Bob Irving
CFL.ca
In a season filled with weird developments for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, their playoff hopes came to an end with a 27-8 loss to the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday at Canad-Inns stadium, a game that saw the Bombers lose not one, but two of their quarterbacks.
Late in the first quarter with the Bombers leading 2-0 and moving into scoring range, Steven Jyles took off on a scramble, but instead of sliding to the turf, he decided to take on Argonaut linebacker Kevin Eiben. Mistake. Jyles fumbled at the Toronto 44-yard line, but more significantly suffered a shoulder injury that knocked him out of the game and ended his season.
Enter Alex Brink, who had struggled mightily when he started a game two weeks earlier against the B.C. Lions. Brink functioned reasonably well, completing seven of 12 passes for 50 yards, but he suffered a broken collarbone in the third quarter.
Enter Joey Elliott, a 24-year-old graduate of Purdue University who had never thrown a pass in either a CFL pre-season or regular season game.
Elliott completed eight of 16 passes for 75 yards. Not terrible, but the Bombers were saddled with poor field position most of the second half and neither Brink nor Elliott could get them within reasonable scoring range.
I say “reasonable” scoring range because with just a handful of seconds left in the second quarter, Bomber head coach Paul LaPolice made probably the biggest mistake of his rookie head coaching season. LaPolice called on Justin Palardy to try a 51-yard field goal into a cross wind, a decision that mystified most on-lookers and had Argos returner Chad Owens licking his chops.
Predictably the kick came up short, Owens returned it 100 yards for a touchdown to give the Argos a 17-5 halftime lead and suck the life out of the Bombers.
The Bombers had scored an average of 39 points per game in their previous seven home games, but reduced to their No. 2 and then their No. 3 quarterback, they just weren’t able to mount any sort of sustained attack against the Argos.
When you consider that Buck Pierce was the Bombers’ No. 1 quarterback when the season began, they were using their back-up quarterback in Jyles before being forced to move on to No. 3 in Brink and No. 4 in Joey Elliott. Any team that has to go that far down their quarterback depth chart will be challenged.
Really, it has been a season of what can go wrong will go wrong for the Bombers. To play seven games that are decided by four points or less and manage to lose ALL SEVEN is remarkable in itself. Combine that with dropped passes, injuries at the critical quarterback position and questionable strategy decisions and it adds up to a 4-12 record and a second straight year out of the playoffs.
The Bombers will try to salvage some pride and maybe even win another game or two, but it won’t be easy with the unproven and untested Joey Elliott at quarterback.
The good news is that it’s a great opportunity for Elliott to make an impression that can carry over into 2011 as the Bombers try to end a very forgettable 2010 season on a high note.
