Shocking plunge
Woeful start should have Bombers on full alert
By PAUL FRIESEN -- Winnipeg Sun
Anybody still think the Winnipeg Blue Bombers aren't headed in the wrong direction?
In case you haven't noticed, that's seven losses in the last nine games for the local CFLers, dating back to last season when Team Underachieve went 2-5 in a memorable stretch dive, culminating with a playoff loss to the banjo-pickers from Regina.
The only teams the Bombers have beaten since last September 7: an Edmonton outfit that had nothing to play for in the 2003 regular-season finale, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, well on their way to a 1-17 mark a year ago.
That this team continues to backtrack isn't so shocking -- how far it's plunged in such a short period of time is.
Think anvil, think water.
Not even the most cynical observers expected this.
Starting the season 0-2 is one thing. Doing it the way the Bombers have -- looking old and uninspired against Ottawa at home, the rejuvenated Ticats on the road -- should have everybody from the team president to the water boys on full alert.
EMBARRASSMENT
That's right, this isn't just Dave Ritchie's problem, although you can bet the head coach will be the first non-player out of work if this embarrassment continues.
Let's begin with the offence, which was supposed to be revamped under new co-ordinator Ronnie Lancaster, but instead looks frighteningly much like Paul LaPolice's sputtering creation of last season. Are there bogeymen in the end zones, or what?
This new and improved offensive line is new and improved all right: it's better at being mediocre than it has been in years. These guys couldn't block a doorway right now, let alone something that moves.
Khari Jones? He'd better put his name on the dotted line of that new contract today, because it may not be on the table tomorrow. You don't pay a guy a million bucks to be average.
And could someone please tell the defensive line this isn't training camp anymore, and the other team's quarterbacks aren't wearing red jerseys?
I mean, even the drunk in Section 12 at Ivor Wynne the other day knew the Ticats were going to throw the ball, yet the Bombers were to Danny McManus what a politician is to honesty -- miles apart.
We're told this could be a pretty decent secondary, but who'd know? Five Juran Boldens couldn't cover a receiver who has time to check himself out on the JumboTron and wave to his wife and kids before running under another deep pass.
There's enough egg to smear the face of GM Brendan Taman, too.
You know that off-season trade that had him so excited, the one that brought fullback Randy Bowles and O-lineman Cory Annett from the Argos?
Bowles has been replaced by Wade Miller, while Annett is performing wonderfully on the bench.
Oh, and those two dynamite rookie defensive ends, Steve Anzalone and Tom Canada, are performing so well that Elfrid Payton is on his way back to town. There's that youth movement again.
Ritchie, of course, is in charge of this whole, dysfunctional mess. And unlike Taman, he doesn't have the benefit of a new contract.
These days, he doesn't have the benefit of a good record, either.
After ranting against rookies most of his five-plus years here, Ritchie took dead aim at a couple of veterans, Lamar McGriggs and Robert Gordon, after Week 1.
His selective criticism can't be doing anything for team unity.
From here, it appears the boss is finally being tuned out.
Maybe he can still steer this leaky vessel away from the storm. But ships this old and creaky don't turn on a dime.
Like his crew, Ritchie is headed the wrong way.
Only he's on a plank.
