Bombers crush Riders, earn another trip to Grey Cup

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This article was published 09/11/2024 (331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The road to redemption has officially been paved.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are once again division champions following a convincing 38-22 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL’s Western Final in front of a sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium Saturday night.

With the victory, the Bombers have punched their ticket to the Grey Cup in Vancouver, marking a fifth straight visit to the championship game.

Joining Winnipeg are the East Division champion Toronto Argonauts, who upset the top-seeded Montreal Alouettes but will be without No. 1 quarterback Chad Kelly owing to a broken ankle.

The Riders, who finished second in the West with a record of 9-8-1 and defeated the B.C. Lions in the West semifinal last weekend, are officially eliminated from the playoffs.

The Bombers are now a perfect 9-0 at home against their prairie rivals dating back to the 2021 West final – a 21-17 victory for Winnipeg.

As for the Blue and Gold, they’re re now just one win away from completing what felt like an impossible turnaround at the midway mark of the season, when they opened the year 0-4 and then 2-6.

But victories in nine of their final 10 games moved them back to the top of the mountain in the West, securing a home game in the division final.

“It’s a long season in the CFL, and for people to weigh in so much about what happens at the start of the season, it’s just silly because time and again you see teams come alive in the second half of the year,” said Bombers receiver Nic Demski. “We’re resilient. We stuck to the process. We stuck to our guns and we trust each other.

“Lots of times, stuff can kind of spiral out of control when you start a season off like that. But we trusted each other and knew what we could do in this building and it’s amazing to get the job done.”

The Bombers enter Grey Cup week with a collective chip on their shoulders after falling in back-to-back championship games, including against those same Argos, 24-23, in 2022. A win this season would give Winnipeg three Grey Cups in five years, cementing itself as a dynasty.

But before we look too far ahead, let’s take a closer look at Saturday’s win:

COLLAROS SILENCES CRITICS: Zach Collaros has faced a lot of critics this season after putting forth his least impressive campaign since joining the Bombers in 2019.

But while his overall passing touchdowns (17) were down and his interceptions up (15), Collaros’ final numbers weren’t indicative of his play in recent months.

Collaros has been a lot more like himself in the back half of the season and on Saturday he reminded the rest of the league that when the lights are brightest, he’s ready to shine.

The league’s two-time Most Outstanding Player came out firing, leading the Bombers to three touchdown drives on their second, third and fifth series to take a 24-9 lead at halftime.

The veteran pivot finished the game with a perfect passing rating (158.3), completing 19 of his 26 passes for 301 yards and four touchdowns.

Three of those TDs were reeled in by Kenny Lawler, who had an eye-popping 177 receiving yards on eight catches, with Demski hauling in the other score.

There was a lot of talk about the Riders stingy run defence and their penchant for creating turnovers, leading the league in that category by a large margin.

But that wouldn’t matter much for Brady Oliveira, who gashed the Riders for 119 yards on 20 carries, including a three-yard score early in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach, 38-16.

“We believed in one another, and we knew the people that we have on this team,” said Oliveira. “We have a great coaching staff that prepares us every single week. Saw it tonight— Buck (Pierce) called an incredible game.”

A BRICK WALL: They don’t always get the credit they deserve and, like many position groups on the club, the members of Winnipeg offensive line took their share of licks for inconsistent play early on.

Few could remember during that time that several key members of the O-line missed a majority of training camp, setting back the group at the start of the year, so it was going to take some time to gel.

They’re back to being the heartbeat of the team once again and they were beating as one against a relentless Saskatchewan front.

The Bombers didn’t surrender a single sack, giving Collaros a ton of time to operate in the pocket, and opened gaping holes for Oliveira in the run game.

“That’s our mentality, is we’re not out there to make friends, we’re out there to dominate, play physical, play fast, strike people and play our style of football,” said Bombers right guard Patrick Neufeld. “We talked about it all week, that they’re arguably one of the best defences, if not the best in the league, and we knew we were going to have our hands full.

“We know what Zach’s capable of — everyone in the CFL who likes this league knows what he’s capable of — so we just have to allow him to have the time to do that. We just fought our balls off every play, every snap.”

The offence piled up 482 yards, averaging nearly nine yards per play, including 194 yards on the ground. Winnipeg was nearly 60 per cent on second down and didn’t commit a single turnover, while finishing with touchdowns on both trips to the red zone.

It’s the kind of performance they will need to replicate against an Argos defence that is even better and has already defeated the Bombers in both games this season.

HUMBLING HARRIS: Willie Jefferson said following Friday’s walk-through that the key to beating the Riders was by humbling QB Trevor Harris.

Harris injured his knee early in the season but returned just more than a month ago and has been playing at a high level, named a West Division all-star despite missing six games.

The buzz around Harris was his ability to pick up defences quickly — Bombers defensive co-ordinator Jordan Younger even joked about being his former teammate to illustrate how experienced Harris is— and that it was important Winnipeg throw him some unfamiliar looks to mess with his reads.

Safe to say it worked. Harris struggled to get much going until late in the game and the score already out of each. He finished the game 25-for-44 passing for 283 yards and a TD — a 19-yard strike to Sam Emilus with just seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Bombers once again opted to employ mostly a three-man front, dropping nine into coverage.

They still managed to get to Harris for two sacks, but where they really made things difficult for the visitors was the stellar play of the secondary.

Notably Evan Holm, who had four pass knockdowns, including one in the end zone midway through the fourth quarter with the Riders facing third-and-goal from Winnipeg’s 11. Celestin Haba and Redha Kramdi had the sacks.

“JY gave us a bunch of different looks to show Trevor and everything was catch-tackle for the most part, other than a few plays,” said Holm. “They couldn’t break loose and we held it down.”

SECOND-HALF DOMINANCE: When the Riders opted to take the ball to start the second half and promptly moved down the field for a TD, cutting the Bombers’ lead to eight points, it was easy to wonder if momentum was starting to shift.

Winnipeg’s defence had other plans, however, suffocating Saskatchewan’s attack the rest of the way, minus the TD in garbage time.

After the score to open the third quarter, the Riders’ next seven drives were as follows: punt, punt, punt, turnover on downs, punt, turnover on downs and turnover on downs.

“It was a complete game — offence, defence and special teams,” said Winnipeg’s Jefferson. “We got some things we need to clean up but we’re onto B.C.”

Where the game seemed to really flip was early in the fourth quarter when the Riders, down 31-16, decided to gamble on third-and-three from their own 24-yard line.

An attempted pass was broken up by Bombers all-star corner Tyrell Ford, with the Bombers taking over and Oliveira scoring a TD two plays later.

“I felt like we had good answers and, unfortunately, we just didn’t make the play on third and three,” said Harris. “We had good stuff going into the game and if we played tomorrow, who knows what happens. We just didn’t execute and they did.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton