Rasheed Bailey knows all about maneuvering around roadblocks and detours. His road travelled, after all, has been filled with both, along with a zillion potholes, treacherous steep climbs, and dangerous descents.
Working through all that to find his place with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers also gives him a deeper perspective than many. As a result, the man has an appreciation for those special championship moments and, on the flip side, what can be learned from the failure that comes with losses.
And so, on the eve of as big an August game as the Canadian Football League schedule has served up in eons with the B.C. Lions here Thursday night, we went to the veteran receiver for his insights on where the Blue Bombers head space is as a collective right now. There’s this growing narrative, after all, that the club’s two losses this season – the dramatic mauling by the Lions here on home turf back in June and then the late collapse in Ottawa in July – have the Blue Bombers as vulnerable as at any point over the last three years.
“When you’ve been the giant for so long you get the best version of who people are. And sometimes the giant falls,” began Bailey. “In those times that we fall we learn something new about ourselves. So, we don’t take them as losses, we take them as lessons and those lessons build up for us to be better. You’d rather lose now in the beginning than lose in the end.”
“We’ve learned so much about each other that when it comes to the ultimate goal, that’s what we’re worried about, that’s what we’re focused on. When we take those losses and turn them into lessons, that’s when you become an unstoppable, great team.
“We are a great team,” he added. “But a lot of teams who have faced this team have shot themselves in the foot. We’re going to minimize those mistakes; we’re going to come out and be as dominant as we are.”
Let it also be said that with the Blue Bombers coming off a bye week and a full week of practice, we’ve also reached the point in the build-up where everyone has analyzed this match-up – and the 30-6 Lions win in June that set off alarm bells – to death. Everyone in Bomberland, it seems, has certainly reached the point where it’s ‘put the ball on the damn tee, and let’s play this thing.’
“Look, I love the challenge,” said running back Brady Oliveira. “The bigger the challenge, the better it is and the sweeter it will taste after the game when we have that victory knowing that we put it on a great defence.
“We obviously didn’t play our best football (in the June loss). We didn’t play a full 60 minutes on all three phases. We got out-worked. We got out-physicaled and that’s not like us. That’s not our identity. We’ve got to be physical from the jump, lay it on them for the entire 60 minutes in all three phases.”
Asked if the loss to B.C. and the meltdown in Ottawa had shaken the team in any way, Oliveira’s back stiffened with resolve.
“This locker room is stronger than ever,” he said. “When you have so much continuity you learn so much about the guy to the right and to the left of you and you become closer. It’s a family in there. I would say those losses might have made us tighter than ever before.
“Individually, you don’t want to dwell on the past, but those losses definitely motivate me. I play to win games. I don’t care what my numbers are at the end, I want to win. And when I lose a football game I’m pissed off.
“The fact that we get another chance to put it on a team that we lost to… heck, yeah I’m motivated to lay it on the line with my teammates and make a statement that we’re the top team in the West.”
A win by the Lions would push them four points ahead in the standings and give them the season series. A Blue Bombers win would tie the two clubs and even the season series and then put the focus on a Week 18 meeting in Vancouver in October. That’s a ton of highway still to travel before then, but a loss would put the Blue Bombers in full chase mode for the next few months.
All that said, let’s also remember this: since the end of 2019 the Blue Bombers are 38-9, including two Grey Cup championships. Winning is a habit in these parts and that’s why the losses get so magnified.
“When you lose games, you feel it,” said Bailey. “You’re like, ‘Man, this isn’t us. This isn’t who we want to be.’ Once you take those losses and turn them into lessons, I mean, sometimes you feel like you can’t lose because you’re so close. We’re so close as a team, we do so many things together it’s like, ‘How’d that happen to us?’
“But that’s good though because once you feel that pressure you learn something about yourself, and I’m excited about this group and where we can go. A big part of it is being selfless. We all have our role and if we all do our role, we win games.”
More on the Blue Bombers vs. Lions in our Game #8 Playbook…
ROSTER SHUFFLE(S):
As mentioned in our 48-Hr Primer, the Blue Bombers lineup that takes to the field will look significantly different than the one from June with receiver Kenny Lawler, cornerbacks Winston Rose and Demerio Houston, linebacker Kyrie Wilson and defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat all now on the roster and with Redha Kramdi at the dime position.
Head coach Mike O’Shea on the addition of Wilson and Rose, who will be making their season debuts Thursday:
“You’re adding two guys with a lot of experience and not just the experience part, they’ve played excellent football for a whole pile of games. At certain points in their careers, they’ve been talked about in the upper echelon of their positions.”
The Lions will have significant changes, too, with receivers Dominique Rhymes and Keon Hatcher in the lineup, and with Dane Evans starting at QB for an injured Vernon Adams, Jr.
The Blue Bombers had some success against Evans in the 2019 and 2021 Grey Cup victories when he was with Hamilton… and were also lit up by the QB last September when he threw for 327 yards and five TDs in a 48-31 Tiger-Cats win.
“It’s interesting, because he’s got the ability to run, too,” said O’Shea when asked how the Lions might look differently on offence with Evans compared to Adams, Jr. at the controls. “With Vernon, he’s an unbelievable athlete so you’re always aware of that. Dane… it’s not saying he’s not athletic, there are just not many guys like Vernon. But he’s got that ability, too. I don’t think it really changes their offence. He can operate whatever they ask him to do.
“We’ve played him a lot, for a West Division team we’ve actually had a lot of experience with Dane, so you take it all in. We’re not just focused on what he’s doing with B.C., you look at all the times you’ve been around him.”
QUOTABLE:
“We came out last time at home and we disappointed some fans, we disappointed each other. That won’t happen again. We will be better.” – Rasheed Bailey
PROP BETTS:
The Blue Bombers have been tipping their hat all week to Lions DE Mathieu Betts, who leads the CFL with 10 sacks – three of them coming in the first meeting between the two teams. That respect continued following Wednesday’s walk-through practice. Betts, FYI, is on pace to break the record for most sacks by a Canadian – 17, set by B.C.’s Brett Johnson in 2005.
“He’s a great player. He’s having a really good season, obviously,” said quarterback Zach Collaros. “He’s been a good player for a long time. He has great energy; he’s fast off the ball. We’ll have to do a great job mixing up our cadences up and those kind of things.”
“It’s his motor. He’s non-stop,” added O’Shea. “He’s a good football player, technically good, great get-off, all that stuff. But I think what can set him apart on a lot of plays is he’s relentless. He’s non-stop.”
3 NOTABLE NUMBERS:
1 – The Blue Bombers are 11-1 after a bye week since 2017. The Lions, meanwhile, played on the weekend and arrive with just four days between games.
2 – The Lions have allowed five TDs on 99 opponent possessions this year. Included in that are two shutouts of the Edmonton Elks. They have not allowed a TD in the last 44 opponent possessions dating to July 9th.
3 – Zach Collaros’ winning percentage of .635 now ranks him sixth all-time of QBs with at least 100 career starts, behind only Bo Levi Mitchell (.767), Doug Flutie (.740), Tom Wilkinson (.695), Tracy Ham (.656) and Russ Jackson (.639).
