Bombers blow-out Elks, clinch West Division for second straight year

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This article was published 08/10/2022 (1118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the top spot in the West Division up for grabs, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers took full advantage of the opportunity, delivering shot after shot to the Edmonton Elks en route to a 48-11 knockout victory in front of 27,159 at IG Field Saturday night.

The B.C. Lions had fallen to the Toronto Argonauts earlier in the day, clearing the way for Winnipeg to clinch the division with a win over Edmonton. The Bombers, who improved to 14-2, wasted little time setting the tone, scoring early and often in what was arguably their best performance of the 2022 season.

It’s the second straight year the Bombers have finished atop the West, meaning they’ll get a bye into the division final, a game they’ll host on Sunday, Nov. 13. As for the Elks, they dropped to 4-12 with the loss and are now officially eliminated from the playoffs.

“The main goal (of winning the Grey Cup) hasn’t been achieved yet, but it’s part of the process getting a home playoff game and for it to be the West Final is pretty big,” said Bombers’ quarterback Zach Collaros, who finished 15-for-19 passing for 241 yards and three touchdowns, along with one interception. “That’s a great reward for the hard work, as well as for our fans. Our fans were amazing tonight.”

The Bombers opened the game with four straight touchdown drives to take a 28-8 lead into halftime. The game seemed out of reach almost immediately, with Winnipeg racking up 342 yards of net offence through two quarters, going a perfect 12-for-12 on second down conversions.

Collaros finished the half 11-for-13 for 193 yards and three touchdowns, with his fifth series ending with an interception 45 seconds before the break. He completed his first 10 passes of the game, the first incompletion occurring with 1:22 remaining in the second quarter.

Collaros connected with Nic Demski on the first score and then found rookie Dalton Schoen on the next two. Backup quarterback Dakota Prukop also got in on the action, delivering a 24-yard touchdown pass to running back Brady Oliveira up the left sideline.

Demski reeled in a 31-yard pass to extend his touchdown streak to six games, with an eye-popping eight scores over that stretch. Schoen entered the game as the CFL’s touchdown leader among receivers, with the pair of scores giving him 13 on the year.

“This offence is doing lots of great things right now,” said Oliveira, who paced all running backs with 14 carries for 61 yards and a pair of scores. “Obviously, we’ve got some key pieces still out of the lineup, but next man up. We’re still able to go out there and create explosive drives. Just the fact that we had three different quarterbacks throw three touchdown passes. It’s pretty special.”

The Bombers’ defence was near perfect through the first half, their lone blemish a 59-yard touchdown pass from Elks’ quarterback Taylor Cornelius to Dillon Mitchell. Edmonton went into the break with 155 yards of net offence and just 10 first downs. They finished the game with 261 yards, little more than half of Winnipeg’s 503.

That set up a relatively sleepy second half, with Winnipeg held off the scoresheet in the third quarter, only to reignite down the stretch. A 16-yard field goal by Edmonton kicker Sergio Castillo accounted for the only points in the third frame, the kick cutting the Bombers’ lead to 28-11.

Any chance of an unlikely comeback was squashed just minutes into the fourth quarter when the Bombers registered their fifth touchdown of the game. A three-yard run by Oliveira capped off a 10-play, 75-yard drive and put Winnipeg up 35-11.

Not to be forgotten, Winnipeg’s special teams added insult to injury by forcing a fumble a short time later, giving the Bombers the ball back on Edmonton’s 36. Three plays later, Marc Liegghio connected on a 43-yard field goal to make it a 38-11 game.

The Bombers decided to bench Collaros with five minutes remaining, making room for Dru Brown to come in at quarterback. After calling a run play, offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce dialed up a dagger, with Brown finding Schoen across the middle for a 65-yard touchdown.

The touchdown not only extended Schoen’s league-lead to 14, it also moved him into second all-time in Bombers’ history for yards by a rookie, with 1,275, which is also best in the CFL this year. The 25-year-old Kansas native needs just 99 yards to surpass Perry Tuttle’s 1,373 yards set in 1986.

“I would have thought that was crazy,” Schoen, who had seven catches for 162 yards and the hatrick of TDs, said when asked what he would have thought at the beginning of the season if someone had told him he’d be leading the CFL in yards and scores.

“It’s a testament, though, to the coaching staff for putting together a great game plan, week-in, week-out. And it’s a testament to the guys around me. That’s what I try to tell people all the time. I get to play with the best quarterback in the league. He makes the game so easy for me, just talking me through stuff, going out there and making the plays. But it starts up front with the O-line doing a great job. The other receivers I get to play with, they’re really talented guys but also really good people. They’ve helped me out so much. It’s always just about the team.”

Liegghio added a 37-yard field goal to round out the scoring. Winnipeg has now won 26 of its last 28 games at IG Field and is a perfect 9-0 against teams in the West this season.

It’s unclear how the Bombers will approach the final three weeks with nothing on the line as far as position in the standings. Winnipeg plays the Lions twice, including next Saturday in Vancouver, to wrap up the regular season, with a bye week in between.

“Every team is different,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “I’ll go back and look at the schedule – I haven’t done that yet – but I’ll go back and look, and we’ll have probably our second staff meeting of the year coming up. Just to make sure we’re thinking of everything. Everyone is responsible for giving the information, making a plan based on what this team needs. It’s 24 hours away.”

Winnipeg faced a similar situation last year and decided to sit out several starters in the second-last game of the year, while limiting some in the regular-season finale. In that year, the Bombers had a bye in the final week of the season before moving on to win the second of back-to-back Grey Cups.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton