Blue Bombers Blog

TSN : CFL - Canada’s Sports LeaderNo easy way to quickly scan through the fan comments over at the TSN site, but they are always worth a look. This comment about Bombers having finally bought themselves some real respect, works for me. Great for us long suffering fans. We can strut a bit. But it’s a long season, and each game must still be won on the merits of your play and coaching each game. But a little swagger, legitimately earned, goes a long way in each individual game.  So “swagger”, “the 13th man “(fans/home stadium noise) are additional factors in the team’s success.  What else?  Motivation?    To Be Continued!

Turtle Man here. First of all I would like to thank everyone who was involved and attended The Never Alone Social on Friday night. Even with the untimely weather, it was a great turn out, and I’m sure everyone had a great evening.

Now on to the art show. You ask yourself, the art show? Yes, the art show.

Our defence did more than just play a great game, but more so, created a masterpiece. Anytime you can hold a team to zero points in a professoinal football game, you’ve done pretty good.

But to do it in the Canadian Football League game, where the game is predicated on offences scoring — and frowned upon if they don’t — it makes this feat even more amazing.

Now you may say to yourself, but their back up quarterback was playing. I don’t care if my wife and a bunch of her friends from her book club were playing, it would still be a most amazing accomplishment.

This may sound redundant, but our defence is playing pretty good. Hopefully those guys don’t read this and get the big head.

Now offensively I thought our first half performance was pretty good. I can’t say it was comparable to the first half our defence played, because I felt we left some points on the field, but we did some good things in the half, and hopefully it will continue.

Now offensively the second half was a different story.

We came out and did not execute in the third quarter. We had a great drive in the fourth quarter that resulted in a major, but besides that the offensive was lackluster in the second half.

We have to learn that when you have a team down, you must continue to pound on them, because we know first hand that the game is not over until its over.

Special teams really stepped up. AJ really did a great job returning punts, with help from the return team. Our cover teams were superb, and the old long hair dude did a great job punting.

And if I am correct, I don’t think we had any penalities on special teams.

Personally I thought my performance was OK. I had an offside penalty, dropped a ball, and did not come back to another one, which if i had come back to, it would not have resulted in an interception.

But the most important factor was that we won and that’s all that matters.

Talk to you soon, and remember: “If you can’t change the people around you, change the people around you.”

God bless.

—Milt Stegall

That was the headline that screamed out on the back of tonight’s Winnipeg-Hamilton lineup/depth chart in today’s Hamilton Spectator. It was written in big, black letters to entice fans to take to the game tonight at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

Well, would you rather be 1-6 than from Winnipeg, we ask?

Just watching the Bombers and Ticats warming up as we speak and it’s hard not to think the Bombers, in just over four hours or so, won’t be 5-2. We know the Ticats are better than 1-5 - a message head coach Doug Berry has preached all week - but the Bombers are playing decent ball and are so solid defensively I have a hard time believing they could drop one here.

Remember to post your comments here before, during or after the game.
We predicted Winnipeg 33 Hamilton 18…
Cheers

The Gods of Football were cheering for the Blue Bombers last Thursday in Edmonton.

Milt’s catch for the win with four seconds left was spectacular.
And just what we needed to refuel the fire.

 Not only is Milt amazing on the field, but he’s about to dazzle you with his wit on this web site. Make sure to check out Milt’s blog.
It’s called Turtle’s Time.

We arrived in Edmonton around noon and didn’t have meetings until the following morning. So I went to Muttart Consevatory to kill some time. If you haven’t been, it’s a cool place to check out. There are four separate glass pyramids, each containing fauna from different climates. I was a forestry major in college, so I dig this kind of stuff.

The temperate zone reminded me of Cali. It was a trip because half the plants in this pyramid are in my front yard back home, including this Japanese maple. Here are some cacti from the arid pyramid. This is a funky little flower from the show pyramid, which had mostly ornamental flowers. Here’s a shot of a huge leaf in the tropical zone. It was my favourite pyramid because it took me back to my days in Costa Rica.

