Joe Mack is in the eye of the hurricane this week. And with the football team he has built coming off one of their toughest losses in recent memory, the Vice President and General Manager of Football Operations for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is fair game.
But, from my perch in the broadcast booth at Mosaic stadium in Regina on Sunday, I could find little blame to pin on Mack, as the Bombers were on the receiving end of a humiliating 52-0 loss at the hands of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
| Edwards puts onus on players |
|---|
 “This is all on the players. The players got to look at themselves in the mirror. Everyone, myself, every player has got to take responsibility for this.”
– Blue Bombers receiver Terrence Edwards |
Yes, the same Saskatchewan Roughriders, who had performed only marginally better heading into the contest, and who had lost five games in a row heading into the Labour Day weekend tilt.
Sunday’s slaughter rests squarely on the shoulders of the Blue Bomber players.
There was no advance warning that this kind of outing was in the works. The Blue Bombers had suffered a hard-fought last-second defeat at the hands of the defending Grey Cup Champion BC Lions the week before.
And the week before that, they had beaten the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 32-25 with Joey Elliott passing for over 400 yards. The Bombers appeared to be on the right track.
They had been up-beat and positive leading up to the annual Labour Day weekend visit to Saskatchewan, appearing to accept the Tim Burke for Paul LaPolice coaching change with nothing more than a shrug.
There was no foreshadowing of the meltdown that occurred on a gorgeous sunny, warm and windy Sunday afternoon in Regina.
Veteran slotback Terrence Edwards didn’t pass the buck, as he took the onus for the loss on behalf of his teammates.
“This is all on the players. The players got to look at themselves in the mirror. Everyone, myself, every player has got to take responsibility for this.”
Truer words could not have been spoken.
The Blue Bombers are not plagued by a dearth of talent—there is talent on this team.
Perhaps, there isn’t enough to be considered a legitimate Grey Cup contender, but certainly enough to be highly competitive. Is it possible that some of the talent has become too comfortable, developed a sense that they can’t be replaced? 
That’s a theory that is worthy of investigation in light of Sunday’s woeful display. But it’s also a theory that is trumped by the way the team played in four of their previous five games, winning two of those and coming close to winning two others.
Maybe what happened to the Bombers in Regina Sunday was just one of those things. A game where all the elements conspire against you, where what can go wrong will go wrong, and when the ball starts rolling, there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Maybe.
That’s obviously what Burke and Mack are hoping; that the humiliation at Mosaic Field was an aberration.
This we know for certain. If the Bomber players have pride, and one has to assume they do because professional athletes don’t get to this level without having pride in their performance, they will respond to having their noses rubbed in it by the Riders, with a furious, purposeful, revenge-driven performance when the teams play the rematch Sunday at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg.
Mack’s work in building the Winnipeg franchise since he took over in 2010 is deserving of scrutiny. But my eyes won’t be focused on him when the Bombers and Riders meet in the Banjo Bowl on Sunday – it will be on the players wearing Blue and Gold uniforms.
I’m very anxious to see what they are made of.
