CFL Obituaries: Blue Bombers' free-agent spending couldn't keep them alive

Moving on with our CFL Obituaries series as teams are knocked out of the playoffs, here's a look at what went wrong for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers' season passed away Friday night in Toronto, and the team wasn't able to be there. The B.C. Lions' 27-25 win over the Toronto Argonauts officially ended Winnipeg's playoff chances, although those were barely clinging to life following the Bombers' loss to Ottawa last week. The season started with a lot of potential, with the team spending big in free agency in hopes of making it to a home Grey Cup, but it wound up following the path of many of its siblings; this marks the sixth year in the last seven that Winnipeg's missed the postseason, and the team hasn't won a Grey Cup since 1990. The primary cause of death was listed as an anemic offence that failed to respond to the offseason's free-agent treatments, suggesting the problems with this roster go deeper.

Some of the upgrades the Bombers made this offseason were focused on their offence, especially on the line, where the additions of left tackle Stanley Bryant and Dominic Picard were designed to cure a group that had given up a league-high 71 sacks in 2014. The Bombers' offensive line did improve from a raw standpoint this year, as they've only conceded 56 sacks through 17 games, but heading into this weekend's games, that was still tied with Saskatchewan for worst in the league. Even more crucially, the line wasn't able to keep quarterback Drew Willy healthy; he suffered a head injury in their second game that didn't turn out to be too bad, but then suffered an early-August knee injury which was thought to last six to eight weeks, but wound up knocking him out for the rest of the season.

Willy's absence was certainly a significant contributing factor to the Bombers' demise. He had perhaps the best season of his CFL career before getting hurt, throwing for 1,434 yards and eight touchdowns against three interceptions with a 68.6 per cent completion mark, and things got dire after he was injured, as his various replacements largely didn't perform. The team briefly turned to Brian Brohm when Willy was hurt early with next to no success, then went to the more-promising Robert Marve, giving him his first pro start in August. Marve played decently in two games, both losses for the Bombers, but suffered a knee injury (something he had a substantial history with from college) in the second one in late August and was put on the six-game injured list in early September after Winnipeg traded for Matt Nichols. (He eventually retired in late September, citing concerns about his future health.) The Bombers returned to Brohm for a game while Nichols got up to speed, which also didn't work out (they lost to Saskatchewan 37-19, one of the Riders' only two wins this year), but showed some potential once Nichols started. Even with him under centre, though, they still went 2-5; they had a one-point loss, a two-point loss, and a three-point loss, so Nichols at least made Winnipeg competitive, but that wasn't good enough.

Overall, the Bombers' passing offence was dismal. Through 18 weeks, they were last in the league in passing touchdowns (tied with Montreal with 19) and passing first downs (166), and were second-last in passing yards per game (233.4), completion percentage (62.7 per cent), completions per game (20.0) and passer rating (82.7), and third-last in yards per pass (7.3). However, while the aerial attack may have been the primary factor in Winnipeg posting up league-low numbers in net offence (291.4 yards per game), fpoints per game (20.1) and points per game by offence (17.1) , it wasn't the only one. The ground game wasn't much better; the Bombers' gain of 4.6 yards per rush was the second-worst in the league, and while their 83.1 rushing yards per game were only fourth-worst, that was more about them opting to run repeatedly thanks to a lack of success through the air. This whole offence needs an overhaul, and it seems unlikely that offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille will survive the offseason.

The Winnipeg defence was also bad, allowing the third-most points in the league (28.3 per game) and the third-highest net offence (363.5 yards per game). They struggled against the run (110.3 yards per game, second-worst, and 5.4 yards per rush, third-west) and against the pass (280.4 yards per game, third-worst, and 8.7 yards per pass, second-worst). There's going to need to be substantial improvement on that side of the ball, too. Some free-agent additions like Jamaal Westerman (who's leading the league with 15 sacks) did pay off, but others didn't, and more personnel changes are likely needed. We'll see if defensive coordinator Richie Hall is able to hang on to his job or not, too; he did have to deal with plenty of injuries and sometimes substandard personnel, but his schemes were far from perfect.

For the moment, the Bombers' season looks likely to be survived by both general manager Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O'Shea. That may be the right call for now; many of the Bombers' recent struggles have been caused by repeatedly changing coaches, Walters has made some promising moves, and while O'Shea's 5-12 record so far this year is a regression from the 7-11 mark he put up in his debut last year (after Winnipeg went a league-worst 3-15 in 2013, no less), it's probably not bad enough to warrant another head coaching change just yet. This outcome's certainly a disappointment for Winnipeg fans, though, especially with the city hosting the Grey Cup and with the big-name free-agent moves they made in a bid to get there. If Walters and O'Shea are able to stick around for another season, they'll be under a lot of pressure to make it a much better one. 2014 was somewhat of a rebound, but 2015 was a step back; the Bombers will need substantial improvement in 2016 to keep those guys around.