Nasty stains on the Bombers vanishing one by one

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/08/2016 (3329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It takes an awfully big stain-remover pen to eliminate all the markings on this franchise the past few CFL seasons, but that’s exactly what the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have been up to over the past few weeks. Here are but a few of the blemishes they’ve recently erased:

• An inability to win two consecutive games , going on multiple years? Try four in a row now and looking for a fifth in Regina Sunday.

• An anemic offence unable to put at least 30 points on the board? A balanced attack and an opportunistic defence have counted more than 30 four games in a row.

• Haven’t won a game in Edmonton since Milt Stegall pulled in a miracle, last-second Hail Mary in 2006? With backup QB Matt Nichols at the controls they took down the defending Grey Cup champions in Week 6.

• Long-standing concerns about the team losing focus and not being dialed in after a bye week? They went into Montreal on Friday night and picked up where they left off, without missing a beat.

• Haven’t had a dominant defence since 2011? They’re third — one point back of second — in the league in giving up the fewest points and and have forced 19 turnovers over the last four games.

• Didn’t two of the first three games of their winning streak come against first-year, inexperienced pivots? They did, but the other two came against the Eskimos’ 2015 Grey Cup MVP Mike Reilly and Als’ veteran QB Kevin Glenn, who threw for five touchdowns and zero interceptions in a win against the Grey Cup runner-up in Ottawa a week earlier.

Any other concerns? Anyone?

No matter the level of skepticism you’re bringing, it’s getting more difficult to shoot holes in any aspect of this four-game turnaround.

Long-suffering Bomber fans are, justifiably, waiting for things to go south again, but it certainly appears that it’s no accident the club has gone from 1-4 to 5-4.

Since Week 5, this team has done a fairly thorough job of kicking out the skeletons, dust bunnies and ghosts of futile years past living comfortably in the closet. Removing a nasty watermelon-helmet stain is next on the agenda; Bomber fans have left the Queen City feeling progressively deeper shades of blue after every Labour Day Classic since 2004.

But with more than 20 different names on the squad this season, past performance is of no consequence. Another game, another victory is the expectation for this lot before next weekend’s matchup in Regina against the woeful Riders.

Any more of that heavy-duty laundry stuff around?

 

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.

Twitter: @DougBrown97