Upon Further Review: OTT 44 | WPG 21

It was the kind of performance that certainly opened some old wounds and, perhaps, exposed a few new ones.

It wasn’t just that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had their three-game win streak derailed in a 44-21 loss to the Ottawa REDBLACKS Friday night at Investors Group Field – that score alone speaks for itself – it was all the disturbing layers that were part of the club’s fourth loss in nine games.

There was an offence that turned the ball over three times, surrendered four sacks and, in what was billed as a battle between two high-powered offences, occasionally sputtered while the REDBLACKS attack purred from start to finish.

There was a defence that had been establishing itself as a legit unit, but instead was both undisciplined at the worst times and gutted and fileted by Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris.

And then there was the emotional outburst by quarterback Matt Nichols afterward, as he reacted to hearing boo birds in the fourth quarter when he returned to the game after taking a shot on his elbow.

So… that’s a heckuva lot to unwrap as the Bombers hit the halfway mark of 2018 at 5-4, following a game in which so much of the good that had been built in a 4-1 run seemed to crumble away in 60 minutes.

“It’s tough to explain, especially losing at home,” said receiver Darvin Adams, who pulled in eight passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns. “Those guys (Ottawa) came out and played great football, but we took a lot of penalties and they capitalized on it. They just played better than us.

“But nobody in here is panicking, that’s the best thing about it. There’s still a lot of season left. We’ve got to watch the film, learn from it, and quickly rebound.”

“We didn’t show up, we didn’t play good football,” added running back Andrew Harris. “Offensively we couldn’t sustain drives and they were chewing that clock up and sustaining drives. We’ve got to be better.”

More on the Bombers loss Friday night in our weekly post-game collection of notes and quotes we call UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

THE POST-GAME RESPONSE BY NICHOLS… will continue to be a huge part of the narrative in the following days. Just to rewind, here’s what Nichols said – quoted in our game recap:

“I usually wouldn’t ever say something like this and I probably even shouldn’t, but I’m going to…” Nichols said. “The saddest thing tonight for me was I feel like I give my heart to this city and this team. It’s pretty frustrating, I put everything into trying to perform for my teammates and these fans. It was pretty sad for me… I took some shots tonight and took a big one on my elbow and had to come out for a couple of plays, shook that one off and came back out and got booed by the whole stadium when I was coming back out there.

“That one was pretty hard for me tonight.”

A number of fans reached out on social fans after the game to insist the booing wasn’t aimed at Nichols, but for the circumstances under which he returned, namely:

• Chris Streveler was 4-of-5 for 36 yards on the drive and had moved the Bombers to the Ottawa 23-yard line
• The score was 44-21 for Ottawa at the time and there was just 4:15 left in the game
• The Bombers had already lost all-star right tackle Jermarcus Hadrick on the drive to injury, replacing him with Michael Couture

Asked after the game if he had contemplated leaving Streveler in the game to finish after the Nichols injury, Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said:

“No (the injury) was nothing major. Matt gives us the best chance to win, every game.”

EVEN GIVEN A BROADER CONTEXT OF THE BOOS… the Bombers were, not surprisingly, quick to sprint to the defence of Nichols. And if you are around this team at all on a regular basis, that is not the least bit surprising.

A sampling:

• Centre Matthias Goossen: “I’ve said before, if people even knew half of what Matt does for us… they don’t see him coming in at five o’clock in the morning, learning, teaching, being there for all of us. A lot of this isn’t on him, either. There were 44 guys dressed tonight. He’s a great player, great teammate. He’s a brother to us. A loss has never, ever been just on Matt.”
• Receiver Darvin Adams: “It’s crazy, because Matt has come in and done some unbelievable things, not only for this community, but for this team. It’s hard to explain to fans when they can’t see what’s really going on… they only see what’s going on out on the field. What we know inside here is we have total faith in Matt. Nothing’s changed. I can understand his emotional reaction, but he should know we know what we have with him.”
• Defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat: “Of course they shouldn’t boo our quarterback. If they’re here at our game, for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, they should be cheering us on. They shouldn’t boo any of our players. It doesn’t make sense to me that you would.  But, hey, they’re people, they can do what they want.”

And, asked if he was surprised how quickly the fans can turn on a quarterback – the Bombers are 4-2 in games Nichols has started this year and 25-11 since he replaced Drew Willy – Andrew Harris added:

“Shoot, that’s the way it is, man. Our fans are great. We love our fans, they expect winning football and that’s what they deserve. But Matt also deserves a lot of respect, a lot of credit and tonight, for whatever reason, he didn’t get that. But the whole offence deserved to be booed today, myself included.”

ONE MORE ON THIS TOPIC… courtesy Bombers legend Milt Stegall, who weighed in the subject during halftime of TSN’s telecast of the Toronto-B.C. game on Saturday afternoon.

“I played in Winnipeg for 14 years. I played with maybe 16 quarterbacks and some of them deserved to be booed… let’s put it like that,” he said. “But I also played with two of the greatest quarterbacks in Blue Bomber history in Kevin Glenn and Khari Jones. These are two quarterbacks that won playoff games and led us to Grey Cups… and these guys got booed. So, you have to understand – it’s going to happen. But I also want to tell Matt Nichols it’s not personal.”

Asked by host Rod Smith if Nichols had a point, Stegall added:

“That’s Winnipeg for you. They still love Matt Nichols. But you’re still going to get booed. Kevin Glenn got booed. Khari Jones got booed… Playing in Winnipeg… it’s a great place, but it’s a tough place.”

ONE OF THE MANY PROBLEMS FOR THE BOMBERS… Friday night were all the penalties they took and how poorly timed they were. Winnipeg was nailed for 11 penalties for 80 yards, but some of them were critical. By our count, Ottawa was able to come up with 25 points after the Bombers took penalties on second downs that managed to keep drives alive.
“We had a lot of opportunities on second and long and just undisciplined penalties by us – six or seven off-the-field killers as we call those – when we could have been off the field, but a penalty held us on there,” said cornerback Chris Randle. “They capitalized on those opportunities, they scored when we made mishaps and that’s how the game went for us.”

“As a team, we were the least penalized team but, as a defence, early on in the season we struggled with penalties,” added Adam Bighill. “We kinda moved past that but it crept back in tonight. It’s just one of those things where it’s discipline, it’s technique. It’s those things we’ve got to clean up. When it’s second down everyone is counting on us – we’ve got to make the plays and we can’t take penalties.”

Added Goossen:

“I’m just angry. All of us across the board think we could have done better. There were all the penalties… you can’t expect to win against a good team like Ottawa when you have penalties like that. They’re a good team and they had a great gameplan against us, but we can’t expect to win when we beat ourselves.”

AND, FINALLY… so, now what? The Bombers head into Calgary this weekend and have seven of their final nine games against West Division rivals.

Can the Nichols reaction galvanize this squad? Can this veteran squad regroup and reload to rediscover their mojo? Or can a game like this take a team in the opposite, and far worse, direction?

Know this, though: when these guys get back to work this week they will be in an ornery mood. There is no other short-term solution than rolling up their collective sleeves and getting back at it.

“We have the 24-hour rule,” said Jeffcoat. “It’s on to the next game. We’ve got to let it go. You can’t let a loss beat you twice.”