HAMILTON 38 WINNIPEG 20

June 20, 2010
by Keith McCullough
After the optimism surrounding their impressive win over Montreal last week, the Bombers took a step back with a disappointing 38-20 loss to the Hamilton Tiger Cats on Sunday afternoon. While losing is never ideal, the coaching staff will be more focused on the performances they saw from certain players as they prepare to finalize their roster this week before the real games begin.

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On offense, the Bombers simply didn’t move the ball with the same fluidity as we saw a week ago, but they did get a solid performance from Steven Jyles. Jyles did his best to spark a quarterback controversy on the back of a 9 for 14, 152 yard outing where he also threw a touchdown and used his legs to good effect. Most impressive was his chemistry with young receiver Terence Jeffers-Harris who went a long way to ensuring his spot on the roster with 3 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown including one dazzling 53-yard march down the sidelines where he showed the speed and strength required to be a successful pass catcher in the CFL.

The young receivers were the big story for the Bomber offense all afternoon as Chris Davis and Canadian Cory Watson chipped in with a combined 7 catches for just under 100 yards as well and looked to put pressure on veterans like Adarius Bowman and Terrence Edwards who had a couple uncharacteristic drops between them.

Defensively, it was no secret that the Bombers were closely monitoring the performance by their young defensive backs competing for the empty spots in the secondary left by the departing Lenny Walls and Jonathan Hefney. Newcomers Jerry-Ralph Jules and Donald Brown Jr. both staked their claims to fill the void. Jules lead the defense with 7 tackles while Brown Jr. had 5 stops and an acrobatic interception.

Despite the many bright spots, there were a number of questions left unanswered for the Bomber coaches who saw their offense under projected starter Buck Pierce struggle badly to move the ball and pick up just one first down in almost 18 minutes of action.
There were no such struggles for former Bomber pivot Kevin Glenn who threw for 196 yards and 2 touchdowns in his one half of action to get some revenge on the team that let him go.

Glenn picked apart a Blue Bomber defense that struggled in giving up over 500 yards of total offense and failing to generate a pass rush for most of the afternoon. Marquay McDaniel, Dave Stala and Arland Bruce III all had big days through the air for the tabbies who finally look to be heading in the right direction after years of wallowing near the bottom of the CFL’s East Division.

For Paul LaPolice, some tough decisions will need to be made as he trims his roster down for the Thursday deadline. He can be confident he has the players on offense to play the system that was so successful for him last year in Saskatchewan as the Bombers still managed to gain just under 300 yards despite not looking their best.

On defense, things didn’t look as promising and many of those who played in Hamilton may have seen their last action in blue and gold as the Ti-Cats moved the ball too easily and starters like Doug Brown and Ike Charlton will be eager to get back into the fold.

The Bombers won’t need to wait long to get another shot at Hamilton as they open the regular season against this very same Tiger Cats squad on July 2nd at Canad Inns Stadium, hoping they can turn the tables and get their regular season off to a perfect start.