Bombers steamroll Tiger-Cats

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This article was published 04/10/2024 (534 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HAMILTON — The Winnipeg Blue Bombers took a significant step forward in locking up the West Division with a 31-10 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field Friday night.

The Bombers also continued their dominance across the league, earning their eighth consecutive victory to improve to 10-6. Only the Montreal Alouettes have a better record, at 11-3-1, but aren’t playing at near the same level as the Blue and Gold right now, with just one victory in their last four games.

With the win over the Ticats, the Bombers have clinched a home playoff game, unable to finish any lower than second in the West. If the Saskatchewan Roughriders tie or lose against the Edmonton Elks today, the Bombers would clinch the division for a fourth year in a row with two games remaining in the regular season.

It’s been a remarkable turnaround for Winnipeg after starting the season 0-4 and then 2-6, only to rip off eight straight victories. The Bombers are playing their best football at the right time, but no one is looking to celebrate just yet.

“There’s more work to be done,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said. “This is extremely pleasing, absolutely, but we’ll never arrive. Let’s just keep working at it.”

The Ticats were among the hottest teams in the CFL heading into the weekend, having won their last four games to improve to 6-9 and stay alive in the playoff race. But Friday’s loss is crushing, putting Hamilton’s chances of earning a post-season berth in serious peril.

At 6-10, Hamilton will need some major help from other teams across the league for a chance to compete for the Grey Cup. It certainly was bad timing for the Ticats for the Bombers to break the curse at Tim Hortons Field, where they hadn’t won a regular season game since August of 2017.

Let’s dig deeper into this one.

Keeping up with Jones

The Ticats scooped up Chris Jones after he was fired from the Edmonton Elks earlier this season, and the results were almost instant.

Hamilton’s defence had been trending in the right direction, averaging six fewer points against during its win streak compared to the first 11 games. They were still surrendering an average of 27 offensive points against per game, which keeps them in the bottom third of the league, but the belief was that they would only improve from there.

That certainly wasn’t the case, as the Bombers put up 31 points, 393 yards of offence and dominated the time of possession, 38:07 to 21:53 – a full 16 minutes more than their opponent in a 60-minute game. Winnipeg was 60 per cent on second down, averaged 6.7 yards per play and surrendered just one sack.

Zach Collaros didn’t come close to the six-touchdown performance from a week ago, where he threw for more than 400 yards, but he played a clean game and did what he needed to do to move the chains and keep the offence on the field. Collaros finished his night 13-for-19 passing for 201 yards and a TD — a perfect 25-yard pass to rookie Kevens Clercius in the back left corner of the end zone in what was his first CFL score.

Backup QB Terry Wilson punched in a couple of one-yard TDs, which were also the first two of his professional career, running back Brady Oliveira added another rushing score, while Sergio Castillo rounded out the scoring with a 22-yarder on his lone field goal attempt. Interestingly, despite Castillo having a CFL single-season record of nine FGs beyond 50 yards this season, including two from 60, the Bombers opted not to attempt two 55-yarders, in what head coach O’Shea said was owing to a sneaky wind and the overall feel of the game.

 

MOP watch

Oliveira climbed the list of front runners for the league’s Most Outstanding Player award in recent weeks and his stock only went up following another stellar performance in this one.

Offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce went to his punishing RB early and often, with Oliveira racking up 27 rushing yards on the game’s opening series, and then leaned on the CFL’s rushing leader down the stretch after building up a healthy lead. The Winnipeg native ended the night with a season-high 147 yards on 24 carries – an impressive 6.1 yards per run. He also had one catch for 15 yards.

Speaking of Jones, one of the trademarks of his defence is daring teams to run with various blitz packages. That turned out to be a bad decision, as the Bombers stuck to the ground attack all night, all too happy to hand it to Oliveira, who now has four TDs in his last three games and is now no doubt the frontrunner for MOP out of the West.

“They knew we were going to run the ball and we forced them to make a decision to try and stop us,” Oliveira said. “The offensive line played extremely well and made it easy for me tonight, as well as the receivers protecting the edges. We’re resilient; we’re fighting right now. I think we needed to go through those hard times and start 0-4, and now we’re playing our best football at the right time. It’s really pleasing to see.”

Indeed, the Bombers O-line was simply brilliant, with the five-man group up front opening several holes for Oliveira. Back to full health, they’ve been among the best units on the team and are once again the heartbeat of this club.

 

Defence steps up

This is sounding like a broken record by now, but the Bombers defence put forth another strong effort and continues to reach new levels at a time the games are only getting tougher.

Like Oliveira, Ticats QB Bo Levi Mitchell was garnering a lot of attention for his recent play, with many feeling he could be the MOP nominee out of the East as the CFL leader in passing yards and TDs. Instead, Mitchell looked rather pedestrian, even if he had a few notable passes dropped by his receivers, finishing 15-for-28 for 217 yards, a TD and two interceptions – bringing him to a league-worst 16 picks this year – and was benched for Taylor Powell late in the fourth quarter.

What’s even more impressive is the Bombers were down two defensive starters at halftime, with both weakside linebacker Michael Ayers and safety Brandon Alexander ruled out at the break. Defensive co-ordinator Jordan Younger worked his magic on the fly, bringing in several different packages and players – including brothers Nick and Noah Hallett, Jake Kelly and Brian Cole – with glowing results.

“It’s hard to beat us,” Bombers defensive end Willie Jefferson said. “We had some guys go down but the guys that stepped in stepped up and were ready to play. We were all ready to lean on one another, make some plays and communicate. Behind enemy lines, in enemy territory, in a hard place to win, we came in and did it, got the job done.”

Winnipeg shutout Hamilton in the second half, marking the first time the Ticats have been blanked in the final 30 minutes of a game this season. By night’s end, the Bombers had surrendered just 274 yards, including just 30 on the ground, 12 first downs, put up three sacks and had three takeaways.

Tyrell Ford registered his league-leading seventh interception, while Deatrick Nichols also had a pick. Fittingly, the game was sealed on a strip sack from TyJuan Garbutt that was recovered by Jefferson.

 

Up next

The Bombers return home to take on the Toronto Argonauts in Week 19 action at Princess Auto Stadium Friday night.

The Bombers dropped the first and only meeting between the two clubs, with Toronto edging Winnipeg 16-14 in overtime back on July 27.

The Argos are on the bye this week and in a fight for second place in the East Division, with a 37-31 win over the CFL-leading Montreal Alouettes in Week 17 improving their record to 8-7.

“We’re moving in the right direction, but we got to get back to work tomorrow,” Collaros said. “Just because we won today, that doesn’t necessarily translate to Toronto next week. It’s a great team over there. They’ve had a lot of success, great coaching staff. So, it’s going to be a challenge.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton