Wilder who stole the show on this night. Wilder averaged close to 100 yards in each of his eight starts this year and his 7.3 yards per carry was a league best. He took it to another level against the Bombers, ending the night with 18 carries for 112 yards and two touchdowns, while adding another 85 through the air on seven catches.

“What wasn’t working for him? He was running inside, running outside…he was making plays,” said Bombers defensive back Tristan Okpalaugo, who returned a Ray interception 87 yards in the third quarter, only to be tackled by Wilder on the one-yard line. “I thought I was in there, I thought I was home free.”

Wilder beat the Bombers for a 12-yard touchdown on the Argonauts’ first drive of the game, and his three-yard dash late in the third quarter stopped the bleeding for Toronto after the Bombers took their first lead on a 10-0 run to start the second half. By then, after a failed two-point attempt, the Argos trailed 25-20.

The five-point deficit would stand deep into the final quarter after the two teams exchanged field goals, setting up a game-winning drive for Toronto with five minutes, 35 seconds left. Starting from the 22-yard line, the Argonauts marched 87 yards to the Bombers’ one, before a second rushing attempt by backup QB Cody Fajardo — followed by a missed two-point covert — put the home side up 29-28.

The Bombers got the ball back with just under two minutes to go. Running a no-huddle, Winnipeg moved the ball down field before milking the clock for one final attempt by Medlock. The boot sailed wide, and so, too, did the Bombers’ chances of pushing for top spot.

“The last kick of the game with no time on the clock is something that everybody focuses on, but they don’t see the penalties that keep drives alive, they don’t see missed tackles, they don’t see dropped balls,” said headcoach Mike O’Shea. “We do. We see all that and we’ll never put it on the last kick.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton