the 4th star

Let’s get right to the emails…

Well, well well Mr. Wazoowazny. It looks like you will have to start eating some crow. The Bombers will be just fine under Coach Kelly and I predict they will be one of the top teams in the CFL at the end of the season.

Another one:

Are you going to give the Bombers and Mike Kelly credit? They just blasted the defending champs. DESTROYED THEM!!!! WINNIPEG GREY CUP IN 2009!!! YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!

Hey, this is an equal opportunity blog. Play poorly and you’ll hear about it in some way, shape or form. Play well and the appropriate amount of flowers and platitudes will come your way. That’s how it is in real time. The only master I have to serve is myself — which is kinda how I like it. Sure, it doesn’t pay the bills, but the absence of bullshit (not to mention a good night’s sleep) is always in play. And that’s important.

Full credit to the Bombers last night. They deserve to bask in the glory that is a home-opening win over the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders. The defence looked good. Very good. That Shabaaz is a very, very good player. The offence was OK. Fred Reid is the real deal back there. He should touch the ball a minimum of 25 times a game. On the flip side, I’m not about to read anything into Stefan LeFors getting his first career win and what it does for confidence, blah, blah, blah. In Canada, it should be easy to put points on the board when you start nearly every drive in Calgary territory and your defence hands five turnovers to you. I saw a lot of balls thrown into double and triple coverage. We’ll see how he does once the other teams have a chance to look at more film. Isn’t that what football guys say? But LeFors was the winning quarterback, so we’ll stop the critique right here. As much as Calgary looked like the Dinos, it was a B+ game for the Bombers. Nice job. Sustained applause.

Here’s something: How do you account for the Bombers win Friday night?

Heading into the game, no one picked the Bombers to have a chance against Calgary. The pre-game show on CJOB was rich, with everyone talking about ‘getting better each week’ and looking ahead to games with Hamilton and Toronto for a true measure of where this club is right now. One even suggested that if the Bombers were 3-6 at the turn, that would be a very good thing. No Joe Lobendahn on the pre-game, either. If he’s going to make it in this town, he needs to grease the right wheels.

It’s strange days in the Canadian Football League, isn’t it? Hamilton looks terrible against Toronto, but the next week is fantastic in Vancouver. Saskatchewan, who many thought would be worse than the Bombers this season, is 2-0 after the first two weeks. Calgary, the champs, is in disarray. Edmonton doesn’t look like the powerhouse many thought they would be. The only club that looks good is Montreal — and they look like they will be the team to beat when the snow starts to fall in November.

Where does Winnipeg fit in all this? Are they going to be another middling club in a mediocre league, or will they be a contender at the end of the day, beating the teams they should beat and surprising the few at the next level? I’m still not sure.

What I guess I’m trying to say here is that it’s not the Bombers who are as bad as first thought.

It’s the rest of the CFL that sucks.