Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
For the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 2011 has been a remarkable turnaround to say the least.
The team was a league-worst 4-14 last season, giving up the most points in the CFL’s East Division and finishing with an ugly 0-9 road record. But things change quickly in the CFL and now, entering week four of the 2011 season, the team has already vanquished most of its demons.
It took just 60 minutes to earn that elusive road victory in a season-opening 24-16 triumph over the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton on Canada Day. Then the very next weekend came a 22-16 victory over the Argonauts which gave Winnipeg half the wins they had all of last season.
It also pushed the team two games above .500 for the first time since 2007 when the Blue Bombers finished the regular season 10-7 before falling to the Roughriders in the Grey Cup.
But maybe the most startling turnaround of all has been the team defence which is the top ranked unit in the league going into week four, allowing just a paltry 53 points over Winnipeg’s first three games. The defence has conceded just three offensive touchdowns so far this season.
But what’s most surprising is the Blue Bombers have done all of that with almost the exact same defensive unit as last year. In fact, every single defensive starter who will line up for the team’s fourth game against the Toronto Argonauts Saturday afternoon was a part of the Blue Bombers’ lacklustre 2010 defence.
So what changed? Well, if you ask free safety Ian Logan — one of the Blue Bombers’ most tenured defenders with five years in blue and gold already under his belt — it’s simply a matter of learning from your mistakes.
“It’s weird,” Logan admitted after practice in Winnipeg earlier this week. “We’ve all played together. We had a whole season last year together and I think we’ve just been building on what we learned last year”
One those big lessons that this unit took away from last year was that every point counts. Nine of Winnipeg’s 14 losses in 2010 were by just four points or less, an ugly stat that no doubt reflects on both sides of the football.
But Logan doesn’t throw touchdowns — he prevents them. And no one can accuse him or the Blue Bombers defence of not taking onus this year and doing their part.
The unit has allowed only 20 combined points in the second half of its games this season — an average of less than a touchdown in the final 30 minutes of games.
It’s a stat that has allowed the Blue Bombers to preserve close victories late in games, including Canada Day’s eight-point win and a six-point victory over the Argonauts two weeks ago.
Along with the rest of the Blue Bombers secondary, Logan has taken it upon himself to make sure that this year his team is coming out on the other end of those tight games.
“That’s one thing in the secondary. You have to trust the other players you play with and we’ve definitely got that trust right now,” Logan said. “We’ve been very comfortable.”
Of course, the Blue Bombers should be glad they have the 28-year-old Logan in the fold. After all, the Waterloo-native has been through all of this before.
Logan was a safety and kick returner at Wilfrid Laurier for five years and suffered through a pair of disastrous seasons in his first two years at the school going 3-6 in 2001 and 1-7 in 2002.
The 2002 season was especially trying as the support staff at Laurier went on strike meaning Laurier’s head coach Rick Zmich and his assistant coaches could not cross picket lines to attend practices on campus.
The Golden Hawks’ volunteer coaches filled in admirably but the lack of the team’s brain trust put a strain on an already difficult season.
“It’s one of the reasons we did so poorly — Coach Zmich couldn’t even come to practice,” Logan said. “It was tough. It was just like the season that the Bombers had last year where we lost all those games by three points or less. We just couldn’t finish.”
Of Laurier’s seven losses that season, five were by three points or less, including a 15-14 loss to the Guelph Gryphons in the final game of the season. The 1-7 record was, and still is, the worst in Laurier’s history and Zmich stepped down after the season, being replaced by defensive coordinator Gary Jeffries.
It’s what the Golden Hawks did in the next three seasons that is remarkable. With practically the exact same unit as 2002, the team went 8-2 in 2003 and then 10-1 in 2004. Then in Logan’s senior year in 2005, the Golden Hawks ran the table, romping to a perfect 12-0 season and a Vanier Cup.
Just like the Blue Bombers now, it was as if the Golden Hawks turned a complete 180 degrees, suddenly becoming the toast of the league after a string of tough losses the year prior.
“Everyone who came in the same year as me, we were all thinking, ‘did we make a bad choice? Did we go to a school that wasn’t going to win?’” Logan said. “But we stayed together and believed in what the coaches were saying and in that third year we brought it all together.”
That’s why last year’s string of tough losses with Winnipeg must have seemed like déjà vu for Logan. And it’s also why Logan was chomping at the bit this winter, unable to wait for the season to start — he saw the light at the end of the tunnel that most didn’t.
Logan’s enthusiasm for the start of the season showed when he pulled down a pair of interceptions in Winnipeg’s opening weekend triumph over the Tiger-Cats. He also added three tackles as the Blue Bombers defence held the Ticats off the scoreboard for the entire second half, allowing the offence to rally from a 16-9 halftime deficit.
The two interceptions doubles the amount Logan had all of last year when he missed much of July and the entire month of August with a bum hamstring. To start 2011 with a bang was just more confirmation for Logan that this year could be just like those years at Laurier, where a familiar defence spurs a bounce-back season.
“That was big. To start the year off healthy and have a good game. To get that first win and especially the road win which we hadn’t done at all the year before — it was a truly great start,” Logan said.
“The momentum and the excitement has started building here really quickly from that start.”
Considering Logan’s history, it was really only a matter of time before everything came together
