Mike O’Shea doesn’t like post mortems. Nobody in sports does, because they require asking hard questions about the untimely death of a season.
And in the case of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, their 2017 campaign – for all its promise with a 12-6 record and the first home playoff game in these parts in six years – ended much too early.
O’Shea, the Bombers head coach, met with the media Wednesday morning to provide a wrap on 2017 and in the process, touched on a number of issues and provided some intriguing news in a candid interview that lasted over 17 minutes.
Among the nuggets was the revelation that offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice had signed a contract extension during the season. And his candidness included some frank comments about a defence which forced the second-most turnovers in the Canadian Football League – 42, with Calgary first at 45 – but also surrendered just under 400 yards per game, second worst in the land.
Not surprisingly, that had O’Shea being pressed on Wednesday about the status of defensive coordinator Richie Hall, who does remain under contract for 2018. He indicated he was still doing player exit interviews, and once that process was completed, would then meet with the coaching staff.
But when asked if he thought he needed a change at defensive coordinator, he said:
“I’m not there yet, I’m really not. We do need to change what we’re doing on defence. We can’t expect to do the same thing and get the results we want. Every player on the defence knows that, every player on the team probably understands that, every coach on the defence knows that.
“What does that involve and entail? We’re not even close to figuring that out yet. We have to sit down and watch all the film again and have good discussions about why things happen the way they do.”
Over the last two seasons the Bombers have finished last and second last in yards allowed – 14,487 in total – by far the most in the CFL. It was then asked of O’Shea what more evidence he needed.
“It’s two years of giving up a lot of yards, but it’s also two years of over 100 takeaways (59 in 2016; 42 last year – 11 more than any other team over that span),” he said. “It’s a year where we, by far, led the league in points off of takeaways. Our offence benefits from that, too.
“You can’t hide the fact that we gave up a lot of yards and we have to minimize that in order for us to win a championship, no doubt. Everyone knows that. But there are things that our defence does that are excellent. We have to figure out a way to combine those good things and not give up the yards that we give up.
“I’d have to look back in the stats to find a team that two years in a row took away 100 balls and provided opportunities like we do for our offence. (The defence) scored seven times and had one go to the one-yard line (on a Tristan Okpalaugo interception return). Those things are pretty positive.
“We increased our number of pressures, we did really well in getting pressure on the quarterback. Do we need to be better at it? Absolutely. But the one elephant in the room is the yardage given up. I thought there were also some missed opportunities we had for takeaways that obviously (would have) stopped some yardage and stopped some points. I’ve got to look at what that added up to – how many yards that is, how many points that is if we would have capitalized like we did the year before with an ungodly amount of takeaways.
“Most teams would be pretty happy to be second in the league with 42. I’m not trying to cover up that we gave up a lot of yards, but I’m not throwing it all out.”
“There’s a way to maximize our takeaways and our pressures and minimize the yards we give up. I have to figure out how we do that.”
LaPolice, meanwhile, has been rumoured to be a front-runner for the vacant head coaching job with the Montreal Alouettes over the past few weeks. But O’Shea revealed officially that the Bombers offensive coordinator – who helped orchestrate an attack that finished second in the CFL in scoring – signed an extension during the season.
O’Shea said he hoped that extension also meant that LaPolice would be staying even if a rival CFL team called and asked to speak to him about a vacancy.
“I would like to think he’s here, for sure,” said O’Shea. “That’s what the extension indicated, was that he wanted to be here. Now, do things change as time goes on? Absolutely. But there is a process that has to be followed. There is a tampering issue… rules and regulations that you have to abide by.
“But in conversations, and they were some time ago, with Paul and his signing an extension, to me is a good indicator that he wants to be here and he’s enjoying working with the guys, working with the team and the guys he gets to coach with, and is enjoying having his family in the city and they’re a big part of it.”
Some of the other highlights from Wednesday’s session with the coach:
When asked why a patient fan base should believe this regime is the one to end a long Grey Cup drought:
“That is a difficult question to answer because I truly believe we’ve got to show them. We’ve got to start winning at the end of the year, playoff games, and get there. I’m not trying to sell anybody on that.
“I do believe that when fans come to this park, when they come to Investors Group Field, they see a group of players on the field that are busting their ass to win games and they’re doing it for the right reasons and they’re playing hard for each other. We have a group of guys that understand the community and really respect the fan base.
“I don’t think (fans) are coming to watch a game… they may leave disappointed with the score, but I don’t think they’re leaving disappointed with the effort or the want-to. They work extremely hard and they know why they’re working that hard.
“Everybody wants more than that. Every fan, every player, everybody in this building, everybody in this shop right now wants more than that.”
On the long list of pending free agents and how that list is prioritized:
“(GM) Kyle (Walters) and I will sit down and talk about that in the near future. I know there’s already been a bunch of guys piling into his office saying they want to be back. So that makes his job easier. Now, he’s got to be able to crunch the numbers and the players have to be happy with the numbers. It’s a business. I don’t think you can expect everybody to come back, but there have been a lot of guys who have gone into his office to say they’re excited to come back and let’s get going on this and they want to get it done.
“I think Kyle’s got an idea of how he wants to prioritize it and I’ve had my input on that, too.”
On potential concerns about the scouting staff and their ability to find quality depth, given the drop off after star players were injured later in the season:
“No, I don’t concern myself with that. I like the players we bring in. I like the compete level, I like the way they work during the week to prepare. I like how the guys that might not be playing help the guys that are. These are all good things that lead to winning games, not the game we needed to win.”
