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News October 29, 2023

Upon Further Review | WPG 36 CGY 13

Winnipeg Blue Bombers wide receiver Rasheed Bailey, centre, celebrates his touchdown with teammaets running back Greg McCrae, left, and wide receiver Brendan O’Leary-Orange during second half CFL football action against the Calgary Stampeders in Calgary, Alta., Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

@EdTaitWFC

The regular season was officially in the rear-view mirror and the scenes from a joyous Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker room at McMahon Stadium provided a perfect snapshot of what has made this outfit work so well for so long.

A club that pulled 10 starters from the lineup with first place in the Canadian Football League’s West Division already secured still went out and methodically cranked out a 36-13 victory over the Calgary Stampeders that looked and felt like so many others over the last seven seasons.

A lineup missing six regulars from its front seven and two 1,000-yard receivers in Nic Demski (rested) and Dalton Schoen (injured) dominated at the line of scrimmage and played with a passion and intensity that belied the circumstances. And, get this, in that raucous locker room after the game there was future hall of fame linebacker Adam Bighill – who travelled, but did not dress – working his way through the space to gather up equipment bags and help load up the truck.

In Bomberland that’s all part of what this group regularly refers to as ‘honouring your teammates.’

That can be represented in many forms, from the regulars putting their head down to secure first place to give others some valuable playing time in a game like this, to those new faces then doing everything to represent themselves, their teammates, and the ‘W’ brand with a positive performance.

“It’s preached all the time in the locker room,” said quarterback Dru Brown, who was again steady in earning his second win in his third career start by completing 13 of 17 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns. “Like Osh (head coach Mike O’Shea) always tells us, everyone in that team meeting room is going to contribute to a win at some point in the year. Sometimes it’s a game like this, sometimes it’s not.

“We all really believe that, and we all really believe in each other, and I think that’s why you see guys come out here and perform well – because they believe in themselves and people in the building believe in them, and their teammates believe in them.”

And here’s an example of what that mantra means and is then reinforced, courtesy Drew Wolitarsky, who recalled the first time he heard his coach utter the phrase.

“This has been going on for me since 2017,” he said. “I remember I dropped a ball in Edmonton. It was a rainy, ugly game and I dropped this ball on a pass from Strev (Chris Streveler) on a comeback route. I come to the sidelines and Osh comes up to me and says, ‘Honour your teammates! Honour your teammates!’ I’ll tell ya, that s—t hit my heart, bro. It wasn’t, ‘Make the catch!’ it was, ‘You let your brother down!’

“It’s about honouring your teammates’ time and their commitment. In any relationship you have to honour the other person in a way that’s respectful. And you should never take that for granted.”

“Everyone needs to continually work for this to go. That’s what a family is and honouring your teammate can be as simple as giving the best that you can and not make excuses, not pointing the finger and not taking a day off just because you might not feel good. It’s very powerful. It keeps you going when you don’t think you can.”

Brown and Wolitarsky – a team-high five catches, for 71 yards and three second-down conversions – were just two of many who followed the honour your teammates commandment Friday in Calgary.

Among a long, long list were linebacker Brian Cole, defensive tackles Miles Fox and Tanner Schmekel – both recording their first career sacks – running back Johnny Augustine (15 carries for 87 yards) and Sergio Castillo, who was 5-for-5 in his field goal attempts, including a 51 yarder.

And, again, because the fact this win looked like so many others over the past few years is a testament to teammates doing each other a solid with their play.

“It’s what we preach. It’s a mentality. Everyone in our locker room is a good player,” said veteran guard Pat Neufeld. “Whoever has their number called, there’s an expectation they’re going to go out there and play to a high standard.

“It’s the most important part of what we do and it’s that idea of building a team: honouring the guy next to you by sacrificing for them. When you make football not about you, that’s when it’s special.”

More on the Blue Bombers 14th win in their regular-season finale in this week’s UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

THE CIRCUMSTANCES FOR THIS ONE… what with both teams locked into their spots in the standings and opting to rest some players for the playoffs, lent a bit of mystery to this game.

And so, when that was broached with O’Shea post-game – that a lot of folks of wondered what to expect – he was succinct with his response.

“They’re not in that room, so, they can go ahead and wonder.”