Speaking of Costa Rica, I promised last week to explain pura vida. It’s pronounced (Poo-RRah VeeDah) and its literal translation is “pure life”. I picked it up when I spent some time travelling and surfing in Costa Rica.

I heard the phrase used around the country but it wasn’t until I met Sergio (the guy holding the lizard) that I understood it. He was our jungle guide in a little town called Cahita, about 10 miles north of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast.

He explained to us in accented English that pura vida was like a reminder to “live pure” in your body and your mind.

It’s a mindset of sorts that overlooks the unimportant daily drama we as humans sometimes obsess about. It’s associated with the Tico lifestyle of Costa Rica and is used in the context of a goodbye. It can also be used like we would say “right on” or “cool”.

The waves and beauty of Costa Rica offered a different perspective on life. Pura vida for me has always been a reminder of that, so I try to pass it on when I have an opportunity.

Pura Vida
TC #44

Welcome to Turtle’s Time. Now I know you’re asking youself, what is Turtle’s Time?

It’s an opportunity for Milton Stegall a.k.a. The Turtle Man, to express his views, concerns, and opinions on not only football, but anything else I feel like discussing, or issues that may be intriguing to the intelligent readers of this blog.

Now from time to time I will log in and express myself within this format. I will try after every game to give my honest opinion on any and everything that went on in the game.

I also expect all you intelligent readers to hit me back with your thoughtful, profound comments. From time to time I may also leave you with some food for thought.

So welcome to Turtle’s Time, and God bless.

—Milt Stegall

Watching practice today with Bob Irving, we both found ourselves saying essentially the same thing: the more you watch the Bombers work every day and prepare and the more stuff you hear out of the locker room, the more you realize how well this team is coached compared to last season. That’s not a shot at Jim Daley… well, hell, actually it is… why sugarcoat things? Speaking of which, it’s surprising the ex-Bomber coach hasn’t found work somewhere in the game.

Here’s something to mull over: is Doug Berry the early front-runner for Coach of the Year? Look, I realize there’s a ton of football left to play, but nobody figured the Bombers would be 4-2 at this point in the season. Coaches who rebuild are often the favourites for the award, but Montreal’s Don Matthews is also deserving of a lot of consideration. Yes, he had a solid talent base to begin with, but his squad is 5-0 and he has made over that defence…

What’s with the Argos chatting with Doug Flutie? I figure the guy still has something left, but doesn’t that risk getting Damon Allen’s shorts in a knot? Seems to me sometimes the franchise in the Big Smoke is more interested in name dropping to get fans in the stands than just getting the club on the right side of .500.

A team to keep an eye on this week: the Calgary Stampeders. I’ve been a big fan of their talent base, but, geez, that implosion against B.C. on the weekend was particularly ugly. And Henry Burris’ post-game reaction - he breezed by the media and exited without facing the music - was a horrible sign from a guy who is supposed to be a leader. This looks like a team on the brink of going one of two ways: either they start flashing their skill or it comes apart with some ugly finger-pointing.

Here’s a question posed to me by an Edmonton radio guy last week that is worth debating: Terry Vaughn is now the CFL’s all-time reception leader. But if you were to rank the Top Five receivers in league history, would he be on your list? As much as I respect his durability, consistency and after-the-catch skills, he wouldn’t be in my Top 5. Interestingly, Darren Flutie — the man Vaughn passed — wouldn’t be either. My Top 5 would be: Milt Stegall, Brian Kelly, Allen Pitts, Mervyn Fernandez and Joe Poplawski.

Cheers

He’s the talk of the town and soon Winnipeg Blue Bomber star receiver Milt Stegall will be talking to you, right here on Blog Central.

Watch for Turtle’s Time, Milt Stegall’s exclusive blog for readers of Winnipeg Free Press LIVE, starting this week.

Get the inside word on what goes on in the huddle and on the field as the man who is there joins fellow Bomber Tom Canada as a Free Press blogger.

It was so remarkable even ESPN got in the act and has stayed with it for over 3 days on site. Don’t know how long it will last but it’s certainly worth posting. Had Kevin Glenn not completed this pass, his quarterback rating for the game would have been down to about 67%. With the completion, he gets almost to 100 for the game. Now that should open another debate about quarterback ratings and how to interpret them. Who said, “It’s not how you win, it’s just how many W’s you have”. Especially in must win type games.

ESPN.com - MORESPORTS - CFL game ends on 100-yard touchdown pass

Bombs away: Blue Bombers win on 100-yard TD pass
SportsTicker

EDMONTON, Alberta — With one play remaining, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers turned to Milt Stegall to save the day.

Stegall caught a 100-yard touchdown pass as time expired and the Blue Bombers ended a five-game road losing streak against the Edmonton Eskimos with a 25-22 victory on Thursday night.

A 13-year veteran, Stegall made his 10th reception of the game by splitting a pair of defensive backs at the Winnipeg 40 and raced to the end zone, stunning the crowd at Commonwealth Stadium.

Stegall finished with 254 receiving yards for Winnipeg (4-2) and scored his 133rd touchdown, four shy of the all-time record shared by George Reed and Mike Pringle. In two games against the Eskimos this year, Stegall has 17 receptions for 407 yards.

With less than a minute to play and Winnipeg clinging to a 19-14 lead, the Blue Bombers tried to clinch the win by gambling on third-and-inches from their own 31. Kevin Glenn gained six yards on the quarterback sneak before fumbling, and defensive back Jonte Buhl recovered for the Eskimos.

Three plays later, Ricky Ray tossed his second touchdown pass of the night to Jason Tucker and hit Richard Alston on the conversion for a 22-19 edge.

Glenn completed 20-of-35 passes for 374 yards for the Blue Bombers, who defeated Edmonton for the second time in as many meetings this season.

Ray set a career high with his fifth consecutive 300-yard passing effort, going 26-of-38 for 342 yards for the defending Grey Cup champion Eskimos (2-3).

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Please allow me to detail what the closing moments of Thursday’s thrilling Bomber win over Edmonton are like for a regular hack like me trying to beat deadline…
(Especially for all those keen readers who noticed a mistake or two in my story and were eager to point them out).
We have two editions to the paper, an early edition and a later edition that allows us to try and get in the later scores. I was writing what is called ‘running copy’ for our second edition - essentially they are play-by-play game reports than can be duller than dishwater. But it would allow us to get the score and some details into the paper.
The game, what with all the sloppy play, injuries and a number of challenges, took an eternity to play. That made it even more difficult at crunch time. And then with the game being tight — Bombers win - Bombers lose - Bombers win thanks to Milt Stegall - piecing together something that is readable in a matter of minutes is a chore.
I had my head down writing as the final play began and, when Stegall broke free, heard one of my colleagues from an Edmonton paper blurt out: ‘You’ve got to be (bad word) kidding me’ not so much because he was cheering for the Eskimos, but because he now had to re-write his story in a nanosecond.
All that said, this isn’t meant to be a tale of woe. Instead, let me tell you that being witness to the Bomber locker room afterwards are those moments that make the reporting gig a blast. The players, understandably, were positively giddy and some of the quotes I compiled (for tomorrow’s paper) were as entertaining as I’ve ever picked up in 19 years in the sportswriting gig.
If you’ve got a comment or two on Thursday’s win, post them here.
Cheers

Alouettes are making it tough on themselves but still manage to get the win.

Alouettes are making their games interesting.

Bombers need a Hail Mary on the final play of the game to beat the Eskimos.

The Als win again but the Ticat show they can contend with the best.

The hit on Dickenson last week may have caused some lingering effects

A game never ends until the final whistle blows — a lesson the Eskimos learned the hard way last night