Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 16, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE C3 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2013 GAME 4: Host Argos, Friday, 7 p. m. TSN D STILL DOMINANT The Bombers rank first ( five) and second ( six) in 11 of the 25 statistical categories the CFL tracks. TICKET WICKET BUSY Fans continue to line up for tickets even with the team's 1- 2 start - 29,000 tickets have already been sold for Friday's home date with Toronto, the first of back- to- back games at Investors Group Field. Calgary is here on July 26. BOMBER REPORT TODAY'S C 3 THE BOMBER REPORT winnipegfreepress. com T BUS I F you can say anything about a team and a season with 15 games remaining, it is the East Division is a wild- turkey shoot and this defence of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is far too good to be wasted. While there is more than ample time for a team to get streaky and separate itself from the pack, the talent in the East, or lack thereof, appears to be uniform. Anthony Calvillo has found his kryptonite, and its name is Alouettes head coach Dan Hawkins. The Argonauts may be the defending champions, but they are still the .500 regular- season team they were in 2012. The Tiger- Cats have figured out it doesn't matter who your defensive co- ordinator is if your players aren't very good, and the Bombers are back in the offensive doldrums they started the 2012 campaign with. So while it may be a stretch for Bomber fans to be enthralled with their squad's latest performance against a defence with more holes in it than the Zimmerman case, the fact remains the team is tied with everybody else for first place, and all of their divisional rivals have just as many blemishes as they do. So hooray for mediocrity. The silver lining of this playbook, though, is if the Bomber offence can even start pulling some of their own weight, this team has the most potential for success out of all their rivals, because of how good their defence appears to be. If there is one thing in the East Division that jumps off the page at you, and has been consistent over three games, it is this Bomber defence. I challenge you to find another phase, on any football team east of Saskatchewan, that is playing at the level this group is right now. Vulnerable While it is unrealistic to expect them to stay at this pace - the Blue defenders are still on the highway to a hundred sacks - if they hit 75 they will be the stuff of legends. The back end of this group is only vulnerable when they make mental mistakes, and the number of players they get to the football makes them a punishing and effective squad of tacklers. While mere mortals as individuals, when united, defensive co- ordinator Casey Creehan and head coach Tim Burke have wonder- twin powers working under the same roof. Frankly, defences of this calibre don't come around all that often in Winnipeg and to not capitalize on their excellence this season would be a crime. While I'm not the sort who applauds knee- jerking through decision- making time, something needs to be done, and sooner rather than later, to elevate this offence to the approximate levels of their counterparts. Which brings us to the great chicken and egg deliberation: What came first? A bad player, or a bad scheme? In 2012, the offence started slowly and picked up speed. With the rate of progression they displayed, the optimists among us reasoned if only they had had more games, they would have achieved fullthrottle. Though the offence wasn't broken, they chose to fix it in the offseason. It was changed to maximize the effectiveness and safeguard the play of their starting pivot. So is it the play of Buck Pierce that has now regressed, or is it that the reworking of the offence hasn't worked? It is possible the new system is taking as long as the first one to synchronize? If it is, by the time they fire on all cylinders, will it be too late all again? It is one thing to underachieve and have all phases of your football team fail to live up to expectations. Yet when one phase appears to be well positioned for prime time and is of the calibre to redirect the fortunes of your team, they need to be complemented in short order or their efforts will be in vain. Doug Brown, once a hard- hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hardhitting columnist, appears Tuesdays and the days following game days in the Free Press . Twitter: @ DougBrown97 Bomber defence to Bomber offence: ' A little help here?' DOUG BROWN I T was during Tim Burke's session with the media on Monday - one in which he arrived with a sheet of paper outlining the litany of offensive errors plaguing his Winnipeg Blue Bombers - that a secondary problem emerged for the head coach: The mistakes appear to be so widespread Burke doesn't have enough digits to point fingers at all the areas of blame. " There's a lot of ails right now," said Burke. " I know everybody likes to focus on the quarterback, but there's a lot of things going wrong." Some of the problem areas Burke pointed out, without naming all of the culprits: . One of the wide receivers didn't beat man coverage once all night; . One receiver was continually late on his " waggle" ( movement toward the line of scrimmage before the snap); . The offensive line was stuffed twice on runs in the third quarter; . One O- lineman was burned on a certain blitz twice; . Three of the six sacks were the result of poor technique by O- linemen, and; . There were three open receivers not hit by quarterback Buck Pierce. " There's a lot of things there and everybody's got to pick up their game on the offensive side of the ball," said Burke. " It's not just one guy, it's many. " How are we going to get better at