Big Blue on a roll

VANCOUVER – The Blue Bombers reminded the rest of the Canadian Football League over the weekend the Grey Cup still runs through Winnipeg.

The Bombers dismantled the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday to be named West Division champions, punching their ticket to a fifth consecutive Grey Cup with a 38-22 win over their prairie rivals in front a sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium.

Quarterback Zach Collaros found his touch early, orchestrating touchdown drives on Winnipeg’s second, third and fifth series to take a 24-9 lead at halftime. The defence took over from there, rebounding from a Saskatchewan TD on the first drive of the third quarter to force three second-half turnovers, before allowing another meaningless TD in garbage time to make the score look closer than it was.

The Bombers have arrived in Vancouver for Grey Cup week with redemption on their mind after losing in the last two championships, falling to the Montreal Alouettes on a last-second TD a year ago. It will be the Toronto Argonauts, the club the Bombers lost to in similar fashion in 2022, that stand in their way of cementing the title as a dynasty following Grey Cup wins in 2019 and 2021 (there was no 2020 CFL season due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Before we dive into what should be an intriguing game, with no shortage of juicy storylines the Free Press will be all over in Vancouver, let’s take a look back at Winnipeg’s win over the Riders in the West final in the latest edition of Blue Notes.

• There’s no doubt the Bombers-Riders rivalry is the best in the CFL and certainly up there when it comes to professional sports. Saskatchewan has to start living up to its end of the deal. Winnipeg is now a perfect 9-0 against the Riders at home dating back to the 2021 West final. Things are a little lopsided these days in the flattest of lands.

• Which brings me to my next point, being that many across the league seem to have been sleeping on the Bombers this season. I’m not sure if it’s the 0-4 start or the 2-6 record through eight games, but there have been a few examples this year when the Bombers were playing an inferior team by all measures, but the hype is often coming from the other side. It happened in Edmonton in Week 14 and again in Hamilton in Week 18, with the Elks and Tiger-Cats getting their lunch money stolen by game’s end. The Riders also entered with a ton of hype and confidence from their recent play, only to be stunned by the Bombers in another game that wasn’t all that close.

• Maybe the doubt is from the play of Collaros, who had a down season statistically after dominating the league for years. Collaros, who was 19-for-26 passing for 301 yards and four TDs, picked apart the Riders defence, playing a literal perfect game with a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Of all the personas we’ve seen from Collaros, none are more dangerous than the pissed-off version. This run feels personal to No. 8.

• Kenny Lawler’s game has been trending the right way for weeks, but he was finally able to put it all together against the Riders, to the tune of four catches for 177 yards and three TDs. Lawler, who missed eight games after breaking his arm early in the year, had four scores in 10 regular season games. The 30-year-old was pretty much a non-factor in last year’s Grey Cup, and he will need to be just as involved against a stingy Argos defence.

• So much for the Riders dominant run defence. Despite being among the best in the league at stopping the run, and despite limiting CFL rushing leader Brady Oliveira to less than 50 rushing yards in their three regular-season games this year, the Bombers still had a day on the ground, to the tune of a combined 194 rushing yards. Oliveira had the lion’s share of that production, racking up 119 yards on 20 carries, and none were more impressive than the 21-yard scamper in the fourth quarter that set up his three-yard TD on the very next play. Oliveira will have his hands full again with the Argos, who are just as good at stopping the run and allowed Oliveira 64 rushing yards to in their most-recent meeting in Week 19.

• You can credit all of the above to the improved play of the offensive line. The front-five took a while to regain their magic from previous years but have arrived right on time. The Riders, whose 38 sacks was just one less than for second-most in the CFL this year, had zero against Collaros, and while Oliveira is a punishing runner, he’s even more dangerous when he goes untouched at the line of scrimmage and is able to gain steam to truck opposing linebackers.

• The Bombers defence knew they needed to humble QB Trevor Harris, who, at 38 years old, had been playing near his prime in previous weeks. Harris was almost giddy with confidence the day before, seemingly prepared for whatever Winnipeg was planning to throw at him. It couldn’t have started off much worse for Harris, who had 11 passing yards by the second quarter. Harris looked uncomfortable all night, and while he finished with 283 passing yards, but close to half of that — 138 yards — came in the fourth quarter after Oliveira’s TD put the Bombers up 38-16.

• To understand the dominance of the defence down the stretch, here is the second-half drive chart for the Riders: TD, punt, punt, punt, turnover on downs, punt, turnover on downs, turnover on downs, TD. Three of the four punts were two-and-out drives and the other lasted only four plays.

• On the first turnover on downs, the Riders opted to gamble on third-and-three from their own 24 with more than 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. I don’t care how the Riders tried to spin it after the game, that was a ridiculous call from rookie head coach Corey Mace. I wrote ahead of the game Mace needed to ensure he didn’t make the moment too big, and this is a prime example of doing just that. It’s the CFL and 12 minutes is an eternity, especially when you’re down two scores. The Bombers made it a three-score game two plays later and the Riders were officially cooked.

• A lack of execution on special teams went somewhat unnoticed thanks to stellar play from the other two phases. The Riders blocked a punt, pulled off a fake punt and then returner Lucky Whitehead fumbled and lost a ball in the fourth quarter. It cost the Bombers 10 points. They won’t get away with that in neutral territory against a stellar Argos special-teams unit.

Buckle up, it’s going to be a fun ride this week.

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Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

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