The Winnipeg Blue Bombers spanked the B.C. Lions by a score of 25-0 on Thursday night in front of 31,589 fans at Princess Auto Stadium. Below are my thoughts on the game.
D-lightful
The Blue Bombers completely shut down the CFL’s most potent offensive attack on Thursday, allowing zero points, four first downs, and 102 net yards.
“Maybe they took us lightly, I don’t know,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “I thought our pass rush got after it pretty damn good.”
It’s unclear how long it’s been since a CFL defence held an opponent to only four first downs, though 3DownNation has requested confirmation from the league. This article will be updated when a figure is provided.
The game marked Winnipeg’s first shutout since they beat B.C. 45-0 on Oct. 23, 2021.
The Blue Bombers’ secondary has been arguably the best in the CFL since getting lit up by Vernon Adams Jr. in Week 3 and lived up to that billing on Thursday, allowing only nine completions for 86 yards.
Evan Holm and Terrell Bonds made crushing tackles to force third downs in the first quarter, Tyrell Ford intercepted his third pass of the season, and Deatrick Nichols almost picked off a dig route intended for Justin McInnis. McInnis, the league’s leading receiver, finished the game with zero catches on three targets.
INTERCEPTION 💥
Tyrell Ford jumps the route and gets his offence back on the field!#CFLGameday on TSN & RDS
📲: CFL+ pic.twitter.com/9qvxx56c6D— CFL (@CFL) August 2, 2024
“(Adams) didn’t see the things he wanted to see right away and we got him off his spot and we made it tough on him. I thought we had a lot of great pressure up front tonight closing the pocket, making him feel uncomfortable,” said linebacker Adam Bighill.
“If you looked at the back-end coverage, there wasn’t a lot open, either. Vernon had really tight windows he had to look at all night and the rush was on him enough that he didn’t take advantage maybe of some things that were out there. This is a team sport — a team game — and as a defence, I thought we played really well tonight.”
When asked if his team’s secondary is underrated, O’Shea — who appears to be fighting a bad cold — smiled wryly.
“It’s good that way,” he said through phlegm. “Let them toil in obscurity. It’s perfect.”
Winnipeg’s secondary hasn’t had the benefit of a very effective pass rush in front of them for most of the season, yet they’ve been very good. Their performance reached new heights on Thursday as Bighill, Devin Adams, Willie Jefferson, and TyJuan Garbutt got home for sacks. Unlike in previous weeks, the defence didn’t have to rely on sending extra players to generate pressure, instead getting home with only three or four rushers.
It was certainly a breakout performance from Garbutt, who made only his third career start after opening the season on the six-game injured list. His head coach believes we’ve yet to see the best from him.
“It’s going to keep coming,” said O’Shea. “We liked him a lot (coming out of training camp), he just got knicked up. I think he’s just going to keep getting better and better.”
“He had a great game,” said fellow defensive end Willie Jefferson. “This is game three for him and he finally got the chance to go knock all the rust off. You’re seeing him at his prime right now, so all we need him to do is to keep it going, stay confident, and play within the system like we did tonight.”
When asked if Garbutt’s performance reminded him of playing opposite Jackson Jeffcoat many years, Jefferson smiled.
“It was fun,” he said. “Jackson on the other side is Jackson on the other side. Ty on the other side is bringing a whole different dynamic. I love the way Ty plays, I loved the way Jackson plays, but this is Ty’s time.”
Winnipeg’s defence has allowed only 220 passing yards and nine offensive points over the team’s last two games, which is virtually unheard of in the CFL.
Getting Lucky
Lucky Whitehead made six catches for 56 yards and a touchdown in his first action of the 2024 season. His first catch came on a drag route that went for ten yards on second-and-fifteen, which drew what may have been the loudest cheer ever to accompany a failed second-down conversion for the home side at Princess Auto Stadium.
Whitehead has been a deep threat for most of his career but excelled making plays underneath for the Blue Bombers with 44 of his yards coming after the catch. His touchdown came on a six-yard stick route that he secured before spinning around to power into the end zone through a defender.
“Don’t forget it, I’m an all-star in this league. I know how to play the game,” he said. “It was a great game plan for myself and I kept it very simple so I could play fast.”
The short passing game was a refreshing change of pace for the Blue Bombers as it took pressure off a struggling offensive line (more on that in a moment). There’s still a time and place to look deep but getting the ball out quickly has always been a great way to mitigate the opposing pass rush. After last week’s protection disaster in Toronto, B.C.’s front four wasn’t much of a factor on Thursday.
Fans have been clamouring for Whitehead to start ever since he joined Winnipeg’s practice roster three weeks ago, which is understandable given his popularity. It should be noted, however, that he was a healthy scratch at the end of his tenure with the Blue Bombers in 2019, never starting a game alongside Zach Collaros. He was also demoted to a backup role during the playoffs with B.C. last year.
