Upon Further Review: WPG 17 | BC 20

It was both thrilling and torturous, jaw-dropping and stomach-churning. And, ultimately, it was a night the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will remember for all the wrong reasons.

The Bombers added to their latest series of epic meltdowns on the West Coast Saturday night in Vancouver, building a 17-0 lead at the intermission with a dominant first half… only to come completely unglued in the final half in a 20-17 loss to the B.C. Lions that could leave both physical and emotional scars.

That was never more evident than in the Bombers clubhouse after the game, where players all took turns doing the mea-culpa thing when immediately dissecting the team’s third loss in five games, and second by a last-second field goal.

While there was the standard tip of the hat for the work the Lions did in getting up off the mat after a horrible first half, there was far more self-examination already underway as the players peeled off their gear in a quiet Bombers locker room.

Understandable, because the cause of death on this game reveals a number of wounds, all self-inflicted.

• There were the nine penalties for 86 yards, five of those infractions totalling 55 yards all coming in the final 20 minutes.
• There were the two mangled third-and-short opportunities that cost the Bombers and took a minimum of six points off the field in a game decided by a field goal.
• There were the three interceptions tossed by Matt Nichols and the three-four drops by the receiving corps.
• There was the inability to protect a 17-10 lead in the final three minutes, as the Lions racked up 100 yards offence and rallied with a TD and a last-play field goal.

And so on, and so on, and so on….

“The self-inflicted losses… those hurt way more than the man across from you beating you,” said veteran cornerback Chris Randle. “It’s stuff we can control and in order to get where we want to get to, we’ve got to get better at it. Our goal is the same. Our mission is the same. Now we get ready for Toronto.”

But, while a veteran like Randle might lean on his experience to flush that loss, the blank stares on others in the room also spoke volumes.

“There’s frustration… it’s just a tough way to lose a game,” said receiver Weston Dressler. “We’ve got to sit down and watch it and figure it out. I felt offensively we still missed some opportunities in the first half to really extend that lead and push it even further away. Last week we had that killer instinct and were able to pull away. This week we weren’t able to do that.

“It’s just,” added Dressler, his voice trailing off for a moment, “… it’s just so frustrating.”

That was the common sentiment afterward, along with a frank assessment from Nichols, who summed up the Bombers night in our game recap with this:

“I felt like we played hard. We just played dumb.”

More on the Bombers collapse in B.C. in our weekly collection of post-game notes and quotes we call UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

BRACE YOURSELF, BOMBER FANS… for we are about to open an old wound or two. B.C. Place has become a bit of a house of horrors for the Bombers.

Consider the last few trips to the West coast:

– July 21, 2017: Bombers lose 45-42 in a game in which they took a 42-27 lead into the fourth quarter

– November 13, 2016; West Division Semi-Final: The Bombers blow 25-6 and 31-19 leads before ultimately falling 32-31.

And now add Saturday’s loss to that list.

“As an offensive line, as an offence, we didn’t do enough to win the game,” said Bombers centre Matthias Goossen. “We had chances and we just couldn’t capitalize on them. That’s something we have to go back and examine. Like any game and a loss you have to go back and examine the things you can do better. Angry… frustrated, of course I’m feeling those things. But it’s a long season and we have to realize we are a good team without pointing fingers. Everybody out there had some things they could have done better, me included.

“Losses are never good. It’s like anything in life… you have to be able to adjust and learn from it because that’s what losses are – they’re lessons and you have learn how to handle things and handle momentum swings.”

THE BOMBERS GOT IN THEIR OWN WAY… a few times Saturday night, but one of the players who could have left the building without have to do the cliché ‘look-in-the-mirror’ thing, was running back Andrew Harris, who rushed for 139 yards and two touchdowns on just 13 carries – a gaudy 10.7-yard average – while also pulling in four passes for 29 yards. That’s 168 yards of offence and a 9.9-yard average per touch.

There’s more, of those 17 touches, eight were either for first downs or touchdowns.

Yet, after running for two yards to push the ball to the Lions seven-yard line – setting up a third-and-one in which Chris Streveler was tackled for a three-yard loss by Odell Willis – at the 9:28 mark, Harris didn’t touch the ball again in the Bombers final two possessions, one of them a two-and-out that featured two incomplete passes and the final drive that saw Nichols intercepted by Anthony Orange.

ONE OF THE MORE DISCONSOLATE BOMBERS… after the game was slotback Nic Demski. The University of Manitoba product was authoring a solid game – he had four carries for 35 yards and another six carries for 32 yards – but the ending will stick with him.

Demski was Nichols’ intended target on the final drive on what would have been a conversion of a second and 18. Nichols was flushed left, but delivered a strike that glanced off Demski and was tipped before being gobbled up by Orange. It would have been a tough catch in traffic, but instead was the final and decisive turnover on a night the Bombers committed five of them.

“That last play was a mental error on my part,” said Demski. “I can’t really look at the positive when that big negative is sitting in my head right now.

“I was open, I thought I was more open and didn’t really think anybody was around me. I just got hit as the ball was coming in… it popped out. It was just a mental error on my part.”

So, he was asked, what was he feeling the most – anger? Frustration? Disappointment?

“I’m all of the above, man,” he said. “I’m flustered. I just wish there was a better ending for the team and for me, personally.”

INTERESTINGLY, WITH THE BOMBERS LEADING… 17-0 in the third quarter and the Lions beginning a drive on their own 12-yard line with 5:46 left, a member of the CFL stats crew informed yours truly that the Lions hadn’t been shut out through three quarters at home since 1976. But an iffy horse-collar tackle call on Jackson Jeffcoat – he claimed he grabbed the upper middle of Chris Rainey’s jersey and not the collar – and four consecutive completions by Travis Lulay after that helped set up a short TD plunge that put the Lions on the board.

And we know how the rest of the game unfolded.

“As a defence if they don’t score, they don’t win,” said Randle. “That’s what is disheartening for the D – we didn’t make the plays to win the game.

“That was our message even when we left the half: finish, let’s finish. We recognize our third quarters have been inconsistent (out-scored 31-16), so we wanted to come out with a punch, come out firing. That was our intention, but it comes down to finishing.”

“I’m upset about it,” added Moe Leggett. “It’s the life of the game, but we’ve just got to do better.

“We weren’t as good in the second half as we were in the first, plain and simple. Definitely, I have to take control, make a couple more plays and stand out and do what I’ve been doing.

“Penalties or no penalties we have to make stops and find ways to do that. We just didn’t.”

AND, FINALLY… the game marked the first return to B.C. Place for Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill, who finished with seven tackles, including one for a loss. So, the night was all over the map emotionally for the former Lion, who saw a lot of familiar faces… and also witnessed his squad fall apart in the second half.

That mix of sentiments had Bighill philosophizing more than spitting angry when he met the media after the game.

“It’s the CFL, man,” he said. “It’s what makes it such a fun game when it comes down to the wire in situations like this. Obviously, we’ve got to be better.

“It was fun to come back here and play. There were tons of fans cheering me on and it was good to see some signs in the stands. It was a great environment to come out and play. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on the right side.

“You get them in second-and-long positions and we give away field position and first downs on penalties. You can only hurt yourself so much before you start to bleed too much. I felt like those really, really hurt us tonight.”