Bombers should make Labour Day game a classic

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/08/2017 (3155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When something doesn’t make sense, people tend to extinguish the contradiction in their heads by putting forth the simplest of explanations.

For instance, when a team that is superior in the rankings goes into Saskatchewan and loses on Labour Day, most people chalk it up to overconfidence or cockiness, when the reality is a once-a-year phenomena and spectacle-type atmosphere often turn a sub-par team into a superb one.

At 7-2, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are one point out of being the best team in the standings in the CFL. The offence has maintained the ball-security characteristics of last year, while raising their production, effectiveness and efficiency to an elite level.

The defence is continuing to force turnovers and take the ball away at pivotal moments, and the pressure the unit is starting to get on pivots with its four-man rush seems to be improving every game. Even though five of their seven wins have come against Eastern division opponents that are padding the stats of all the Western teams this year, the only game in which they appeared outclassed in the West was against the Calgary Stampeders, and that game took place long before many of these improvements we see today took hold.

So, therefore, the expectation going into the Labour Day Classic against the last-place team in the West, should be a trying, but largely successful ordeal. While this team has many of the same pieces that were able to go into this game and squeeze out a three-point victory against a 5-13 team last year, it never hurts to offer a refresher course on how difficult this objective can be.

After all, it wasn’t too long ago that a 7-1 Bomber team went into the Labour Day Classic against a Rider team that ended the season, once again, at 5-13, and not only lost that game, but the Banjo Bowl as well. Without proper consideration of how the green team is able to elevate their play for the biggest rivalry in the CFL, promising Bomber seasons can be derailed, or at least detoured, if their foes are not weighed and measured properly.

Those two consecutive losses in 2011 set off a small mudslide that had a 7-1 start peter off into a 3-7 finish. Of course that team still finished first in their division, and made it to the Grey Cup game, but a lot of the momentum, energy and magic about that group was sucked out by those defeats against a team that only had one win on the season at the time.

When scenarios like the above unfold, too often are these teams told they took their opponent too lightly or they weren’t ready for the contest. Having played in 10 Labour Day Classics, and winning only three of them, I can assure you the surprise is usually in how much the opponent has bettered and raised their game, and not in how lightly it was taken.

If you’ve played enough pro football, you understand how the energy from a sold-out crowd can both inspire and elevate even the most pedestrian of teams and confuse and frustrate their opponents. With all due respect to the rabid sold-out crowds many players have seen in Winnipeg over the years, the Labour Day Classic is a multi-day phenomena that permeates the city like some small football-crazed town in Texas for a local Friday night high school playoff game that takes place in a US$70-million stadium.

As stated, a large percentage of this team went into the Classic last year against a group that finished tied for last in the CFL, and managed a three-point win. So it should be very fresh to most of them the difficulties inherent to this game.

This season, the Riders happen to be playing the best football we’ve seen them play in years, and have the confidence of putting up a 50 doughnut against the former top team in the league in their latest success. Add to this momentum an entire province of stirred-up fans, and there is no overstating the magnitude of what lies ahead and how the challenge will eclipse that of last season.

While things never come easy on the September long weekend, the singular focus this particular team has to zero in on the opponent and game plan each week has so far been remarkable.

Whether it’s been the worst team in the CFL, the best, on the road or at home, they’ve risen to the occasion seven of nine times, and sometimes in the most spectacular of ways. If this team happens to find themselves down in the fourth, with time expiring, or in overtime against Saskatchewan, then quite frankly, worry not, as no team has been better.

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