Mike O'Shea from his end-of-season media availability on Friday -- photos by Cameron Bartlett
Mike O’Shea stood at the podium, the bright lights shining directly into his eyes like he was being interrogated and answered every question for the better part of 30 minutes.
And as painful as that might have been for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach, it likely pales in comparison to the hurt he and his coaching staff, along with every player and person in the football operations department will feel over the next few weeks, months and possibly years.
“All of us, as a team, we didn’t do our best in the Grey Cup,” O’Shea said at one point while fielding questions. “But I don’t think that should lead to all the questioning going on to a group that went 0-4, 2-6, 10-1 run to get to their fifth straight Grey Cup. These are the same guys. This is the same group.
“I think you guys (media) are, everybody, even the team for a moment in its rawness of a loss, is searching for answers. We’re the same group. We’re the same group that got there, that went on a phenomenal run after a bad start, and a bad start for a lot of reasons that we overcame. I just, I don’t question any of it. I look for answers, too.
“I watch the film over and over and over again. And look to already make notes on how we’re going to be better, how we’re going to get back there again. For the first time.”
“…As I said, as an entire team, we didn’t have our best game,” he said later in his session. “We didn’t lack effort. We didn’t lack desire. We didn’t have our best game as an entire team. Three phases: coaches— everybody. Me especially.”
Here are the main takeaways from O’Shea’s press conference, which can be viewed in its entirety here:
On why running back Brady Oliveira and the offensive line weren’t leaned on more, especially after Zach Collaros suffered his finger injury in the fourth quarter (note: he had 11 carries for 84 yards and two catches for 18 yards):
“I think you’re suggesting that it wasn’t called enough. But we called about 17-18 runs. One starts off with a procedure penalty in the first and then six of those get pulled because there’s X number of guys in the box or the read says this is not a run play anymore, this is now a pass play. You call that many runs and then a pile of them get pulled because of the structure of the defence. That’s OK with me at that point. You have to make a decision and live with it and everybody has plays designed to have options on them and you try to put the defence in the worst possible spot depending on how they show up.”
Later, a follow-up question about the team’s reliance on using the running game to seal victories in the past and that success:
“Yeah, we hadn’t really had success against Toronto like that. So, we had a very good game plan. By my count, we only had six plays in the third quarter. We need to stay on the field, we need to convert. We had some passes that they defended extremely well. Some of those passes, the week before we caught. And no matter how hard the defence hit us, whatever, we ended up hanging on. This time they got their hands on a ball, knocked it, took the guy to the ground, knocked the ball out late. I’m sure, Zach said it, too, we need more plays. We need to stay on the field. We didn’t convert well in second-and-long. That would have given us more plays, especially in that quarter. A lot of plays in the fourth quarter are generated at the end. We had 20-something plays in the fourth, and that was hurry-up offence and down a bunch already.”
The Blue Bombers trailed 17-13 in the fourth quarter when Terry Wilson entered the game in relief of Zach Collaros for one series and the team settled for a field goal after a Willie Jefferson interception. The Argos then scored on an ensuing drive to go up 24-16. On why they didn’t lean more on Oliveira at that point in the game…
“You put Terry in, and (the Argos) rode the box, they had 10 guys in the box. The play gets changed because of the structure of the defence. If I was the defensive coach, as soon as you put a backup quarterback in, we’re loading the box because we’re going to hand it to Brady. We had Kenny (Lawler) in the end zone and just missed him. Then we got Keric (Wheatfall) open in the end zone, and it doesn’t work out, either.
On leaving Zach Collaros in the game when the index finger on his throwing hand was giving him difficulty in throwing and with the quarterback admitting on Tuesday he had his own internal debate about staying in to try to help vs. coming out of the game… would you still send him back out there in hindsight?
“Yeah, absolutely. When you ask me that, that’s not even something I really thought about. First of all, that internal debate is what makes Zach a great teammate and a great leader because he’s always trying to put the team first. The second part of that is, he’s the best and then watching him throw I thought, ‘Yeah, this is something he’s going to be able to work with.’ And then, thirdly, he absolutely deserves every opportunity to lead this team. From what I saw and from chatting with him very briefly I felt really comfortable with that. I didn’t think it was going to be easy, but I thought it’s Zach, so…
Follow-up question: when you say you wanted to give Zach the opportunity, what opportunity did you believe you were giving him?
“Well, he didn’t say he couldn’t. Like (Zach) said, that internal struggle, on that stage, nobody wants to take themselves out. I think outcome-based, there’s a chance that you’re going to feel bad no matter what. If you pull yourself, can you win? I think you feel pretty good, and you’re like, OK, I made the right decision. Or you pull yourself and you lose, you feel crappy. If you play and we lose, you feel crappy. You play and we win, you feel good. Those looking back on it, it’s all outcome based. What’s important is the information we had at the time and decision we make at the time. I feel good about putting Zach Collaros, our leader, back in the game, even though I’m putting him back in in a tougher situation than when he left the game.”
Another question to O’Shea about the long ball Collaros threw on his first attempt after the injury and then, a question about Buck Pierce’s performance as the offensive coordinator in the Grey Cup…
“The Zach question first. You just believe in the guy. You look at what he’s done for us the last x amount of years – five, six whatever it is in years – and all he’s done is win for us and compete and lead. He deserves that opportunity, absolutely.
“Buck had the guys extremely well prepared. There’s not anything Toronto did that we hadn’t seen. We handled it well. We limited the pressures compared to other games. I thought it was an excellent game plan. I thought the guys were really well prepared. I’m never going to question the play-calling, and I think what’s going on here is we’re questioning…we’re trying to find blame and fault when that’s nowhere in our DNA of how we built this eight, nine, 10 years ago. We’re starting to try and find all these answers and question all these people that were 0-4 and 2-6 and then 10-1, and we just didn’t play our best game.”
Later, this question related to the same subject: Did you have an internal struggle too, or easy decision on Zach?
“I didn’t. You know your leaders. You know your leaders. I’ve seen the greatness guys achieve if we let them. I’ve seen what happens over time, especially as football has gone the way it’s gone, how we refuse to let players be great in big moments. I go back to Strevy (Chris Streveler), and just given the opportunity to strap it up and go, and that that does for a team.
“I’m a firm believer in that we have to let our leaders be great. And not maybe our leaders, we have to let players, give them the opportunity, to be great.”
On Pierce being a candidate for the vacant B.C. Lions head coaching job and if he has thought who might be next up if he has to replace him:
“Yeah. Every year because Buck gets talked about to be a head coach every year. So every year you think about it, right? This year is no different. Buck absolutely could be a head coach in this league.”
And if Pierce doesn’t get the Lions job, would there be any consideration to be change at that position?
O’Shea: “Not at all. Not a chance.”
On whether the team’s process needs to change after hitting the wall at the end for three years in a row…
“I don’t think the process needs to change, it’s what’s got us. We always refine, right? But our core values are our core values. That’s not going to change. I mean, you change if you have a different head coach, right? They come in with a different set of values, how they think a team needs to work, that’s how that would change.
“Down here, we try not to compound it. I think postgame, guys compound it and say, ‘the third of three (Grey Cup losses).’ We choose not to when we calm down and really take a deeper dive into something like this. Lost by a point, lost by four, this one doesn’t look like that at all. This one looks different. But the prep week, the coaches’ prep, the way the players were prepared, I don’t know that you would change any of it. I thought it was all pretty damn good. The outcome isn’t what we wanted, and it looks way different than the previous two, but for different reasons.”
