A scene just outside a euphoric Winnipeg Blue Bombers dressing room at Mosaic Stadium late Friday night…
Zach Collaros had just finished up doing post-game interviews with a pair of Winnipeg reporters following a dynamic 45-27 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders when he strolled by Janarion Grant, who was patiently waiting as the next man up for his media chores.
Passing by the Blue Bombers’ ace returner, Collaros paused for a moment, patted Grant on the shoulder, then grinned and declared: “You’re unbelievable, man.’
Yup, ‘unbelievable’ certainly fits. So, too, would ‘amazing’, ‘sensational’, ‘incredible’, ‘stupendous’ or just about any other adjective that could match Grant’s absolute brilliance in his critical 92-yard punt return touchdown in the third quarter that turned a 24-21 lead into a 10-point advantage and sent the Riders reeling. No doubt there was a lot to like in Winnipeg’s second straight win to open the Canadian Football League season; from another dynamic performance by Collaros to the gritty work of Dalton Schoen and the receiving corps, to a defence knuckling down late after taking some shots.
But Grant’s return was already becoming the stuff of legend in the immediate aftermath, with the Blue Bombers locker room buzzing about one of the greatest returns in league history. And, yes, there have been many, many, many over the years in this glorious league.
Holy [redacted] what a run https://t.co/pPKz3rWMJu
— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) June 17, 2023
“I just saw it again,” said Blue Bombers veteran linebacker and special teams mainstay Jesse Briggs. “It’s absolutely incredible. I don’t think any of the other 11 guys on that unit can take any credit for that one. That was really all him.
“He’s really special. I don’t think there’s a returner in this league better than him. We’re extremely lucky to have him. And he’s a fantastic teammate, too.”
It was Grant’s eighth career kick return TD in the regular season – he had two more in the playoffs last year – which just further adds to his growing record as the franchise’s all-time leader. Edmonton’s legendary Henry ‘Gizmo’ Williams is the CFL’s all-time leader with an astonishing 31 total kick return TDs, followed by Bashir Levingston with 15, while Earl Winfield and Keith Stokes had a dozen each.
Grant’s brilliance was saved by a challenge by the Blue Bombers’ coaching staff following an illegal block penalty on the play originally assigned to Nic Demski – who wasn’t even on the field – which led to the command centre determining there were no infractions anywhere on the field.
“You don’t often see those called back,” said Briggs, “but the command centre got it right. We were all super happy because you never want to take a touchdown away from a guy, especially after an effort like that.
“He’s so tough,” he added. “You just put on the tape and see how many tackles the guy breaks. He’s versatile – sometimes you think he’s going to run around someone and then he puts his head down and goes right through somebody. What did he have, two, three, four stiff arms on that one in this game? I keep saying it, he’s incredible.”
One more on this, from the soft-spoken Grant… Asked where he thought the return Friday would rank among his career touchdowns, he smiled and offered something that speaks of his quiet confidence and maybe serves as a warning to the rest of the CFL:
“I’m not sure. It’s still early in the season and we still have a lot more to play. Right now, I’m not going to say because there’s a lot more to come from me.”
For more notes and quotes inside the locker room post-game, we give you this week’s UPON FURTHER REVIEW…
AN OLD THEME THAT WILL … be talked about early in the CFL season: the Blue Bombers’ continuity, particularly on offence, plays a h-u-u-u-ge part in piling up points and wins.
Winnipeg has now scored 87 points in two games and over the last four years, has opened each season 2-0. Further to that, in their first 10 games over that stretch the team has posted records of 8-2 (2019), 9-1 (2021) and 9-1 (2022).
Add that all up – including the first two wins this year – and that’s a 28-4 record out of the starting blocks.
“I don’t think we should be searching for a lot of other things – continuity is important,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “Adding to that, we’ve got very good football players and we’ve got very good football coaches that try to put the players in the best possible positions. Because of the continuity we could move more quickly through training camp and into the plans we want to get executed and into some of the new stuff and the ideas we want to get accomplished.
“You can’t do that without continuity. The root of our success is we’ve got a lot of talented, tough, very smart football players.”
MORE ON THE OFFENSIVE NUMBERS… to start the season:
In two games the Blue Bombers attack has amassed 874 yards net offence, including 261 yards along the ground and 647 yards through the air. And in the two wins Collaros has completed 72.1 per cent of his passes with five TDs, no interceptions and on Friday rushed for his first TD since August of 2015.
“We’re a squad on offence that just respects each other,” said Nic Demski, who had five catches for 56 yards against the Riders. “We play with each other really well. Everybody knows their role, knows their assignments and when that happens you can go a long way with that continuity.”
IF YOU COULD HAVE SEEN SCHOEN… after the game, his upper body featured a number of scrapes and bruises as he took a pounding in finishing with eight catches for 145 yards and a TD. Another impressive number in that: five of the eight catches were second-down conversions.
“That’s probably always the way these games go with these guys around here,” said Schoen when asked about the latest Blue Bombers vs Riders slugfest. “Credit to them, they played a great game and made a lot of plays. For us, it’s always about execution and we made enough plays to win the game.
“We’ve definitely got that comfortability aspect with us returning a lot of guys who have played a lot of football together now and know how to read each other’s body language and actions. Buck (Pierce, offensive coordinator) does a great job with the game-planning and knows where to put us to maximize our strengths.”
As for the shots he took…
“I told those guys those were great hits,” he said. “They were clean and everything. That’s just football. It’s fun.”
AND, FINALLY, A SCARY NOTION… for the rest of the CFL is this: Afterwards, the Blue Bombers – fresh from an 18-point win – were talking about how much room there still is for this team to grow and fine tune.
“The good part about winning is it’s easier to correct mistakes,” said O’Shea. “There’s a bunch of guys in there that aren’t very happy. But they’ve got to learn to enjoy their teammates and celebrate their teammates’ successes tonight and then we’ll fix it tomorrow.”
Riders QB Trevor Harris did have a heckuva night attacking the Blue Bombers defence, throwing for 413 yards and three TDs to Samuel Emilus. The defence was guilty of some explosion plays, but also stiffened when it mattered most as the Blue Bombers out-scored Saskatchewan 14-3 in the fourth quarter and 28-13 in the second half.
“We’ve definitely got a lot more to do,” said safety Brandon Alexander. “We had more than a couple mishaps on defence, for example, and the special teams and offence wasn’t always perfect. But our offence did a phenomenal job of putting points on the board and on certain times on defence we got the stop we needed to make. Then on special teams JG (Janarion Grant) makes that spectacular play and breaks five-six tackles for the touchdown.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. But we got it right when it mattered. What more can you ask right now than that?”
