Blue Bombers’ Friday night victory over Alouettes was a total team effort

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This article was published 10/07/2015 (4052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Everyone who predicted the Winnipeg Blue Bombers wouldn’t score an offensive touchdown Friday night and yet still beat the Montreal Alouettes at Investors Group Field, raise your hands.

Anyone? Bueller?

With their offence stymied, the Bombers got touchdowns from the defence and special teams, plus four field goals from kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, en route to a 25-23 victory over the Alouettes before a crowd of 25,605.

The win improved Winnipeg’s season record to 2-1, came just one week after the CFL club was embarrassed 52-26 at home by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and gives the Bombers some much needed momentum heading into back-to-back road games in Calgary and Edmonton the next two weeks, respectively.

Yeah, it’s just Week 3.

And yeah, it was just the Bombers’ second win of the season.

But the feeling in the locker room after was that this one was worth a little more.

“Tonight was what this team is all about,” said Bombers centre Dominic Picard. “All three phases contributed. This was a great team win and we needed that right now.

“We showed some character tonight. And we showed that we’re a team — that when all three phases play together, we can do good things.”

What about Drew?

For all the attention that was heaped on Drew Willy and the state of his head in the past week, the Winnipeg quarterback was actually a bit outside the spotlight in a game that ultimately turned on big plays by the Bombers defence (a Johnny Adams pick-six) and the special teams (a blocked punt returned for a touchdown).

Make no mistake, there was nothing wrong with Willy’s efforts — he posted respectable numbers: 20-for-29 for 251 yards. But on a night the Bombers offence never did find the end zone, Willy was much less a central figure in the game than he was in the lead up to it.

To his credit, Willy was under siege for much of the night. The Bombers never did get much of a run game going — they rushed for only 73 yards on 20 carries— and that allowed a Montreal front-four many think is the best in the CFL to come hard and come often.

Willy was sacked twice in the first half — three times overall — was hurried too many times to count on a night the Bombers offensive line worked hard for the big paycheques they’re earning this season.

Field goals? No problem. Converts? Big problem

Hajrullahu nailed a 52-yard field goal in the first quarter that seemed to put to rest any concerns about the state of his leg after a shaky start to the 2015 season.

But a quarter later, Hajrullahu missed another point-after attempt — the third convert he has missed this season — and the watch was right back on Winnipeg’s top rookie and the West Division’s top special teams player in 2014.

The missed convert ties Hajrullahu with Edmonton Eskimos kicker Grant Shaw for the most missed converts in the CFL this season (three). The gaffe also detracted from what was otherwise a spectacular night for the Winnipeg kicker, who hit field goals from 21, 25 and 34 yards to improve to a perfect 5-for-5 this season.

The second coming will have to wait

All the talk coming into Friday night that wasn’t concerning the health of Willy’s head centred on the spectacular CFL debut of Montreal quarterback Rakeem Cato a week earlier in a win over the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders.

Cato’s debut had even Tom Higgins — the normally measured Alouettes head coach — talking about his pivot on Thursday in the same breath as CFL legend Doug Flutie.

It all sounded a little breathless for a guy who’d played just one professional game, and the Bombers defence quickly exposed Cato to be the mere mortal that he is.

With the advantage of game film on Cato that Calgary never had, the Bombers defence had the rookie running for his life and making bad decisions.

Cato was intercepted twice in the first half, including the touchdown returned by Adams in the second quarter that put Winnipeg up 12-3.

By night’s end, Cato’s numbers were respectable — 22-for-31 for 317 yards — but those interceptions were killer and something decidedly less than Flutie-like.

Montreal’s most effective player on this night wasn’t Cato, but receiver S.J. Green who had six catches for 180 yards.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek