Why did the early swagger turn to overconfidence and then to this disaster?
I haven’t written for a while, but I’ve got to get this off my chest. I’m bleeding blue right now after that Calgary debacle.
I did say in the post below, from much earlier this season, that I thought we were entitled to show a little swagger after our early season success. You will see that I did say we still need to fight to win each game on the basis of our play each game. So what happened?
I’m just a keen observer. The Bomber brain trust from the highest levels down are paid to coach and manage and try to avoid what has happened.
It appears to me simply that we are now being outplayed and outworked by teams that are getting better each week.
We appear to be regressing rapidly. The fans, the media and obviously the brass at Maroons Road were suckered by a few wins early on.
We beat a Toronto team that didn’t have Damon Allen. Spurgeon couldn’t play a lick against us, but I notice now his q.b. rating is still better than Kevin Glenn’s. We beat a weak Edmonton team twice (once with a dramatic last second play on poor defensive play by Edmonton) and we humbled Hamilton in Hamilton during their weakest moment. We got Saskatchewan recently on the back end of a home and home, as will happen, (see Hamilton vs Winnipeg in Winnipeg, August 4th) but they are not a league leading team either.
After the July 8th win, after 4 games, Bomber brass and the Board of Directors declared the season a success and gave Brendan Taman, a contract extension on July 10th. I trace the beginning our season’s disaster to that ill thought out decision.
I like Brendan a lot personally, but we just do not have the overall talent other teams do. Where else can the blame possibly lie? It sent the wrong signal to the team at that time. Why didn’t Lyle Bauer wait until about this time in the year or even later to see how the 18 game season (not four game season) would unfold? Is it really possible Brendan had a real offer on the table at that time, as was inferred? Tell me there are no other general manager/player personnel candidates available, if that was the case?
The last minute Edmonton victory and the Hamilton shut out in their weakest moments, sent the other wrong signals that more experienced coaches and players would have seen as potential minefields and tried to work around.
We forgot we were 5-13 last season. We forgot we had hired Montreal’s offensive co-ordinator who had never been a head coach before. We felt the new Marshall defensive scheme was impregnable forever and no one would be able to figure it out. We forgot about our questionable quarterbacking and the lack of depth there.
We forgot that an improvement to 9-9 would have shown solid improvement. Any dreams of being in the 2006 Grey Cup, which were plentiful from all directions, should have been on the same plane as the “immaculate reception”-only for the real true believers.
Is the season over? I hope not. But we’ll need some miracles, even to get to 9-9 and set the stage for next year, because I fear once again we are not good enough on paper alone. The team may implode now, I fear, as our dreams of playoffs and Grey Cup totally vanish.
There I’ve got that off my chest.
What do you think has happened and how are we going to fix it?
