The Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeated the Ottawa Redblacks by a score of 25-16 in front of 28,719 fans at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday night. Below are my thoughts on the game.
Old school football
If you’ve never watched a football game from the 1950s, Friday’s contest in Winnipeg provided an excellent opportunity to do so — no time machine necessary.
With Zach Collaros out of the lineup and Dru Brown exiting the game late in the first half — more on that in a moment — the Redblacks and Blue Bombers relied heavily on the run game, harkening back to an era in which the forward pass was considered little more than a gimmick. There were handoffs, pitches, options, draws — you name it, the teams ran it (pun intended).
“I do enjoy that kind of football, it’s very pleasing,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “I think in the first half — I don’t know what the score was in the first half — it may have seemed a little boring, but not for us on the sideline. For our team, that’s pretty cool.”
Brady Oliveira had his first 100-yard game of the season despite momentarily leaving the field for undisclosed reasons, finishing with 23 carries for 129 yards. Chris Streveler, who completed 13-of-21 pass attempts for 127 yards, ran 13 times for 79 yards and the team’s lone touchdown.
The dual-threat passer was smiling from ear to ear after the game. You’d never know how many hits he’d sustained during the game, including a dangerous headshot from Tobias Harris (more on that in a moment).
“I just know how hard these guys work in this building and what we expect of ourselves is high, so to start the season the way we did, it’s frustrating, but guys put their heads down, they continued to work, continued to push day in and day out and it showed up tonight. I just can’t tell you enough about the way these guys continued to push and work and now we’ve just gotta keep building,” said Streveler.
“It’s emotional, it feels good. To not have played a lot of football in the last five years, it’s very exciting, but it’s about the guys in that locker room. That’s why it’s so special because I love this team and I love that locker room — that’s what makes it that much sweeter and it just feels great.”
In total, Ottawa and Winnipeg combined to finish the game with 253 passing yards and 392 rushing yards. If that’s not old-school football, I’m not sure what is.
Bring the heat
Winnipeg’s defensive front showed significant improvement rushing the passer on Friday, led by Willie Jefferson. The five-time CFL all-star started the season off relatively slowly but had two tackles, one sack, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery to lead the way against Ottawa. He also chased Dru Brown to the sideline in the second quarter, drawing a penalty for intentional grounding.
Kyrie Wilson and Devin Adams recorded sacks as well, matching the team’s total from their first four games combined.
“Things are just clicking for us,” said Jefferson. “Getting off the ball, getting to the quarterback, getting in his face, trying to make it hard for him. Same thing for the rest of the defensive line — trying to get them to throw some bad balls to the back end. We were able to get our hands on a few.”
Winnipeg’s defence generated only four takeaways over their first four games but forced three against the Redblacks.
Evan Holm jumped on a backward pass intended for Ryquell Armstead and Terrell Bonds got his first career interception when Dustin Crum threw a deep shot intended for Dominique Rhymes and Bonds simply ran the route for him. He returned it 28 yards near midfield, giving Winnipeg’s offence great field position.
“(Forcing turnovers) is exactly what we need to do as new as a Winnipeg defence,” said Jefferson. “That’s what we do — we take the ball away and give our offence opportunities to put the ball in the end zone. That way, we can pin our ears back and get to it.”
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
Dru Brown’s return to Princess Auto Stadium was spoiled late in the second quarter when he took a hit to the head from strong-side linebacker Redha Kramdi and didn’t return.
The hit occurred after Brown fled the pocket in search of a first down on second-and-seven. He slid a few yards shy of Adam Bighill, who was positioned directly in front of him, and took Kramdi’s shoulder to the head, causing his helmet to fly off.
Let’s be clear: it was an illegal hit from Kramdi. Quarterbacks need to be protected, especially when it comes to head injuries. Kramdi was correctly charged with roughing the passer, moving Ottawa into the red zone.
Kramdi didn’t shy away from discussing the play postgame, admitting he made a mistake.
“It was a second-and-long. He ran and it happened fast. I don’t want — like, he played here. I don’t want to see him injured. He was close to the sticks. I dove, he slid. I was late, obviously, and I get that fans are gonna say I’m a dirty player and all that — they have their reasons to. For whatever it’s worth, I apologize and I don’t want to see someone hurt,” said Kramdi.
“A penalty is a penalty, so I’m not gonna find an excuse. When a QB slides, you don’t even have to touch him, they’ll just blow it dead. I’ve just gotta do a better job and not hurt Dru.”
Ball carriers have two choices: slide early to avoid being hit or stay upright to fight for extra yardage. You can’t have it both ways, which is why one could argue Brown should have slid earlier. It’s also possible that Brown didn’t see Kramdi until the last moment, as the defender was pursuing him from a near-perpendicular angle. Upon replay, Brown started his slide exactly as Kramdi ducked to make his tackle.
O’Shea, who was critical of his team for taking eight penalties for 95 yards, explained that the command centre is now responsible for the spot of the ball when a quarterback slides. In the old days, a quarterback would slide and get positive yardage until they were touched. Now, forward progress stops as soon as a quarterback starts to slide.
The Redblacks got one back in the third quarter when Tobias Harris went helmet-to-helmet on a sliding Chris Streveler, causing the quarterback’s helmet to bounce violently off the turf. Strangely, no flag was thrown, though the command centre stepped in to assess a 15-yard penalty for spearing. The Blue Bombers were awarded a first down at Ottawa’s seven-yard line, though they were unable to capitalize with a touchdown.
Bully ball
Chris Streveler indicated that Winnipeg challenged its offensive line to be more physical this week and it appears they rose to the occasion, controlling the line of scrimmage against Ottawa’s defensive front.
