Bombers thriving when it matters

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This article was published 30/09/2018 (2583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — Talk about flipping the script.

After weeks of mostly miserable football, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers injected some major life into their 2018 campaign with a dominating win over the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday.

Indeed, what unfolded in a 30-3 victory at Commonwealth Stadium not only suggested the Bombers could be turning a corner, it just might have saved their season. At 7-7, the Bombers are now firmly entrenched in the playoff race, third place in the West Division.

The Eskimos, who dropped to 7-7, have now lost two in a row. Due to a lower point total against the Bombers this year — the season series is tied at a game apiece — they are currently looking up at the Blue and Gold in the standings. That should make the rubber match must-see TV come Nov. 3, with the teams meeting again in the regular-season finale.

But before we look too far ahead: here are five takeaways from Saturday’s win:

BLUE SEIZE THE MOMENT

It’s been tough sledding for the Bombers this season. They haven’t even come close to the heady expectations placed on them by themselves and their fans at the beginning of the year. So, it can’t be understated what Saturday’s victory meant for this club and their faithful.

While it was the second win in as many weeks for the Bombers, a victory the week before over the lowly Montreal Alouettes, who, after losing again Sunday to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, are now 3-11, had few people buying that a decent run could be on the horizon.

Add me to the list of people who doubted the Bombers this week. Though the Eskimos had struggled at times this season, hovering around .500, they have been dominant at home, carrying a five-game winning streak heading into Saturday. The Bombers were also a dismal 1-5 against teams in the West and had yet to beat any club with a winning record.

Had they lost to the Eskimos, it would have been another week of the same old story about a team who just couldn’t find their way. With the win, it feels like there’s legitimate life in this team and that was reflected in the dressing room after the game. While no player will tell you the pinch of an up-and-down year was getting to them, none will deny how good this one felt.

REILLY’S TD STREAK SNAPPED

The Bombers defence broke Mike Reilly.

If Winnipeg was going to beat the Eskimos, they knew they had to go through the Eskimos’ all-star quarterback. Reilly, who is on the verge of earning his second consecutive nod as the CFL’s most outstanding player, looked nothing like his usual self in this one thanks to an effort by the defence that far surpassed anyone’s expectations.

Entering Saturday, Reilly was averaging a whopping 324 passing yards per game, and was tied for the league-lead in passing touchdowns this year, with 27 through 13 games. But with just a field goal on the final play of the second quarter accounting for all of Edmonton’s points, Reilly snapped a streak dating back to Aug. 6, 2016 — a stretch of 42 regular-season games — where he’s registered at least a TD through the air or on the ground.

While the secondary will get most of the credit for Reilly looking foolish at times (more on that soon), picking him off twice — including a 73-yard interception return for a touchdown by Kevin Fogg — it was a combined effort from all areas of the defence. There was pressure from the defensive line, which owned the line of scrimmage against a veteran-filled Edmonton front-five. Complimenting that was a fierce linebacker’s group that helped apply pressure in the trenches and finished tackles at level of consistency not seen this year.

Reilly, who accounted for a third turnover when he fumbled in the third quarter, finished 17-for-31, passing for 164 yards (Edmonton had just 264 yards of net offence). It was just the third time since the 2016 season that Reilly has thrown for fewer than 200 yards; over that same stretch, 34 of the 49 games Reilly has played in, he’s recorded at least 300 passing yards, with seven of those eclipsing 400.

THE KIDS GOT GAME

That said, the biggest contributions from the defence came from some of the youngest faces in the locker room — and that’s noteworthy. Fogg, Brandon Alexander and Marcus Sayles, all key figures in the Bombers secondary with just six years of combined CFL service, had nights to remember.

Fogg and Alexander were both part of the hat-trick club, recording an interception, forced fumble and fumble recovery in the game. Sayles, the lone rookie of the group, delivered the kind of smashing hits usually connected to safety Taylor Loffler. On a clean hit Sayles delivered against receiver Duke Williams late in the fourth quarter, you could almost see the moment where Williams, who had taunted the Bombers on a catch in the previous play, dislocated his shoulder.

“It’s at this point where I’m not passing this baton, but the locker room isn’t the same, and it’s for the better,” corner Chris Randle said. “These younger guys are stepping up major. They stepped up last year and they’re stepping up this year and they’re playing a huge role in the locker room.

“As a vet, you got to know when to hold onto it and force them and when to let it go for cohesion.”

It’s no secret every team is led by its longest-tenured players, and there’s no reason they couldn’t push deep into the playoffs. One game certainly won’t ensure success in the next, but for the Bombers, the complete performance from their defence, with every player contributing, has been in the making for the past five games. If it can continue over the last month, fans should be in for some exciting football come November.

OFFENCE COULD IMPROVE

Far more often in recent years, it’s been the play of the offence that’s taken centre stage for the Bombers’ success, the main reason why Winnipeg posted a combined 23-13 regular-season record between the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

The offence has shown flashes at times — for the first half of the season, they led the CFL in scoring and running back Andrew Harris is on pace to win his second straight most outstanding Canadian award — but its hard not to imagine if they were at the same level as those previous years, how good this team would be.

The Bombers still put up 30 points against the Eskimos, finding the end zone three times and finishing drives with three Justin Medlock field goals (Medlock had a rare miss on a 44-yard attempt). But 20 of those points came off turnovers and with eight of their 12 drives starting at or near midfield, including five beginning in the Eskimos’ end, it left even some players on the offence wanting more.

“When I’m talking about us peaking and playing at our best it’s three phases, lights out. When we’re playing — not to say Edmonton isn’t a great team — but I feel like when we’re in those tight games all three phases need to be firing off,” said Harris, who had 20 carries for 73 yards, with much of that production coming late in the game.

“Today, we got to tip our hats to Edmonton’s defence because they were able to stop some of the things we were trying to do today.”

STAYING THE COURSE

The overwhelming feeling I got talking with the coaches and players after the game was that this kind of performance was long in the making.

On several occasions, the talking points were around a need to stay the course, not deviate from the game plan put in place, and how the performance against the Eskimos was one of the few games this year — along with the win over Montreal the week before — where everyone executed their job.

For example:

“I think they showed, obviously, a belief in the plan because of the level that they executed at and that’s going to pay dividends when they watch the film and see that level of execution and their understanding of what we wanted to do,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “That should cement that focus hopefully going forward.”

“It just shows that when we do what we’re coached to do, we’re a very good football team and we can beat very good football teams,” quarterback Matt Nichols said.

“That’s two weeks in a row. Now it comes down to ‘Can you sustain it and keep doing what we’re doing and not look too far ahead?’”

“We’re definitely going to embrace this win as a team,” Randle said. “We’ve found something that we’ve been doing and sticking to and we’re just going to continue to do it.”

We’ll have to wait and see if the Bombers have really found something here. If Winnipeg can go on a run, Saturday’s game might just be the moment to look back on as a real turning point.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton