Blue gotta keep their edge

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This article was published 12/10/2011 (5167 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s latest dominance means nothing if they can’t duplicate the feat in Edmonton.

That was the message resonating around the playoff-bound Blue Bombers as they returned to the Canad Inns Stadium practice field Tuesday. While the 33-17 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats remains on the short list as one of the more complete games turned in from the Blue and Gold at this juncture, it rests as a distant memory now.

“That win was great, it was big for us, but we have a lot of work to do,” defensive back Brandon Stewart said after a spirited workout Tuesday. “That game felt good, we put it behind us. It’s on to Edmonton; we know we have another challenge ahead of us. They have a good team. We just have to be ready for Ricky Ray and the Eskimos.”

Larger contests loom on the horizon for this Blue and Gold team, but it says here the situation unfolds as this: Saturday’s road date in Edmonton (8-6) is the biggest game of the year for the Bombers based solely on the fact of what’s coming up after that. Those peeking ahead on the schedule notice the Montreal Alouettes — tied with the Bombers for top spot in the East with a 9-5 record — are coming to Winnipeg in 11 days. Yes, that contest will go a long way in determining who will lock up the first-round bye and the divisional final home date, but we’re not there yet.

“We have four games left… if we want to be first in the East we have to win these four games,” quarterback Buck Pierce said. “You really don’t have to look at the numbers right now. If we win (out) we have first place, and I think that’s the most important thing.”

Edmonton, in a first-place battle with two other teams in the West, is the one Winnipeg needs, a want that comes on a couple of fronts:

First, they would like to recapture some consistency in the win-loss column. Head coach Paul LaPolice believes great teams are able to string multiple wins together and earn separation from the rest of the field.

Don’t subscribe to that theory? OK, then look at Hamilton, a middling frustration that has continued to hover around mediocrity (the club has hit the .500 mark 16 times in the last three seasons). Not many would slot the Tiger-Cats in the upper-tier of the CFL right now, would they?

Second, Winnipeg needs to finish in first place; there’s no sugar-coating it. Yes, grabbing a home post-season date in the semifinal would be a terrific accomplishment for an operation that won four games last year, but it would look like a consolation prize at best. Don’t forget, Winnipeg was 7-1 at one point, so to not be able to close out a first-round bye in the late innings would be comparable to backing into the playoffs on a loss.

Teams typically want to be playing their best football at the end of the schedule. In recent years, though, that hasn’t really proven to be true in Winnipeg.

The last time the Bombers made the playoffs (2008), the club won six of its last eight games and hosted the East semifinal, only to lose to Edmonton (who crossed over). In 2007, when Winnipeg went to the Grey Cup, the Bombers finished out a 10-7-1 campaign with just two wins in the final five games before finding some playoff mojo.

No one said forecasting momentum is an exact science.

LaPolice said he doesn’t fully subscribe to the idea of peaking at the right time — which would be right about now, for those paying attention — as the regular season winds down. That said, he won’t discount what late-season wins and the spinoff good vibrations can do for a group.

“I want us to play well each week and control as you go,” he said. “Certainly having confidence (from those wins) each week is a big part of that.”

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @wazoowazny