Blue on a win streak

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/10/2009 (5846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Say this about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 2009 edition: They have been as riveting as a car wreck and as strangely fixating as a circus freak-show act.

It was player defections, Spygate, Pacman Jones and combative head coach Mike Kelly in the first half of a season positively jammed with one negative headline after another. But over the last two weeks they have actually made news for their work on the field and, in the process, have evolved into a thoroughly entertaining outfit challenging for a post-season berth.

No, really.

A complete mess just 13 days ago, the Bombers have leaped back into the playoff picture after Friday night’s 27-17 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos in front of 21,965, the lowest crowd at Canad Inns Stadium in more than a decade. The Bombers improved to 5-8 after posting back-to-back wins for the first time this season and moved to within two points of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 6-6 and in action today against the Calgary Stampeders, for second place in the East Division.

The B.C. Lions, 5-7 heading into action late Friday night against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, had held the final playoff spot as a crossover team, but would need to finish with more points than the third-place team in the East to qualify.

Oh, and just to make this whole scenario even juicier, the Bombers are in Hamilton on Thanksgiving Monday and play host to the Ticats in the regular-season finale on Nov. 8.

"We dug ourselves a big hole at the beginning of the year, but the big thing is nobody in here has given up," said cornerback Keyuo Craver. "We’ll fight through the peaks and the valleys. We feel like we’ve hit our rock-bottom. If you make it through that, there could be good things ahead.

"We’ve got a good locker-room here. It’s just like your family with your wife and your kids. In that house, there is stuff that goes on that’s good and bad, but y’all got each other’s backs. That’s how we feel. Despite all the bad things we’ve gone through, if we can keep it tight in this locker-room, we can overcome anything."

The Bombers’ blueprint for success Friday against the Eskimos followed a theme similar to their previous four wins. The critical developments:

"ö Another steady performance from quarterback Michael Bishop, who outduelled future hall of famer Ricky Ray — replaced in the fourth quarter by Jason Maas — in picking up his fourth win as a starter against five losses. Bishop finished the night 20 of 34 for 184 yards with a one-yard TD toss to Adarius Bowman and one interception as the Bombers found a semblance of offensive balance with more than 100 yards along the ground as well;

"When you work so hard and you’ve got guys that care about which way this franchise is going, through the adversity and controversy… you’ve got to tip your hat to everybody here," said Bishop.

"ö Winnipeg’s backbone, its defensive dozen, limited the Eskimos to 330 yards of total offence — much of it compiled in garbage time late in the game — while forcing three turnovers (one on downs, and interceptions by Lenny Walls and Jonathan Hefney).

"ö The special teams made two huge plays that led directly to 10 points and provided the game-turning spark, courtesy of a 118-yard missed-field-goal return for a touchdown by Jovon Johnson that turned a 13-10 contest into a 20-10 lead. That play was part of a dominant second-half performance that saw the home side outscore the visitors 14-7, including punter Mike Renaud conceding two safeties late in the fourth quarter.

"I think I pulled a hamstring running down the sideline (on Johnson’s return)," head coach Mike Kelly added with a chuckle. "We were having some good success with the returns, but were having the things called back. I said, ‘We’re going to bust one of these,’ and son of a gun if he didn’t do it on that. It really got our team really together at that point."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

the fifth quarter D9