Undisciplined play a big part of the Bombers’ big loss
Penalties and an ineffective defence hurt against Redblacks, Paul Friesen writes.
Some thought-to-be-buried problems resurfaced for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a 4421 home loss to Ottawa on Friday.
A lack of discipline and a porous defence were evident before a season-high 27,602 fans looking for a fourth straight win on home turf.
“Not good,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “Undisciplined play leads to a lot of points ... they capitalized and really generated a lot of points after we made mistakes and kept them on the field.
“The game looks different if we’re more disciplined and we get off the field. The defence is then more rested and our offence has more opportunities to drive the ball and battle a good Ottawa defence.”
The Bombers took 11 penalties for 80 yards, seven of them on defence.
Two of them gave the Redblacks a second shot at two-point convert attempts, which they made.
Winnipeg had entered the game as one of the three least-penalized teams in the CFL.
“But as a defence early on in the season we struggled with penalties,” linebacker Adam Bighill said. “We’d kind of moved past that, and it crept back in tonight.
“It’s discipline, it’s technique. On second down, everyone’s counting on us. We’ve got to make the play, and we can’t have penalties.”
The tendency to self-destruct ruined the Bombers’ plan of winning the ball-control battle and keeping Ottawa’s high-powered offence off the field.
The Redblacks had nearly seven more minutes of possession time.
“It’s unfortunate, but the time of possession and the lack of ball control was more self-inflicted than anything,” O’Shea said. “We all know (quarterback) Trevor Harris and that offence is going to complete a high percentage of passes. So when you can get off the field, you have to.”
As bad as Winnipeg ’s defence has been at times this season, it reached a new low in giving up 500 yards total offence: 361 through the air, 139 along the ground.
“Honestly, it didn’t feel like that,” corner Chris Randle said. “It felt like we were in a position to get off the field and we didn’t. They did a good job of running their schemes.”
Second down, in particular, was a killer for the Bomber defence.
Ottawa produced 324 yards on 27 plays — an average of 12 yards per play.
“Obviously they have a great offence, a great scheme,” Bighill said. “I knew they were going to try to drive the field, dink and dunk — that’s their style of offence. So they’re going to amass yards. If they get three first downs and we get them off the field and get the ball back for the offence, it doesn’t matter.” Trouble is, they didn’t.
And the Winnipeg offence wasn’t exactly on fire, especially early.
Of its 420 total yards, more than 100 came on two long bombs from Matt Nichols to Darvin Adams.
“We just didn’t show up,” is how running back Andrew Harris put it. “Against a team that can put up points like that and is that productive, we’ve got to be better offensively.”
Winnipeg ’s top-ranked ground game produced 93 yards, but some of that came in garbage time.
Harris finished with 72 yards on 12 carries, with a touchdown.
But the Redblacks shut him down as a receiver: six yards on three catches.
“When I came out of the backfield they were spying me with two guys, so kind of took me out of the pass,” Harris said. “Every time I got the ball there was a guy right on me right away.”
Ottawa blitzed plenty, as expected, registering four quarterback sacks to Winnipeg ’s one.
The most costly Redblacks sack saw a blitzing defensive back blindside Nichols and knock the ball loose, which Ottawa took in for a touchdown.
“That one’s on me,” Nichols said. “They brought cover-zero blitz and did a good job of disguising it on the back side, and brought three off my left side when my eyes were on the other side of the field.
“It was something they were doing throughout the game pretty consistently, bringing guys from all different angles.”
The Bomber defence, meanwhile, got next to no pressure.
“They didn’t want us to get to them,” end Jackson Jeffcoat said. “They were doing a lot of moving, movement in the backfield with the receivers and moving around, so they were getting out fast.”
BETTER BOUNCE BACK FAST
Bouncing back from a close loss is tough enough, but how about from a blowout at home?
“I don’t know that this group needs to be pulled (up),” O’Shea said. “They lead themselves, and they’ll figure it out.”
A trip to face first-place Calgary next weekend isn’t exactly the place you’d want to try to regroup.
“I don’t think it’s going to be hard at all,” Adams said. “We’ve just got to continue to be a team and have one another’s back. I know one thing about us: We’ll show up.”