Big Blue by the numbers

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This article was published 07/06/2023 (850 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Zero.

If you ask a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers how many minutes of the preseason were spent talking about last November’s Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts, that’s the number they’ll likely give you.

“Honestly, none. And I’m not just saying that. We didn’t talk about that at all, because it’s a new team,” veteran guard Patrick Neufeld said.

“It sounds like a broken record, but we’re so focused on the moment and we’re not going to do a disservice to ourselves by thinking about the past. the guys that were in that game will use it as a lesson, but we’re not going to dwell on it or talk about it.”

There are, however, numbers associated with a lot of important things worth keeping an eye on as the Bombers head into the 2023 campaign — which starts Friday night at IG Field against the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Here are just a few.

Two

The Bombers have lost the Grey Cup game on 15 different occasions. They’ve only come back and won it the following year twice (1939 and 1957).

1980

No CFL team has made it to four consecutive Grey Cups since Edmonton accomplished the feat in 1980. The Edmonton dynasty ended up reaching the championship game in six straight seasons (1977-82), winning five in a row after dropping the 1977 title game to the Montreal Alouettes. Hamilton (1984-86), Montreal (2008-10), and Calgary (2016-18) have all come close since, but this group of Bombers have a chance to accomplish something real special if they can own, at the very least, the West Division for at least one more year.

29-25

So, how did those Hamilton (1987), Montreal (2011) and Calgary (2019) teams fare after three straight appearances in the big game? Not well. Their combined record was 29-25 and all three lost in division semi-final round.

10

The Bombers are on an active playoff streak of six years which is their longest since 1996. More impressively, they’ve won 10-plus games in those six years, something the organization hadn’t achieved since 1957-62. If the Bombers can win at least 10 games in 2023, it’ll mark the first time the franchise has done so in seven straight seasons.

78.8

Zach Collaros needs to be better in the post-season. In the past two playoff runs, Collaros owns a 78.8 quarterback efficiency rating in those four games with four touchdown passes against seven interceptions. To put his rating into perspective, that’s a lower mark than what Dane Evans (90.2) and Taylor Cornelius (82.0) — arguably the two worst starting quarterbacks in the league in 2022 — had in the regular season.

47

The continuity the Bombers have is something you just don’t see in professional football. They have 47 players on the roster who suited up for at least one game with the team in 2022. It’s the same story with the coaching staff as Mike O’Shea has all nine of his assistants back from last year.

28.5

The Bombers are banking on age just being a number. Their roster has the oldest average age in the CFL, but it’s a lot closer than you think. Toronto, despite boasting the youngest group in the league, isn’t far behind with a 27.3 age average.

2012

It’s been more than a decade since the Bombers had not one, but two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season (Chris Matthews and Terrence Edwards). With Kenny Lawler returning to a receiving corps that includes last year’s Most Outstanding Rookie Dalton Schoen, all signs point to that drought coming to an end. With Lawler expected to miss at least the first few weeks owing to his suspension, that’s now up in the air.

30

That’s how many games receivers Greg Ellingson, Carlton Agudosi, Nic Demski, and Drew Wolitarsky missed last year due to injury. It seemed every time a pass catcher got healthy, a different one would go down. Ellingson has since moved on to Montreal, but if this group can do a better job at avoiding the injury bug, the Bombers offence could be even scarier.

36

The Bombers finished in eighth place last year in total sacks with 36. Calgary led the way with 56. Veteran defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat missing six games and being held to four quarterback takedowns didn’t help. The Blue and Gold no longer have the depth along the D-line that they once had, so a bounce-back season from Jeffcoat, 32, will be needed.

11

Speaking of sacks, defensive tackle Casey Sayles had 11 in his two years in Winnipeg. He was second on the team with six last year, trailing only Willie Jefferson who had seven. With Sayles, one of the team’s most underrated defenders, signing with Hamilton in the offseason, the Bombers are hoping Ricky Walker can step in and fill the void. Walker has been a rotational piece since joining the club in 2021 and has 22 tackles and two sacks in 19 games.

15

The biggest offseason departure on the offensive side of the ball was centre Michael Couture who inked a deal with his hometown B.C. Lions. A broken arm forced Couture to miss 12 games last year which opened the door for Chris Kolankowski to make a name for himself. The 31-year-old from Etobicoke, Ont., didn’t look like a guy who was without a team in 2019, as he picked up the slack and went on to impress in 15 starts for the Bombers. Kolankowski, who was drafted by the Argos back in 2016, now finds himself as an opening day starter for the first time in his career.

37

There’s an argument to be made that Stanley Bryant is the best offensive lineman in league history. At 37 years of age, how much longer can the four-time CFL Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award winner protect his quarterback’s blindside at a high level? Some of the best O-lineman of the past 15 years were all retired by 37: SirVincent Rogers (35), Jovan Olafioye (31), Josh Bourke (34), Ben Archibald (34), Scott Flory (37), and Rob Murphy (35).

1,001

Running back Brady Oliveira had a rough start to 2022. Through the first six weeks, he had 196 yards and a paltry 3.2 yards per carry average. Fortunately for the Bombers, the Winnipegger turned it around and finished his first season as a starter with 1,001 rushing yards on a 5.0 average. If Oliveira stays healthy and starts fast, he could be a darkhorse to win the league’s rushing title.

56.2

The Bombers are coming off a year in which they had the highest-scoring offence in the three-down game. A big reason for that was their effectiveness on second down as they converted 56.2 per cent of the time which set a CFL record (the league has been keeping track of the stat since 2006). Even though the offence didn’t suffer any major losses in the offseason, that will be a tough number to keep up.

85.5

Marc Liegghio’s days of kicking and punting for the Bombers are officially over. Liegghio, who made 78.7 per cent of his field goals in two seasons, was released in favour of veteran Sergio Castillo. In 59 career CFL games, Castillo has sent the ball through the uprights 85.5 per cent of the time. More importantly, Castillo has proven he can kick when the lights are bright and the temperatures are freezing as he went five-for-five in the 2021 Grey Cup. Liegghio also lost the punting gig to Australian Jamieson Sheahan out of the University of California. Sheahan is new to the pros, but turned a lot of heads in training camp. The Bombers, who were near the bottom of the league in nearly every punting and kicking stat in 2022, should see a drastic improvement from their specialists this year.

12

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You’d be hard pressed to find someone in the league that has been as consistent and dominant as Adam Bighill has been since 2011. The linebacker is heading into his 12th season of professional football, but this is his first time heading into Week 1 after missing all of training camp. The 34-year-old was sidelined for nearly three weeks with an infected toenail but has been cleared to play Friday. With fellow linebacker Kyrie Wilson starting the season on the six-game injured list, Bighill can’t afford to be rusty.

86

Mike O’Shea is four victories away from tying Cal Murphy for the second most coaching wins in franchise history at 86. The late, great Bud Grant sits on top of the mountain with 102. With O’Shea agreeing to a three-year extension in December, you can bet on him reaching the No. 1 spot in the near future.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.