Bisons Botch Opener

It was all the things a coach might expect and curse at the same time about a season opener; it was sloppy and mistake-filled. It was pockmarked by penalties.

And, in what hurts most for Brian Dobie and his University of Manitoba Bisons, their 23-14 loss to the University of Calgary Dinos at Investors Group Field Thursday night counts in the standings.

“That was an awful CIS game,” said Dobie afterward. “But they were definitely the better team and they got it done and they didn’t make mistakes when they needed to finish things off in the red zone and score. We didn’t.

“We didn’t lose the game because they pushed us all over the field or because they were so much faster than us or physical than us. They earned the win, no question. But we also threw a lot of opportunities away.”

The Bisons and Dinos hardly wrapped themselves in glory in a snoozer of a first half, with the visitors taking a 5-4 lead to the dressing room at the intermission.

But where the Bisons continually made mistakes into the final 30 minutes – including a whopping 18 penalties for 193 yards – the Dinos cleaned up their act just enough to finish in the second half.

Calgary got TDs from quarterback Jimmy Underdahl on a one-yard sneak and an Austen Hartley seven-yard pass reception. Underdahl finished the night 21 of 34 for 242 yards with the one TD strike, while Hartley led all receivers with 14 catches for 145 yards.

Bison QB Theo Deezar, meanwhile, finished 23 of 39 for 278 yards and a TD pass to Jesse Walker, but was also intercepted three times.

Afterward, Dobie thought it might have been Deezar’s worst game as a Bison starter.

“Worst day as a Bison starter? I disagree,” said a candid and honest Deezar. “The playoff game (last year’s 52-10 loss to UBC) was the worst game. That one still hurts.

“This one I think we can take a lot more positives from. Offensively, yeah, it sucked. No one wants to be losing, no one wants to be having a bad game. It seemed like every guy on offence picked one or two plays to lose focus. It adds up. I didn’t play well, but I don’t think we should hang our heads down.

“This being the first game of the season, we have a long season ahead of us. If we quit now we’re not going to have a good end. But if we can learn from every single mistake I think we have a phenomenal football team that has a lot of heart.”

Bisons linebacker DJ Lalama led all defenders with 11 tackles. But, like so many other teammates, he was bemoaning the plays he left on the field.

“I thought it was pretty sloppy from start to finish,” said Lalama. “We shot ourselves in the foot, whether it was penalties, whether it was plays to be made that we didn’t make… we left a lot of plays on the field there. Now we know the feeling. A lot of guys in there were new and now they have that feeling. Hopefully it doesn’t come back.

“Personally, I should have had two sacks and I didn’t. Straight up. I took the wrong angle and I should have had two sacks to kill a drive and I didn’t and they scored a touchdown on one of them. Those are the things we need to correct.”

The Bisons now travel to Regina to face the Rams on September 8 and are home again at Investors Group Field against Alberta on September 16.

“What am I going to do, go in and scream at them? No. It’s game one,” said Dobie. “We had a great start in B.C. last weekend and it showed us a lot of things that we are capable of… and then we come in with the league opener and our play dropped. It really did. But it’s still game one.

“We’ve got a lot of fixin’ to do, but I know what kind of kids we have in the dressing room. They’ll do the work and we’ll be better.”