Bad timing led to fall of 2017 Bombers
Team suffered string of injuries late in season and was unable to fill the gaps adequately
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2017 (2324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
There will be plenty of moments to look back on, plenty of reasons to debate why the Winnipeg Blue Bombers once again failed to break a Grey Cup drought now at 27 years and counting.
Of all that went right for the Bombers in 2017 — a season in which Winnipeg finished with the second-best regular-season record in the Canadian Football League (12-6) and hosted a playoff game for the first time since 2011 — there is one thing that went horribly wrong for this team and ultimately led to its demise.
Call it bad luck. But perhaps a more apt term would be bad timing.
The Bombers were able to stay relatively healthy throughout the season, but a string of injuries in the final weeks of the schedule had them limping into the playoffs. They lost to the Edmonton Eskimos at home in the West Division semifinal Nov. 12, mostly because they were unable to keep pace with a team boasting a much healthier roster.
“When a team like Edmonton takes their hits at the beginning of the year, they can take their lumps with the losing streak that they had — and they’re forced to acquire some assets and fill some holes through necessity,” Bombers general manager Kyle Walters said Friday, speaking at his season-ending news conference at Investors Group Field. “And then when they get their group healthy the last stretch of the year, you see the result, and that’s a good football team that rolled in here.”
The Eskimos, who also finished the year 12-6 but were 0-2 against Winnipeg during the regular season and therefore relegated to third in the West, opened the season with a seven-game winning streak. By the time they arrived in Winnipeg for a Week 8 matchup against the Bombers, nearly 20 players were on the team’s injury list, with most out long-term. The Bombers won that game, beginning a stretch of five straight losses for the Eskimos.
Edmonton got most of their star players back by the final stretch of the season, even if the number of bodies still out with injury remained in the double-digits.
Still, the team knew it needed to acquire veteran bodies if it wanted to keep stride in a competitive West. To fill that need, Edmonton added defensive end John Chick and running back C.J. Gable in separate trades with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The Eskimos won the final five games of the regular season, and then Gable rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns last weekend in the playoff win over the Bombers.
“Conversely, a team that gets hit through the back end of the year, there’s just not enough time to make any sort of moves,” Walters said. “Unfortunately, with our season, when you get dinged with injuries at the end you’re just dealt with the cards that you’re dealt with at the time and you have to roll with it.”
The Bombers were among the healthiest teams in the league, which was a point of pride throughout the year. Head coach Mike O’Shea often credited the team’s medical staff for their innovative methods, including tweaks to the lengths of practice and post-practice recovery regimens, and the overall approach his players took when it came to treating their bodies right.
That would all come crashing down late in the season. In a game against the B.C. Lions on Oct. 14, just days after the CFL trade deadline passed, the Bombers lost receiver Darvin Adams (shoulder) and strong-side linebacker Maurice Leggett (Achilles) to season-ending injuries.
By then, defensive end Jamaal Westerman already had been ruled out for the season with a torn triceps muscle and running back Timothy Flanders was one week removed from suffering an ankle injury that kept him out for weeks. Starting quarterback Matt Nichols, meanwhile, broke the ring finger on his throwing hand against the Ticats the week before and then suffered a strained calf muscle that would keep him out of action for the better part of the final 21/2 weeks of the regular season. It was still a problem in the playoff game.
Winnipeg lost three of its last five games heading into the West semifinal.
Injuries, of course, can’t be used as an excuse for a Bombers team that can be argued was built for this season. With more than 20 players set to hit free agency come February and with a roster filled with veterans — many over the age of 30 — it would have only made sense for the Bombers to bolster their lineup regardless of how many healthy bodies they had.
Walters was asked if he had spoke with any other teams interested in moving players, if only to make what was seemingly a solid team even better come the playoffs.
“There was certainly (teams) throughout the year, kicking tires,” he said.
Whether or not he perceives it this way, what Walters did was gamble on a mostly healthy group. He lost — badly. The number of injuries late in the season created major holes in the lineup, and the players responsible for filling them lacked experience.
Wherein last year the Bombers had a number of injuries earlier in the season, meaning more players were able to gain meaningful minutes earlier on, this year many new faces were thrown into the fire too soon. And unlike Edmonton, where veterans eventually returned to the fold, leaving the team with depth behind them, Winnipeg was stretched far too thin by the end.
“From the depth standpoint, when Darvin went out we went from having a couple young guys to three inexperienced guys over there,” said Walters, speaking about a group of receivers that, without Adams, lacked a dominant threat other than Weston Dressler. “When Mo (Leggett) got hurt, I think the same thing happened on the defensive side of the ball.”
To makes matters worse, the Bombers got no cap relief from the losses of Adams and Leggett, money that could have been used on future contracts. For example, with the Bombers signing offensive linemen Patrick Neufeld and Jermarcus Hardrick this week to new deals, some of the remaining money from this year’s salary cap was used to pay a sum of their contracts for 2018 up front, and off the books for next season’s payroll.
But because of a league rule used to prevent teams essentially out of the playoff picture late in the season from ditching their players on long-term injured lists to preserve some money (players on the six-game injured list don’t count against the cap), the Bombers had to pay Leggett and Adams their full salaries against the cap.
None of that matters now as the Bombers turn their focus to next season. Walters, scanning a piece of paper in front of him that lists all the players in need of a contract, made it clear he hoped much of the team returns for the next campaign.
“There’s a long list, which is the way it is now in the CFL,” said Walters. “There will be some tough decisions. Ultimately, we fell short. If we were where we needed to be, we wouldn’t be here right now, we’d be prepping for another playoff game. But we’re not.”
jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jeffkhamilton
Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer
After a slew of injuries playing hockey that included breaks to the wrist, arm, and collar bone; a tear of the medial collateral ligament in both knees; as well as a collapsed lung, Jeff figured it was a good idea to take his interest in sports off the ice and in to the classroom.
History
Updated on Friday, November 17, 2017 11:05 PM CST: fixes typo