COLLEEN DE NEVE / POSTMEDIA NEWS Enlarge Image

Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive backs Jovon Johnson (left) and Alex Suber combine to lay a dreadful hit on Stamps running back LaMarcus Coker.

Terrence Edwards has no patience for any talk about the Bombers backing into an East Division title.

The normally soft-spoken Winnipeg Blue Bombers slotback was unusually animated at the team hotel in Calgary Saturday night after Winnipeg locked down first place in the East thanks to a Montreal Alouettes loss to the B.C. Lions in the final game of the CFL regular season.

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The good: Michel-Pierre Pontbriand was the Bombers'second most-productive receiver. (JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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The bad: Clarence Denmark stares in disbelief as a pass slips through his hands on the 10-yard line. (POSTMEDIA CALGARY HERALD)

The Bombers had an opportunity earlier Saturday to clinch first in the East on their own with a win over the Calgary Stampeders, but Winnipeg lost 30-24 and needed the Als to lose later in the day to earn the bye to the East final.

"It doesn't matter how we got first. It doesn't matter if we won it outright," said Edwards. "Everyone's record is now 0-0. We played well enough and did enough to get first place. So if people want to complain about it, people have to remember we haven't even been in the playoffs in two years. So you can't complain that we got first place but backed into it. That's nonsense. But now, we have to go out and prove we are the team we think we are."

The Bombers will head into the playoffs having won just three of their last 10 games, but Edwards maintained that's now irrelevant too.

"Things happen through the course of a season. There's peaks and valleys," said Edwards. "But at the end of the day, we are where we wanted to be -- first place, getting a bye week and needing just one more win to get to the Grey Cup. That was our goal at the start of the season and we have obtained that goal. So don't complain about how we did it. We're there, we did it. Now, let's see what happens in the playoffs."

Edwards hurt his right elbow in the loss to Calgary and missed a few series in the first half. He later returned, however, and said Saturday night that the injury is minor and will not affect his preparation for the East final on Nov. 20 against the winner of this Sunday's East semifinal between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes.

LaBatte: Losses mean nothing

BOMBERS offensive lineman Brendan LaBatte also isn't convinced that his club's lack of momentum heading into the playoffs -- they lost their last two regular-season games and three of their last four -- is relevant heading into the playoffs.

"That doesn't really affect anyone in here. We're aware of it. But we're a talented team -- we just have to show up to play for the full 60 minutes," said LaBatte. "I mean showing up for 45 or 50 isn't getting it done, so it's got to be a full 60 minutes. When we do that, we can play and beat any team in the league. But you've got to do it."

Pontbriand explains big play

IF it seemed weird to you that Bombers non-import fullback Michel-Pierre Pontbriand was loose behind the Calgary secondary in the second quarter on Saturday, you're not the only one.

Pontbriand hauled in a 41-yard pass from QB Alex Brink on the Calgary six-yard line that led to the Bombers' first touchdown of the game and sparked what was a valiant -- but ultimately failed -- Bombers comeback attempt.

So what was a 6-2, 227-pound fullback out of Laval doing running around behind the Calgary secondary? "It wasn't a throw that was (intended) for me," Pontbriand explained on Saturday. "I was to play the outside release to block the (line)backer but I think Alex didn't like what he saw. And he looked over the top and I was just keeping running a seam route...

"Big game like this, you like to make a big play."

Blue are what they thought they were

IT'S been suggested that a Bombers team that opened the season at 7-1 and finished at 3-7 has a bit of an identity crisis.

Not at all, says Bombers defensive back Jovon Johnson, who maintains the team has remained the same -- only the results have changed.

"We're exactly the same team," Johnson said Saturday. "Those first eight games, we were sneaking up on teams and they weren't expecting us to be playing the way we were playing. We're still the same team we were in the beginning -- we're still starting slow in the first half and then playing catch-up in the second half. And the one thing we've learned is you can't win consistently like that. And that's showed in the last 10 games."

Johnson said a bye week will do a world of good for a Bombers team missing key starters to injury, including quarterback Buck Pierce, safety Ian Logan and receiver Greg Carr. "Once we get everybody back, I think we can," said Johnson, "get back to the team we were at the start of the season."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 7, 2011 C3