Bob Irving
CFL.ca
Well, they’ve done it.
The Winnipeg Blue bombers 22-19 loss in Montreal Sunday enabled them to tie a CFL record, but it’s a record that no team would want, even though it’s not without its positive connotations.
With three games still to go, the Bombers, at 4-11, have lost seven games by four points or fewer. That ties the record for four-point futility shared by the 1993 Ottawa Rough Riders and the 1996 B.C. Lions.
Optimists would argue that it’s a good sign. Any team that is so competitive must surely be close to a breakthrough.
On the other hand, when you have played seven four-point games, and lost them all, it’s quite evident something is missing. And, when you are 4-11, something must surely be missing.
Still, it is one of the great anomalies in CFL history. You have a 4-11 team that has actually scored more points than it has given up. Good luck in finding any other team in pro football history that can make that claim. The 2010 Toronto Argonauts, who have given up 103 MORE points than they have scored, are 7-8. Something doesn’t compute, right?
All of these contradictory statistics provide little in the way of solace or comfort for suffering Blue Bomber fans, and even less for the club’s management and players. When the 2010 CFL season began with a new management team of GM Joe Mack and head coach Paul Lapolice in place, the Bombers were confident they would be, at the very least, a playoff contender.
They expected some hiccups during the transition but were confident they had a team that was good enough to be around the .500 mark. The 4-11 record, in itself, has made this season an unmitigated disaster. But, thanks to the relative incompetence of the B.C. Lions and Edmonton Eskimos, the Blue bombers still have a chance to sneak into the playoff under the cross-over format.
And if Sundays latest heart-breaking setback proved nothing else, it’s that the Bombers, should they somehow find a way to get to the post-season, are likely to give their opponent everything they can handle. They have done that all season, unfortunately with precious little to show for it on the bottom line.
The Bombers finish the season at home against the Argos on Saturday, in Edmonton the following Saturday, and then back home against Calgary on Friday, November 5th.
They will have to win all three and then hope that B.C. and Edmonton both lose two of their last three games to qualify for the Grey Cup Derby.