“I think we did a pretty good job of responding,” said veteran offensive lineman Patrick Neufeld. “As an offensive line, we envision ourselves as leaders on this team and we want to lead from the front and getting back to that style, I think everyone’s gonna rally behind it. It’s kind of like, ‘OK, those guys are out there hitting people and running out for the ball and playing with some reckless abandon’ and guys are gonna follow.”
“It’s better that they respond than they don’t, then you’re into a different set of conversations,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “They do well and they don’t need that (reminder) — they haven’t needed that in a long time, it’s not often. They certainly wanted to play more physical, too, they just had to let it go, not worry about things, and just run.”
The Blue Bombers pride themselves on playing “bully ball,” an in-house term that describes the act of physically dominating the opposition at the point of attack.
“That’s how it should be,” said Brady Oliveira. “We showed tonight that that’s our brand of football, that’s what we’d like to play here and we finally got back to it. There’s always room for improvement. We’ve gotta come back here and watch the tape tomorrow and see how we can get better because there’s always things to improve on.”
Must-win
With the victory on Friday, the Blue Bombers avoided going 0-5 for the first time since 1998 amid the miserable Jeff Reinebold era. They also avoided surpassing last season’s loss total and matching their home loss total from the last three seasons combined.
This team still has a lot of work to do at 1-4 but this felt like a must-win game, playing at home against an opponent coming off a short week. It wasn’t pretty but they got the job done, even without their starting quarterback.
I always roll my eyes a little bit when people say, “The CFL season starts at Labour Day!” Sure, it’s important for teams to play their best football after Labour Day — just look at the Montreal Alouettes last year — but wins count for just as many points in the summer as they do in the fall.
Thanks to their atrocious start, Winnipeg still has a long way to go if they have any hope of hosting the West Final for a fourth straight year.
Walking wounded
Brady Oliveira missed a series during the fourth quarter and was seen on the sideline with a football under one of his arms. He occasionally swung it back and forth, almost as if he was testing to see if he’d feel any pain, before returning to the game. He didn’t give a reason for his momentary absence postgame.
Terrell Bonds, the rookie cornerback who recorded his first career interception, left the game with an apparent leg injury and didn’t return.
Smart and angry
Regardless of Friday’s outcome, it’s worth noting that Mike O’Shea was smart to hold Zach Collaros out this game, even if the franchise quarterback was angry with the decision.
Winnipeg’s rushing attack was impressive but it’s hard to imagine that type of attack being sustainable given how much abuse Chris Streveler took from opposing defenders.
Unleashing the dual-threat quarterback for a one-off game in July? Great. Turning the offence over to him for an extended time, which may have happened had Collaros played and made his injury worse? Not so great.
The CFL season is a marathon, not a sprint. Just like Saskatchewan was wise to hold Trevor Harris out until he’s back to 100 percent, this was a smart decision from the Blue Bombers.
Run and throw
Though the play was negated by penalty, I loved what offensive coordinator Buck Pierce drew up midway through the first quarter.
Chris Streveler ran play-action with Brady Oliveira, then tucked the ball under his arm and sprinted to his left. Just as he reached the line of scrimmage, he pulled the ball up and threw it to Ontaria Wilson — almost in one smooth motion — near the sideline, resulting in an 18-yard catch-and-run.
If a CFL quarterback has ever tucked the ball, sprinted like a running back, then thrown a pass at the last second, I can’t remember it happening. It was fun and effective.
If you ask Streveler to stand in the pocket and play the quarterback position in a traditional style — which appeared to be what happened throughout his NFL career — the results will probably leave much to be desired. If you can design plays to maximize his skill set, you can have a lot of success. Though they struggled to finish drives, Winnipeg showed that against the Redblacks on Friday.
Taking cover
Winnipeg’s special teams cover units have continued to improve with each passing game and limited the dangerous DeVonte Dedmon to 49 yards on six punt returns.
Arguably the best play of the night came early in the fourth quarter when Michael Ayers laid out Dedmon at Ottawa’s 23-yard line. The hit was ruthless — but clean — and brought the fans at Princess Auto Stadium to their feet. Those are the types of plays — the energizing ones that can really provide a spark — Winnipeg missed amid an 0-4 start.
O’Shea disagreed to an extent, suggesting that his players may not have been paying enough attention to what their teammates were doing during the club’s 0-4 start.
“We might have been watching (for those types of plays). We might have been looking at our own stuff instead of looking outward and seeing how your teammates are doing for you,” said O’Shea.
Ayers, a rookie out of Ashland University, entered Week 5 tied for the league lead in special teams tackles. He seems like a nice find for the club and “plays the game the right way,” according to his head coach.
It should also be noted that Sergio Castillo was sensational yet again, going a perfect six-for-six on his field goal attempts. Two kicks came from 53 yards out, while another was booted from a distance of 49 yards.
Uni watch
I’m probably the last person who should be giving fashion advice, but Ottawa’s plain black pants are boooooooring. According to a Google search, stripes harken back to Medieval times, though they also occur in nature on animals like zebras, skunks, bass, and hyenas. The Redblacks would be wise to put one on their extraordinarily dull pants.
Next up
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1-4) will host the Calgary Stampeders (2-1) on Friday, July 12 with kickoff slated for 8:30 p.m. EDT. The two teams met in Calgary last week with the Stampeders winning 22-19 on the strength of an overtime field goal from Rene Paredes. Next week’s game will be the second and final meeting between the two teams this year, which means the season series is up for grabs.
The Stampeders have yet to play in Week 5 as the team is scheduled to visit the Montreal Alouettes (4-0) on Saturday, July 6. Don’t forget to bring a donation to Princess Auto Stadium next week as Purolator Tackle Hunger will be collecting non-perishable food items for those in need.
