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This article was published 27/09/2009 (5849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT has a pulse. It may resemble one of those zombies from The Dawn of the Dead, but the beast that is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is upright, shuffling about and — get this — still very much in the CFL playoff picture.

No, really.

Backed by a spirited defensive effort, decent work by the special teams and led by Michael Bishop and an energized passing attack, the Bombers breathed some life into their 2009 season with a dramatic 29-24 victory over the Toronto Argo­nauts Saturday night in front of 22,446 faithful at Canad Inns Stadium.

And so, despite all the sideshows and distractions, the soap opera-like headlines and the growing angry mob in Bomberland, this 4-8 outfit is now just two points back of the B.C. Lions — at 5-7 they hold the last playoff spot in the crossover — and are four behind the second-place Hamilton Tiger’Cats, who are 6-6. In other words, it might be time to back off on penning that obituary for a spell.

"Winning is always fun and I think you heard me say it this week that winning would calm a lot of things down," said head coach Mike Kelly. "I don’t know if it will or it won’t, but I’m real happy for these guys in this room because they got a win and can feel good about themselves.

"Something’s happening here and part of it is Michael is really taking some ownership in the leadership role and guys are huddling around each other to make things happen so we can be successful."

A number of elements made Satur­day night’s performance compelling, especially when painted against the nightmarish backdrop of the season: — Bishop, the much-maligned Bomber starting quarterback, was sen­sational in completing 22 of 31 passes for 305 yards and two touchdowns with zero interceptions.

It was not only his best performance of the season, but his feisty approach to some of the jawing and after-the­whistle stuff actually seemed to inspire his teammates.

— The ‘who-are-these-guys?’ receiving corps was dynamite. Mis­sing Terrence Edwards (concussion) and just days removed from trading Romby Bryant and Arjei Franklin to the Calgary Stampeders, the new col­lection of pass catchers — particularly Otis Amey, who was making his CFL debut — caught passes in traffic and delivered some juicy yardage after the catch.

Amey, wasting away on the prac­tice roster for a month, had 104 yards on five catches by the intermission, including a highlight-reel over-the­shoulder reception for 47 yards and finished the night with six for 118.

At the same time, Adarius Bowman pulled in three passes for 66 yards and a score — although he did fumble late in the fourth in what could have been a costly error — while running back Fred Reid also found the end zone on a screen pass from Bishop.

Shoot, the passing game even fea­tured an eight-yard completion to right tackle Steve Morley after a Bishop pass was tipped and fell into his meaty paws.

— Overall, the offence was good for over 300 yards on the night — those numbers are average elsewhere but positively overwhelming in Winnipeg — as the impact of offensive coach Manny Matsakis was felt on the attack with more shotgun formations, more swing passes to the running backs and more versatility in their formations.

— The defence forced four turn­overs, including two interceptions, and got solid work from its secondary — and some help from an Argo receiving corps which played the first half with frying pans for hands.

Winnipeg led 29-9 after three quar­ters, but the Argos came to life when Kyle Jones blocked a Mike Renaud punt near the Bomber goal line with Andre Durie recovering in the end zone for a touchdown. Kerry Joseph, who replaced an ineffective Cody Pick­ett, would then score on a three-yard run to move the Argos to within 29-24, but the Bomber defence would stiffen late in the face of a possible collapse.

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But it was Bishop who was clearly the best QB on the field Saturday night.

"Those guys that were out there to­night, the receivers, they worked hard all week," said Bishop.

"They came in and were watching film at 8 o’clock at night. You’ve got to reward those guys. Amey, he’s diving for every ball in practice and he did the same thing tonight. Those guys were excited about playing and that energy started early in the week. I really think you could say we won this game on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of the work week. Hats off for those guys for stepping up."

BLUE NOTES: A dust-up in the second half saw four players ejected with Dorian Smith and Siddeeq Shabazz tossed from Winnipeg and Rob Murphy and Zeke Moreno getting early showers for the Argos… Reid entered the week leading the CFL in rushing, but finished in third place be­hind Montreal’s Avon Cobourne (1,043) and Martel Mallett of B.C. (1,005). Reid finished with 60 yards on the night and is at 986.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca