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October 22, 2017

Upon Further Review | WPG 28, TOR 29

Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray (15) is sacked by Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox (45) and fumbles the ball during first half CFL football action in Toronto on Saturday, October 21, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

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The alarm bells aren’t clanging by any means, and it should also be noted, there are no signs of panic in the locker room of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

But Saturday’s 29-28 loss to the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field in the Big Smoke – the club’s second in their last three games and one which both ended the longshot chase for first place in the West Division and has delayed clinching a home playoff date – did leave everyone involved in a surly mood afterward.

Too many mistakes in all three phases. Sloppy attention to detail. An offence that is sputtering, a defence that gave up 556 net yards, and a money kicker in a slump.

Add all that up and it should be an interesting week in Bomberland leading up to Saturday’s home date against the B.C. Lions.

“It comes down to the details and the execution,” said Andrew Harris. “I know we’ve got the guys in the locker room to win games. But we didn’t play physical enough and we didn’t execute the details well enough.

“Myself, there were definitely some plays out there that I left. Everyone had their moments, across the board, like that. When you’re playing these kinds of games and with a playoff atmosphere, you just can’t let that happen.”

As we pointed out in the game story from Toronto, the easy thing to do is point at Justin Medlock’s missed 39-yard field goal on the last play of the game as the critical moment.

That’s not wrong, but even if he had made that kick, some of the disconcerting trends from the last few week’s might have been glossed over in a potential victory.

The Bombers still have control of landing their coveted home playoff date simply by winning Saturday, but there are some bigger picture concerns everyone understands must be fixed if the squad is to move deeper into November.

Quarterback Matt Nichols, for example, spoke of his disappointment with the offence post-game and here’s why: the Argos held the ball for almost 16 minutes and ran 26 more plays more than the Bombers.

“Offensively, there’s probably a dozen plays we’d like to have back,” Harris said. “We’ve got to be able to execute that last play before the field goal (a one-yard loss on a run by Harris in which the offence looked unready at the snap)… I mean, we almost messed that up and fumbled it. We can’t be doing that kind of stuff.

“We really just need to buckle down and realize what it’s going to take to win football games. We have to understand we can’t just get by thinking we’ll beat everyone with our talent. The attention to detail is what wins you big games and championships.

“We didn’t execute the details and we lost. That’s the long and short of it.”

More on the Bombers 29-28 loss to the Argos – a result which dropped them to 11-5 on the season – in our weekly post-game collection of notes and quotes we call UPON FURTHER REVIEW


IF YOU SAW JUSTIN MEDLOCK’S INTERVIEW… after the game his face was the picture of frustration-meets-disbelief. Just a few weeks ago, after all, Medlock was the CFL’s most accurate kicker of all time, just slightly ahead of Calgary’s Rene Paredes.

But a recent run going seven of 13 – including going 2-of-4 in Saturday’s loss – has dropped his 2017 percentage to 76.7, the lowest in any of his full seasons in the CFL (he did go 7-of-10 in 2010 after a stint in the NFL).

Medlock owned up to the misses on Saturday, but also said he was ‘shocked’ he had missed on the potential game winner. Just FYI: the distances of his last six misses were: 40, 32, 54, 52, 40 and 39. During that stretch he also missed a 32-yard convert.

His teammates, not surprisingly, don’t seem at all concerned. They see his attention to detail during the week as he is easily the most meticulous and best-prepared kicker most have ever come across.

“I’m not worried about him,” said Weston Dressler. “He works so hard at what he does, I know when it comes down to crunch time he’s going to make that kick for us more times than not.”

“The last kick of the game with no time on the clock is something that everybody focusses on,” added Mike O’Shea. “But they don’t see the penalties that keep drives alive. They don’t see missed tackles. They don’t see dropped balls… those kinds of things. We do. We see all of that. We’ll never put it on the last kick.”

THE BOMBERS DEFENCE IS IN THE CROSSHAIRS AGAIN… after giving up 556 yards on 73 Argo offensive plays – both season highs, as Toronto controlled the ball for 37 minutes and 55 seconds.

“They took what was given… every single time they hit us in the right spots,” said Chris Randle of the Argos offence. “Yards after the catch was a huge thing for them. I think we could have done a better job of gang tackling. It wasn’t a matter of him throwing passes over 20 yards… they were all 10 yards or lower and making plays.

“Hey, we just got to go back to the drawing board and get better at it.”

Randle’s point on yards after the catch by the Argos is particularly telling. James Wilder Jr., Toronto’s dynamic running back, finished the day with seven catches for 85 yards – a whopping 80 of them YAC yards. He was far from alone in cranking up huge YAC totals: DeVier Posey had 128 yards, 53 of them YAC; Jimmy Ralph had 82 yards, 43 of them YAC, while Declan Cross finished with 41 receiving yards, 24 after the catch.

“It’s in your preparation, that’s how you gain (the attention to detail),” added Randle. “I don’t think we have to scrap the whole playbook or what we’ve done to this point. We’re still 11-5 and we have a lot to build on from this game and that’s our character… consecutive losses is not what we’re into. We’ve got to watch this film, be critical of ourselves and come back ready to win next week.”

THERE WERE MOMENTS OF DEFENSIVE BRILLIANCE… for the Bombers on Saturday, despite the huge Argos totals. Ricky Ray was brilliant in completing 32 of 43 for 423 yards while Wilder, Jr. had 197 yards on 25 touches – a massive 7.9 yards per touch.

But there were also stretches, particularly when the defence was bringing pressure, when Ray was under siege – just not enough of them. One of those occasions was Tristan Okpalaugo’s 98-yard interception return that went from the Bombers 11-yard line to the Argos one and led to a Dan LeFevour one-yard TD run.

“It was just one of those things where I saw the ball, I got the ball… took off,” said Okpalaugo.

Asked if he had ever run that far with the ball under his arm, Okpalaugo added: “I used to play tight end in high school, but that was the first time running. That was a long series. I tried to make it, but I got a little tired, I guess. Credit Wilder for catching me on the one, which is sad. I was surprised. I thought I was in there. I didn’t want to look at the jumbotron (while running to the end zone) because I knew I’d slack off if I didn’t see anybody. I peeked and thought I was free… I don’t know where he came from, he just jumped on my back.”

AND FINALLY, OKPALAUGO CREDITED THE WORK OF… Wilder Jr., calling him the best running back they have faced, and tipped his hat to the Argos “they just came and punched us in the mouth, basically.”

But he was also critical of the overall defensive effort – a sentiment shared by players in all three phases.

“We didn’t play our best defensive game,” he said. “We struggled in a lot of ways. We’ll watch the film and fix the things… all the things that happened are correctable.

“I have faith in this team to come back and be better next week.”