Regardless, it’s clear Whitehead enjoyed the warm reception he got from the crowd.
“I love them all, I love the love that they showed me. They welcomed me back with open arms — even when I was on the other sideline, there was still love,” he said. “It was a great welcome back and I’m so happy that I got to put on a good show.”
Short weeks
There’s been plenty of talk so far this season about playing games on only four days of rest with McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Jason Maas speaking out against the scheduling quirk, citing player safety concerns. This was Winnipeg’s first of two short weeks this season, the second of which will take place later this month when the Blue Bombers host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 23, just five days after visiting the B.C. Lions.
Sources close to the CFL’s scheduling process have shared two papers with 3DownNation — a 2020 study from the American Journal of Sports Medicine and a 2023 study from the Journal of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine — that investigated the effects of short weeks on player injuries in the NFL. The first indicated that fewer injuries on average took place on short weeks, while the second found a slight uptick in injuries.
There were plenty of injuries on Thursday night, though none appeared to be the result of Winnipeg playing on so little rest. Chris Kolankowski left Thursday’s game during the second quarter with what appeared to be a right ankle injury, though he returned after missing only one series. Ontaria Wilson also left late in the third quarter with one of his arms hanging limp at his side but returned shortly thereafter.
There was a frightening play just before halftime as B.C. defensive lineman Josh Banks and Winnipeg linebacker Michael Ayers collided on a kickoff. Banks immediately collapsed and appeared to momentarily be unconscious, while Ayers briefly collected himself before falling to the turf as well. Both players walked off under their own steam but didn’t return.
It’s tough to draw any strong conclusions based on one game but Winnipeg looked no worse for wear playing on a short week. The team’s only injury that appeared serious came on a special teams collision, the type of play that has the league questioning whether or not it should be changed.
Adam Bighill has played almost 200 career CFL games but looked no worse for wear in the locker room. He doesn’t appear to think short weeks are a problem.
“At the end of the day, we love playing ball. If you’re telling us after our last game we’ve gotta wait five more days to play, great — we get to play quicker than normal. What we’ve talked about with this group is whatever it takes — anytime, anywhere,” he said.
“If they tell us we’re playing tomorrow, shoot, let’s go grab our stuff, let’s go, it doesn’t matter. Our mindset is that we want to be the grittiest team that can handle these situations. We’re not looking for excuses, we’re looking for opportunities to display our hard work and the amount of confidence we have in each other.”
After the game, I asked head coach Mike O’Shea if the media makes too much of short weeks. He left a long pause before answering.
“Our guys, they do what we ask them to do,” he said. “And we try to take care of them.”
Sergio excels
After a poor outing last week, Sergio Castillo had a sensational bounce-back game against the Lions, going a perfect six-for-six on field goals with kicks from distances of 60 and 51 yards. The 60-yard boot was made with little to no wind at his back.
This video was recorded about one minute after the kick. Very little wind. pic.twitter.com/irm7Mcolch
— John Hodge (@JohnDHodge) August 2, 2024
Castillo now has two 60-yard field goals this season, becoming the first kicker in CFL history to do so in a single year.
O-line shuffle
Patrick Neufeld was moved to the six-game injured list ahead of Thursday’s game due to a knee injury, leaving an opening at right guard. Rather than fill it with Tui Eli, who has dressed for 42 career CFL games with five starts, Winnipeg opted to start Kendall Randolph, a University of Alabama product who started only two collegiate games along the offensive line, primarily contributing as a blocking tight end.
Mike O’Shea has always raved about Eli but sometimes you have to ignore what people say and pay attention to what they do. If the Blue Bombers felt Eli — or second-round 2024 CFL Draft pick Gabe Wallace, for that matter — gave them the best chance to win, Randolph wouldn’t have been chosen to replace Neufeld in the starting lineup.
Randolph took an illegal procedure penalty in the first half, though there were no other obvious mistakes. The line was certainly solid in the run game, helping Brady Oliveira rush 17 times for 100 yards, his third 100-yard game of the year.
The unit allowed a sack on Winnipeg’s second offensive possession as there appeared to be a miscommunication in blitz pickup with B.C. rushing seven. Stanley Bryant chipped middle linebacker Ben Hladik on his way through the B gap but he was otherwise unblocked, bringing down Zach Collaros for a loss of eight yards. After the one early breakdown, Collaros appeared to have plenty of time to operate.
Collaros finished the game completing 27-of-33 pass attempts for 295 yards and one touchdown. He appeared to be directing traffic a few times as his receivers struggled to consistently line up correctly.
“We have a lot of different personnels and a lot of different motions,” said Collaros. “We need to get better at that.”
The veteran quarterback also came to the defence of his offensive line, saying the unit shouldn’t have been under the microscope this week, insinuating that he didn’t do enough to get rid of the football quickly last week against Toronto.
Offensive coordinator Buck Pierce recently moved from the booth to the sideline, which O’Shea indicated was done to try something different. Through two weeks, the change appears to be paying dividends.
Season series
The season series between Winnipeg and B.C. is now tied at one game apiece with the rubber match set for Sunday, Aug. 18 in Vancouver.
It’s never too early to start thinking about playoff scenarios in the West Division and, though the Blue Bombers still have a long way to go at 3-6, they did themselves a massive favour with a stellar performance on Thursday.
The Lions still have a four-point lead and a game in hand, though this still feels like a legitimate race between the two clubs. Had Winnipeg lost this one, the race would have essentially been over with half a season yet to be played.
Pokey, man
Ontaria Wilson had another strong outing, catching seven passes for 112 yards. His best catch of the night came in the first quarter when he dove near midfield to secure a 35-yard gain, getting Winnipeg out of a field position hole.
It remains early in his CFL career but Wilson seems destined to be a star in Bomberland. Aside from a few drops, which he’s cleaned up lately, he’s shown he can do everything you want to see in a CFL receiver — he’s fast, he has strong hands, he can make plays after the catch, he can separate from opposing defensive backs, and he blocks hard.
Once Kenny Lawler returns, which could be as early as Winnipeg’s next game, it should be even easier for Wilson to make an impact.
Given the boot
It was a game to forget for Jamieson Sheahan as a first-quarter punt went off the side of his foot for 21 yards and a third-quarter boot landed out of bounds, drawing a 15-yard penalty. He finished the night with five punts for a net average of 32.8 yards.
Winnipeg dominated defensively and played well offensively, so Sheahan’s poor performance didn’t cost the team. In a closer game, however, that field position could have been the difference.
On the ball
B.C. employed some trickery early in the third quarter when Sean Whyte was sent out for what appeared to be a 48-yard field goal attempt before two players circled onside to the right side of the formation. Whyte booted the ball high toward the sideline to try to give one of his onside players a chance to recover, though the play was unsuccessful thanks to a heads-up grab from an unlikely source.
Tanner Cadwallader, a linebacker listed at five-foot-eleven, timed his jump perfectly to secure the ball with Justin McInnis, who is six-foot-five, bearing down. Sometimes you need a special teams player to come up with a big play and Cadwallader did an excellent job preventing B.C. from securing a first down in the red zone.
“If the ball’s in the air, I’m gonna go get it. I didn’t really know who was across from me,” said Cadwallader postgame. “We prepare for that situation in practice all week and they came out and then we just acted accordingly.”
The 27-year-old native of Georgetown, Ont. has experience returning kicks from before he entered the professional ranks but had never caught an onside kick until Thursday.
“(Whyte) was out there kicking at half and that was right where he would have been on the edge of his range going into that little bit of a wind, so I think our guys were pretty conscious of (a possible onside kick happening),” said O’Shea.
“Tanner’s a phenomenal athlete. He can play on either side of the ball and all the special teams. He’s just such a terrific athlete, so he got up and caught that ball. It was nice.”
Hype Mike
A rowdy fan seated in the northwest portion of the lower bowl at Princess Auto Stadium was escorted out of his section in handcuffs by three security guards near the start of the second quarter. Dozens of fans were calling for him to be removed as security arrived, though it’s unclear what he did to draw their ire. He did, however, appear to be intoxicated.
The fan’s bald head was painted entirely blue and he donned a gold Blue Bombers uniform inscribed with the name ‘Hype Mike.’ Outside of the Banjo Bowl, I can’t recall a fan being escorted out like that, especially so early in a game. Moving forward, it might be best for all parties if Hype Mike was a little less hyped.
Next up
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (3-6) are on a much-needed bye this upcoming week, after which they’ll visit the B.C. Lions (5-3) on Sunday, Aug. 18 at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
A long break should do the Blue Bombers a world of good following a rough first half of the season. With defensive end Celestin Haba being moved to the one-game injured list this week, it seems reasonable to speculate there’s a chance he could return after the bye, while Kenny Lawler could also be an option after missing eight games with a fractured arm.
Head coach Mike O’Shea didn’t mince words about how important it will be for the team to continue to work during the bye week.
“(This win) does nothing for us if we don’t treat the bye week properly,” he said. “They certainly need a break from football but they need to work their asses off all bye week long so they come back ready to go again. If everybody takes the full 10 days and sits around, then this means nothing.”
