Tough task for Blue Life in the playoffs could have been easier with experienced QB coming in sooner By: Doug Brown Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Nov. 4, 2019 Last Modified: 9:11 PM CST Monday, Nov. 4, 2019 Updates

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This article was published 03/11/2019 (1880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will start the 2019 playoffs in the most difficult scenario imaginable: on the road against the Calgary Stampeders. It won’t be impossible for them to secure a berth in the Grey Cup this season, just very, very, difficult.

While the goal of this regime, every year, is to win that elusive Grey Cup — by any means necessary — this was supposed to be the season where they made things easier on themselves by finishing first in the Western Division, getting a first-round bye and a single home playoff game to punch their ticket into the championship game.

For more than half the year, that’s exactly what it looked like Winnipeg was going to be able to do, especially when they were sitting pretty with nine wins and three losses with six games to go. Yet by losing four of those final six games, they now find themselves in the exact same spot they were in last year: staring down two road games in Calgary and Saskatchewan, simply for a spot at the big dance.

So what went wrong? It never helps when your starting quarterback goes down for the count, but not pulling the trigger on bringing in an experienced backup — and overestimating the in-house talent at pivot — may be written on the medical examiner’s report for this season if they don’t survive the next two on the road.

When Matt Nichols went down on Aug. 15, the team was 7-2. With an inexperienced quarterback at the helm, they then went 3-5 until Zach Collaros took the reins, and brought them their 11th win by beating Calgary at home.

While we heard this team put out feelers and general inquiries about bringing in several different veteran QBs, immediately after Nichols went down, it never really seemed to get serious, or urgent, until Chris Streveler struggled. It was publicly stated that the team thought there was a good chance Nichols would return this season, which is why they didn’t pull the trigger on anything too soon.

Yet, even when it was announced on Sept. 26 that Nichols was having surgery and was done for the season, there was no rush to go out and bring in anyone who had more than a single season under his belt. For every quote you can find that praises what Collaros has accomplished here in such a short time, you can find another that tells you to dance with the one you brung, and that no veteran pivot would have enough time to be able to lead this team or make an discernible impact.

In fact, had Streveler not got the stuffing knocked out of his piñata in Calgary, I very much doubt Collaros would even be seeing the field.

As it played out, the Collaros trade happened on Oct. 9. We will never know how this season might have gone had he been acquired on or around Aug. 15 when Nichols got hurt — as a precautionary measure — or even on Sept. 26, when it was announced that Nichols was definitely done for the year.

When you are picking up a new system, every extra day and hour you can scavenge to be with your new teammates and run a new scheme is critical. The difference one or two weeks could have made, let alone one or two months, might have been the difference between finishing first and third. With one or two more wins under their belt, they definitely would be hosting a playoff game, and possibly even have won the West, but there is no point lamenting over opportunities lost, I suppose, while there is still a puncher’s chance for this ball club right now.

Did I mention it won’t be easy? In the last 29 years, counting the regular season and playoffs, Winnipeg has five wins and 28 losses at McMahon Stadium. Calgary’s starting quarterback, Bo-Levi Mitchell, has 12 wins and only three losses under his belt playing against the Blue Bombers.

So, in other words, the Bombers have the Stamps exactly where they want them: hopefully, ridiculously over-confident.

The Bombers will have to play their best football of the year to pull this one out, and it would have been exponentially easier to do at home. We all know the Bombers have the talent and depth to get it done, but the margins for error on the road are now negligible.

If Collaros beat Calgary at home with only two days at the helm of the offence, the wishful thinking is that with two more weeks it will be enough for him to finish the job on the road.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.

Doug Brown
Columnist

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.

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