Blue and Gold mean business

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This article was published 09/06/2023 (848 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The drive to becoming a modern-day dynasty may have taken a sharp detour last November in the form of a heartbreaking 24-23 Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

Make no mistake: The road remains wide open for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. A third championship in four years would put them in elite company, going where few franchises have in CFL history.

This journey got off to a strong start on Friday night at IG Field in the form of a 42-31 victory over a talented Hamilton Tiger-Cats team that, at times, had a deer-in-the-headlights look and would have been completely run over if not for a couple of late garbage-time touchdowns off turnovers which made the visitors appear much closer than they truly were.

Vroom, vroom. Any lingering concerns about how Mike O’Shea’s crew would respond to going from the hunted to the hunters should be quieted by this performance.

Memo to the rest of the league: The Blue & Gold mean business. Equipped with a Bison-sized chip on their collective shoulders at being denied a rare three-peat, they might be more dangerous than ever.

You had what might be the best defence in the league making life miserable for Bo Levi Mitchell as the two-time Grey Cup champion and two-time Most Outstanding Player simply couldn’t get out of first gear for much of his Hamilton debut.

He was picked off early in the game by Bombers DB Demerio Houston, who then forced and recovered a fumble on the next Tiger-Cats drive. It was a sign of painful things to come, with Willie Jefferson crushing Mitchell early in the second half to pop another pigskin loose, which the home team recovered.

Meanwhile, you had what might be the most potent offence in the league coming up huge time after time after time. Sure, the opening drive didn’t go according to plan, ending in a lost fumble. But after that? All systems go.

Winnipeg quickly redeemed itself with a five-play, 79-yard drive that was capped off by a perfect Zach Collaros to Nic Demski touchdown strike. On the next possession, Collars found Demski for 47 more yards. That led to another seven points as Collaros, surrounded by a wealth of receiving riches, connected in the endzone with Rasheed Bailey. Then, just as the clock was ticking down in the quarter, Collaros hooked up with Drew Wolitarsky for a 30-yard score.

Add it all up and Collaros threw for a ridiculous 189 yards in the opening 15 minutes alone, which had him on pace for more than 13,000 yards on the season. As good as the veteran pivot and his teammates are, I’d suggest taking the “under” on that one considering Doug Flutie holds the league record with 6,619 yards in the 1991 campaign.

Still, imagine what they’re going to look like when the suspended Kenny Lawler, who is currently working on immigration issues due to an impaired driving conviction, gets back into the lineup in a few weeks.

If the air attack isn’t scary enough, the Bombers can also beat you on the ground. Local boy Brady Oliveira rushing for 122 yards and a score.

The Tiger-Cats — picked by plenty of football pundits to be the beasts of the East this season — had no answer, other than throwing a few on-field temper tantrums which resulted in unnecessary roughness and objectionable conduct penalties that essentially gifted the Bombers a field goal early in the second quarter.

Hamilton committed another objectionable conduct while conceding a safety, and then a completely unhinged major foul which led to another chip shot three points for Winnipeg just prior to halftime.

You get the sense there’s a Grey Cup or bust mentality surrounding the Bombers, which speaks to just how high the standards around here have become. Not only from the players, but from the fans, too. Hey, we’ve all been spoiled by this incredible run.

But with a whopping 47 returning players in the fold this season — including the biggest weapons on both sides of the ball — you’d be a fool to bet against this highly motivated and supremely skilled squad.

Winnipeg remains the class of the CFL both on, and off, the field, and Friday was just the latest reminder of that.

You had 29,057 fans in the stadium on a picture-perfect night. They witnessed one heck of a show, including an incredible halftime performance from local illusionist Darcy Oake who somehow went from fighting to escape from a straight jacket inside a box placed at midfield to standing in a t-shirt in the crowd just seconds later.

I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor from that one and will likely spend an absurd amount of time in the coming days wondering just how he managed to pull that off.

There’s no magic to what’s working so well in Winnipeg. Success sells, and these really are the glory days for the franchise.

Every other organization should be picking the brain of president and CEO Wade Miller, especially considering how much the league is struggling elsewhere.

The Calgary Stampeders, for example, barely attracted 17,000 spectators for their home opener on Thursday. And word is the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who will host Winnipeg next week, still have more than 10,000 unsold seats for what would typically be an automatic full house.

It’s one thing when troubled markets like Toronto are having difficulty at the gate, but another matter entirely when some of your marquee Prairie ones are hurting.

Not the case here, where the good times just keep rolling.

You have to go all the way back to 1980 for the last time an organization won at least three Grey Cups in a four-year span. Edmonton added two more, in 1981 and 1982, to make it five straight. Prior to that, it was Winnipeg winning three in four years (and four in five years) way back in 1961 and 1962. Edmonton rattled off three in a row in the mid 1950s, while Toronto did the same a decade earlier. And that, folks, is it.

There’s a long way to go for the current Bombers crew to carve out a piece of history. Another 17 regular-season games and then two (or possibly three) playoff contests, and you can’t expect they’re all going to look as easy and lopsided as this one did. No doubt plenty of adversity will come their way.

But this is a battle-tested group that knows how to put the pedal to the metal. Based on what we saw Friday, don’t expect them to ease off the gas anytime soon.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg