West Division foes about to become familar

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This article was published 18/10/2019 (2152 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CALGARY — With the Winnipeg Blue Bombers having back-to-back games against the Calgary Stampeders to close out the regular season, and then having a good chance to meet again in the playoffs, the two West Division rivals are going to get to know each other pretty well.

Depending on what happens over these next two games, the success of one team over the other could dictate where that post-season game will be played between the two cities. The Bombers, at 10-6, are in third place in the division, one spot below the 10-5 Stampeders. The Bombers, of course, are hoping for a pair of victories to prevent another visit to McMahon Stadium to play the Stampeders, where they are 37-7 over the past five seasons.

If the Bombers can sweep the season series, at the very least they would host the West semifinal at IG Field.

“Hopefully we can win these two games and have a home playoff game for ourselves. That’s absolutely the goal but we definitely understand we’re going to be playing Calgary somewhere at some point (in the playoffs),” Bombers running back Andrew Harris said. “That’s definitely in the back of our minds but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves, we just need to worry about the game at hand.”

It wasn’t lost on Calgary either that their next few weeks could be filled with blue and gold. The Stampeders are known for their ability to adjust on the fly — they have just three of 12 starters back on defence this year and yet haven’t missed a beat — but according to quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, it’s neither an advantage or disadvantage for either side.

“It’s different because you get so used to them and at the same time they can switch around personnel, they can switch around game plans and, to me, Winnipeg is a team that can really switch around the game plan a lot,” Mitchell said. “They’ve got a lot of different guys at key positions that can do some different things. They’ve basically got three or four SAM linebackers on the field, so they’ve got a lot of things they can do in the sense of moving guys around.”

The hope for the Bombers is to finish first in the West — a journey that requires Winnipeg winning both its games and the Saskatchewan Roughriders dropping two of their final three — because it would come with a home-field advantage and a much-desired bye in the first round. But even if the Bombers are unable to claim the division, they will still get a break ahead of their first playoff game, as Winnipeg is the lone team to have a bye in the final week of the regular season.

It’s something Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea sees as a serious positive for his club.

“It’s excellent. The desire, one of the steps you’d like to take is win the West and have that bye week… we’re fortunate enough to have a last-week bye and so it just works out that way,” O’Shea said. “So we got a chance to get healthy and get extra prep in, which is excellent.”

The Bombers have made the playoffs the last three seasons but have just one victory over that stretch. Last season was their most successful, making it to the West final only to lose to Calgary 22-14 at McMahon Stadium.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton