SportsCage analyst Arash Madani believes\u00a0the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, led by head coach Mike O’Shea, are not the powerhouse\u00a0the team\u00a0once was.<\/p>\n
“When this Blue Bomber team was 3-1, I came on the show and I told you they don’t look good, there’s a problem here. I wouldn’t say smoke in mirrors,\u00a0it’s what you saw. Through this season, everything that I told you after Week 4 is coming to fruition,” Madani said on\u00a0the SportsCage. “It feels like the message is getting stale. It feels like this football team got old fast. It feels like they’re doing the same old thing that isn’t working anymore.”<\/p>\n
Madani understands 37-year-old Zach Collaros is getting up there in years, but he does not think\u00a030-year-old Chris Streveler is\u00a0the answer for the Bombers at quarterback.<\/p>\n
“They’re trying to convince themselves, each other, the public,\u00a0that Chris Streveler is going to be some answer. Look, even Zach is looking long in the tooth at times this season,” Madani explained. “They have run this whole thing back two years too many. That’s a lot of the guys on the roster\u00a0and that’s the head coach, too. At some point here, the results are going to speak for themselves.”<\/p>\n
Winnipeg has lost\u00a0three games in a row\u00a0and have been without\u00a0Collaros\u00a0due to a head injury sustained in the Labour Day rematch <\/a>against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Streveler\u00a0finished that\u00a0game after Collaros left in the third quarter. The 54-year-old\u00a0O’Shea<\/a>\u00a0still has confidence in Streveler’s abilities to lead the team.<\/p>\n “I think people are forgetting what Chris has done for us. You look back at his run in 2019 \u2014 it’s common knowledge that he played with an injury that most people wouldn’t even step on the field with.\u00a0He happened to tear it up, gut it out and help lead us to a championship,” O’Shea said<\/a>.<\/p>\n “That leadership, that fire, it’s still all evident. He has played for us since and won us games. He’s stood in the pocket and delivered,\u00a0he’s run the ball, and when he’s in there, he certainly allows us to have a whole bunch of different plays that most quarterbacks wouldn’t be able to do.”<\/p>\n That injury\u00a0O’Shea was referring to happened when\u00a0Streveler<\/a>\u00a0suffered a distal tibia fracture and a severe high-ankle sprain in a 37-33 Week 19 loss against the Calgary Stampeders\u00a0on October 19, 2019. He\u00a0served as the Bombers’\u00a0backup and package QB in Winnipeg’s\u00a0playoff run to win the\u00a0first Grey Cup in 2019, the team’s first since 1990.<\/p>\n