it? We're going to start by practising better on offence. Everybody's got to take responsibility for their actions. You can't point the finger at one guy or the co- ordinator or whatever and say it's this person's fault, because it's many people's faults. " When we do get it corrected, we'll be a pretty good offence." That's a tough sell right now, based on recent - and not- so recent - evidence. The Bombers are last in passing TDs ( six), have surrendered the most sacks ( 14), fumbled more than anyone, are sixth in scoring, sixth in yardage... and so on. What was particularly disturbing is in the second half of the loss to Hamilton on Saturday, the Bombers had just 48 net yards offence, and of the eight second- half possessions, seven resulted in punts, five resulted in negative yardage and there were three sacks against. The lone bright spot was the second rushing TD by Chad Simpson. That's ugly with a capital ugh. Asked which area would be the first he'd like to have fixed, Burke pointed to the fact there were no offensive turnovers in the game ( the one interception came on a fake punt by Mike Renaud). " What's the next thing?" said Burke. " Well, I'd rather not have our quarterback get sacked so many times." As deep- rooted as the offensive problems are, Burke was quick to cut off any discussion about a possible quarterback change from Pierce to either Justin Goltz or Max Hall. " It's not all the quarterback's fault that we're not producing," said Burke. " If a receiver is supposed to be in a certain spot in his read and he's not there, now ( the quarterback's) got to switch gears and go to the other side of the field. Obviously if an offensive lineman misses his block and he's got no time to throw, that's not his fault either. Now, can Buck get better at what he's doing? Of course he can." Burke said there will be at least one roster move, possibly two, for the offence as the Bombers prepare for Friday's game with Toronto. And that might just be the start of it. " After awhile if you don't do your job, you've got to sit down," he said. "( The offensive problems) all fixable, that's the thing. So, we've got to get it done." Ed. tait@ freepress. mb. ca Twitter: @ WFPEdTait It's time to get it done Offence at point of produce or be replaced By Ed Tait THE bad news keeps piling up for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers: linebacker Terrell Parker, one of the shining stars early in the 2013 season, has been lost for the year with torn knee ligaments. Parker, who leads the Bombers in tackles with 18 - tied for fourth- most in the Canadian Football League - was injured in Saturday's loss to Hamilton, as was nickelback Desia Dunn, who will be out for at least two weeks with a bad hamstring. Parker will be replaced by rookie Ian Wild; Dunn by veteran Johnny Sears Jr. " Any time you lose a starter it's not good," Bombers head coach Tim Burke said Monday. " I really think Terrell probably had his best game on Saturday. He really flew around, made plays and was very assignment sharp and contributed well on special teams. " Ian Wild will take his place and we feel like Ian's going to be a good player. He's a rookie so he's got to get over rookie mistakes and all that kind of stuff. We know he'll probably have a couple, but Ian's definitely a capable player. One thing he'll bring to the table is he's going to play with tremendous effort. He'll be around the ball all night, I guarantee that." Burke said GM Joe Mack would likely bring in another linebacker or two because that position was already described as thin at the beginning of the year. " Now we're thinner," he said. Further to the injury report: defensive tackle Bryan Turner ( chest) remains doubtful for Friday's home date with the Toronto Argonauts, as is J. T. Gilmore ( calf). Slotback Terrence Edwards ( shoulder) will start practising again today but it's unlikely he'll get the green light for the Argo game. Burke said starters Chris Matthews, Anthony Woodson, Alex Suber, Alex Hall and Glenn January will all skip practice today because of an assortment of hurts, but will be available Friday. PENALTY PARADE: The Bombers were nailed for 19 penalties totalling 161 yards in the loss to Hamilton, just two shy of the club record ( 21, set Aug. 15, 1990 against Hamilton). What had Burke most frustrated is this: of those 161 yards, 130 of them came on special teams. " Those are the things that kill ya," said Burke. " We'll get those corrected. We've been really good about penalties until this game." - Ed Tait Parker lost for season SOME of the areas of concern for the Bombers offence, other than the specifics mentioned by head coach Tim Burke on Monday: . The Bombers can't seem to move the ball when it matters most. In the season- opening loss to Montreal, Winnipeg was outscored 14- zip in the fourth quarter and last Saturday managed only 48 yards in the second half against Hamilton. . The Bombers have surrendered 14 sacks in three games, highest in the CFL, despite redesigning the offence to protect the pivot. . Since the start of the 2011 season, a stretch of 41 games, a Bomber QB has thrown for over 300 yards just six times - twice by Joey Elliott ( 406 and 335), twice by Pierce ( 363 and 312) and twice by Alex Brink ( 326 and 311). Just by comparison, Anthony Calvillo had 11 300- yard passing games last season alone and Ricky Ray did it eight times in his 14 starts a year ago. . Pierce's QB efficiency rating of 71.7 ranks seventh among the nine quarterbacks who have started games this year. Oh woe is the O AARON LYNETT / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Buck Pierce runs for his life against the Hamilton Tiger- Cats Saturday. C_ 03_ Jul- 16- 13_ FP_ 01. indd C3 7/ 15/ 13 9: 12: 45 PM ;