Big Blue pass toughest test

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/08/2022 (1182 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — What else can be said about these Winnipeg Blue Bombers?

The expectations for the back-to-back Grey Cup champs are already sky high and yet, they continuously find ways to exceed them.

Saturday night at McMahon Stadium was their toughest test of 2022. The Calgary Stampeders outplayed the Bombers in a lot of ways two weeks ago at IG Field but had one too many drops to get it done. So with the Stamps playing at home and coming off a bye, many figured they’d be the team to end Winnipeg’s perfect season.

Not so fast. The Bombers passed with flying colours despite having an injury-depleted roster and handed Calgary a devastating 35-28 defeat. The game lived up to the hype and showed why these two clubs are considered the two heavyweights in the three-down game.

But it also showed that as good as Calgary is, the now 8-0 Bombers are in a league of their own. The Bombers have more wins than the entire East Division combined.

The Stampeders, and the rest of the league for that matter, are left wondering ‘What the heck is it going to take to beat these guys?’

“I mean, they’re a better football team than we are,” said Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell after the final whistle.

“That’s what I will say. At this moment. I don’t think they will be at the end of the season. Hopefully that’s where we’re climbing to, but if you lose to a team two times in a row, they’re better than you. That’s just the facts.”

The Bombers don’t have much time to pat themselves on the back as they’re back on the road this week to play the Montreal Alouettes at Molson Stadium on Thursday. But before we prepare for their first tilt with the Als, let’s break down Saturday night with five takeaways.

 

1 I’m putting my hand up here. I’ve often criticized Brady Oliveira’s play this season.

And let’s be honest, he deserved it. He looked timid at times, struggling to find the hole and produce any explosive plays. Prior to Week 8, the 24-year-old Winnipegger boasted a 3.4 yards per carry average and hadn’t had a rushing attempt go for more than 10 yards.

Not pretty.

But Oliveira looked like a completely different player against the Stamps. They held him to eight yards on nine carries in Week 6, but in Week 8’s showdown, they couldn’t stop him. Oliveira was running over defenders, looked confident in his cuts, and displayed some great vision en route to going for a season-high 110 yards on 15 carries. Oliveira heard his critics loud and clear.

“There’s definitely been critics out there. I think for me, this means so much for me being a Winnipeg kid and playing for my hometown,” said Oliveira post-game.

“Seeing people out there not believe in me and Winnipeggers not believing in me, yeah, it upsets me, it hurts me because I want to make this city proud. So, a game like that, showing them I got some speed, I can make people miss, and I can get some long runs, it was definitely great for my confidence.”

Kudos to him proving some of them, this one included, wrong. It’s only one game, but it’s an extremely encouraging sign. You add a consistent run game to this Bombers’ team and the other eight clubs in the CFL are going to have a tough time sleeping at night.

But Oliveira doesn’t deserve all the credit. The Bombers’ offensive line deserves some love as well. After some hiccups earlier in the season, they’ve found their groove as well.

 

2 What a night for Oak Park High School.

Oliveira wasn’t the only former Raider to have a big game as Nic Demski showed zero signs of rust after missing four weeks with an ankle injury.

Demski’s first two catches were touchdowns and he finished with six grabs for 69 yards. With Greg Ellingson and Carlton Agudosi sidelined, getting Demski back was massive. He’s arguably Winnipeg’s best playmaker and he displayed that on Saturday by also making two clutch second down catches on the team’s final drive. What made his performance even more impressive is the fact that he hadn’t practised in a month.

But as Allen Iverson once said, “We talking about practice.”

It caught everyone off guard to see Demski’s name on the depth chart on walk-through day, with some wondering if Demski was rushed back to be out there as a decoy.

So much for that.

 

3 Is it too soon to say Dalton Schoen is the favourite to land the league’s Most Outstanding Rookie award?

I don’t think so.

Not to get too far ahead, but he’d be the first Bomber to do so since Chris Matthews won it in 2012. Joe Poplawski (1978) and Albert Johnson III (2000) are the only other Bombers receivers to win the award.

Schoen could potentially join some elite company.

Schoen caught a pair of touchdowns against the Stamps, including the game-winning score in the fourth quarter, and finished with a game-high 80 yards.

The former Kansas State walk-on now leads the CFL with six touchdown grabs.

He’s been a brilliant find by Kyle Walters and Co., but that’s what elite teams do. When an established, more expensive player leaves in free agency (Kenny Lawler), they go out and find a younger, and more importantly, cheaper replacement that can play near that same level. That’s been the case with the Bombers and Schoen.

 

4 I hate to devote another talking point to the Bombers’ offence, but we can’t leave Zach Collaros hanging.

With Collaros at the helm, the Bombers are now 25-1 since October 2019 in games where they haven’t rested their starters.

That stat is out of this world.

Swinging a deal with Toronto to get Collaros could go down as the best trade in franchise history.

Collaros wasn’t in the best of moods after Week 7 as he completed seven passes in a lacklustre road performance in Edmonton. But he was at his best against the Stamps. Every time Calgary grabbed the lead, Collaros would march the Bombers down the field and punch them right back. His first pass on the night should’ve been a pick-six, but after that, it was smooth sailing. Saturday marked the first time Collaros had thrown four touchdowns in a game as a member of the Bombers.

After these two wins against Calgary, Collaros is now 5-5 all-time when going head-to-head with Bo Levi Mitchell.

If he wasn’t already, Collaros is firmly in the conversation for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award along with Stampeders running back Ka’Deem Carey, B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke, and perhaps, even Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill.

Just throwing it out there that former Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo is the last player to win the award two years in a row (2008-09).

 

5 That was CFL football at its finest.

The bar was high after the classic these two put on back in Week 6, but they somehow lived up to the hype.

Mike O’Shea said it numerous times during his post-game interview: that was clean football.

And he’s 100 per cent spot on. No turnovers were committed and zero sacks were given up. The home team lost, but the 25,147 fans in attendance — a season-high for the Stamps — were treated to the highest overall quality of a game the league has seen all season. And if you don’t think this one meant a little more to the Bombers, think again. Their locker room after the game was as loud as it has been all season.

But the game also signified how much times have changed. It wasn’t too long ago where a Bombers victory at McMahon Stadium felt impossible. And for years, the Bombers always seemed to be a step, or two, sometimes even three, behind Calgary.

Those days are far in the rearview mirror now.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31