Bombers still control post-season destiny

Jake Ceresna was confident he was putting pen to paper with a Grey Cup contender.

When the star defensive tackle signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in free agency back in February, did he foresee any scenario in which they’d be under .500 at this point in the season and in danger of missing the playoffs?

“That’s a good question,” Ceresna admitted after Wednesday’s closed practice.

“Obviously, at the beginning of the year, you think you’re gonna go 18-0. But the reality of life is there’s roller-coasters. There’s going to be hard times, there’s going to be good times. We’re in the valley right now and we just have to come out of it and get back to the peak.”

The Bombers still might be a threat to hoist the silver mug, but they sure didn’t look like it Saturday in Montreal where they were embarrassed 37-10 by the Alouettes.

The Als had more first downs (36) than the Bombers had plays (30).

“You go into the film room the next day after a game and you’re looking forward to highlights and I think we only had one or two,” said receiver Nic Demski, who didn’t record a single catch for just the third time in the past six seasons.

“At the end of the day, our No. 1 goal is to stay on the field and extend drives and we didn’t do that. When you don’t do that, you don’t have many plays that are played. We’ve got to do a better job, it’s no secret, everybody knows it.”

The loss dropped the Blue and Gold to 7-8 and thrust them into must-win territory this week. They host the Calgary Stampeders (8-8) on Saturday (6 p.m. kickoff) in what will be one of the most important regular-season games played around these parts in recent memory.

If the Bombers lose, the only team remaining in the West Division that they can leapfrog into the playoffs is the Saskatchewan Roughriders (8-7) since they own the tiebreaker over them. But if the Bombers win, they’ll also own the tiebreaker over Calgary heading into the final two weeks.

As discouraging as their most recent outing was, they still believe, and they still control their own destiny.

“If you get stuck in the past, you’re going to get stomped over the next week,” said Demski.

“Luckily enough, we still got a chance to go out there and earn our spot. So, one week at a time and this week is definitely the biggest week come to date. We’ve got to go out there, handle business and go 1-0. We’ve got to go back to our standard of going 1-0 at the end of each week.”

The shellacking might even serve as a wake-up call.

“If you hold onto it too long and have too much anger, you’re probably not going to do your assignment the right way. But if you do have that in the back of your mind and kind of have a bad taste and use that for fuel in the right way, then I think it can be a positive,” said Demski.

“I don’t think anybody was happy with how last week unfolded. I think it would be in the best interest of everybody to have a sour taste and come out swinging.”

The Bombers haven’t been on the ropes like this in quite some time. They have the longest playoff streak in the league, dating back to 2016.

“It’s not all doom and gloom. The West is extremely tight; we’ve lost games that are close, we’ve lost games where we felt like if we had another play here or there, we would’ve won. So it could’ve been a different story, but that’s not the case,” said right guard Patrick Neufeld.

“We’re not looking at it like it’s the end of the world, the sky’s falling; we’re looking at it like, ‘Hey, let’s control what we can control and take this one play at a time, one game at a time, and do the best we can preparing for Calgary and play a great game in front of our home fans.’”

And they might — just might — be getting a boost at the game’s most important position.

Starting quarterback Zach Collaros (head) was listed on Wednesday’s injury report as a limited participant. It was his first time participating in any capacity since suffering the setback in the Banjo Bowl.

Backup quarterback Dru Brown has gone 2-4 in six starts this season.

“Yeah, you know me. I’ll never call it. Always give him an opportunity,” said head coach Mike O’Shea on Collaros potentially playing this week.

“I would say he’s improving.”

They could certainly use him. The Stamps have won three straight, although two of those victories came against winless Ottawa, and they smacked the Bombers 52-30 on their last visit to Winnipeg in Week 8.

Calgary leads the league in scoring (35.9 points per game), and quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. is peaking at the right time as he threw four touchdowns last week in Regina in a 37-31 win over the Riders.

Whether it’s Collaros or Brown, the Bombers have their work cut out for them if they want to keep up with that attack.

“We need to play our brand of football. It’s no lie we didn’t do that last week,” said Demski.

“I think if we do that, everybody’s seen it, when we can really get together and start meshing together and play good football together, it’s a scary thing on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve just got to hunker down and do the damn thing.”

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