Added Rasheed Bailey:

“That’s what we talked about coming into this game – we don’t take games lightly. We don’t come in here and just try to get through it, we wanted to win. We’ve got a week off, a bye week and the goal all week was, ‘We’re coming to bring it, whoever has that ‘W’ on their helmet, that’s what we’re doing.’ I said before we stepped on the field, we have guys who it’s their first time stepping on the field and, shoot, it might be your last – you don’t really know. It was a joy to watch to see it happen the way it did.

“Coach O’Shea talked about it after the game, ‘That’s how you play football.’ To go into the bye week… that’s what we wanted to do.”

Bailey was then asked a follow up about there possibly being a sense of ‘relief’ from exiting the game with seemingly no major injuries.

“It’s not a relief,” he said. “Everybody was working hard. It’s a pleasure, it’s a privilege to play ANY game. So, is it over and we won? Yes. If we would’ve lost there would have been a sour taste in our mouth going into the playoffs.

“This is how you want to go in. You don’t want to go in just trying to get in. We got it and we rode it. We got some guys who sat out today and they’re going to be ready to go, too. That’s the mentality for this team. Our goal is to win the Grey Cup and that’s what we’re on a mission to do.”

THREE NUMBERS THAT JUMP OUT… after a longer look at the stats package, available here.

1 – The Blue Bombers had 464 yards net offence – remember, that coming with no Demski, Schoen, Zach Collaros and Stanley Bryant and with just one quarter of work from Brady Oliveira. It marked the 11th time the attack has eclipsed the 400-yard mark in net offence and was the fifth highest total by the team this year.

2 – Castillo’s 5-for-5 night improved his numbers to 46 of 51 on the season for a 90.2 completion percentage – a new club record, breaking the 89.4 field goal completion percentage Justin Medlock established in 2018.

3 – Brown threw for two more TDs and no interceptions and finished the regular season with nine passing TDs and no picks. According to CFL stats king Steve Daniel, that’s a new league record for the highest passing touchdown total against no interceptions.

And this from our buddy Chris Sinclair, aka @Stats_Junkie:

The interesting thing about those previous Blue Bomber highs is Lewis, of course, was a hall of fame running back who clearly had success with the old halfback-pass option, while Jay Walker’s four TD totals all came in a season-ending win over Montreal in ’98.

THE WORK FROM BROWN… continues to open eyes around the CFL, but hardly in the Blue Bombers locker room. He’s done this before, of course, and has led the club to two victories as a starter this year and came off the bench in an August win in Edmonton where the team was down 22-zilch to throw for 307 yards and four TDs.:

“He’s a guy. He’s a guy. He really is, man,” said Bailey. “He works his ass off. I love that dude, man, because he’s a worker. Sometimes it looks like he’s in the shadow of Zach, but he’s right there with him. They do a lot together. They go over the playbook, they go over the script, they do everything together.

“He puts in a lot of work and when it gets to show up for him out there and we get to make plays for him, that’s special. It gives the kid confidence and he’s confident. Whenever he rips that ball and throws it, gets out of the pocket, he’s looking to make a play. It’s always a privilege when you see guys who work hard and see guys who put the work in, for it to show up out there. And it’s been showing up every time he steps out there. Give him all the credit.”

IT WAS A BIG NIGHT FOR A FEW OF THE NEW FACES… including Fox, the fire-hydrant defensive tackle O’Shea liked in watching preseason tape of a B.C. game before he was cut adrift by the Lions.

And afterward Fox was ecstatic to play, to contribute and to register his first career sack.

“That was so much fun,” said Fox. “I’ve been working so hard, and it’s a really good feeling to be recognized by coaches and players and I’m so glad I was able to help this team out and just do my thing. First CFL sack… what a great feeling. We don’t go full speed in practice so, to get that hit in a live game feels so awesome.”

FINALLY, A FUNNY STORY FROM OLIVEIRA… came in the post-game when he explained the scene late when he was forced to re-enter the game. Oliveira thought his night was done after the first quarter – and after eclipsing the 1,500-yards rushing and 2,000-yards from scrimmage – but when Augustine had some equipment issues, he was told to get back out for some additional work.

Thing is, he first ran out without his helmet on, and we’ll let him pick up with the rest…

“Dude, I thought I had my helmet on. Johnny had a malfunction with his helmet, so when I saw that he tapped at me and said he had to get out. I ran out. I was excited to go in; if it was up to me, I’d play the entire game. I thought I had the helmet on, and Osh yelled at me, ‘Brady, where’s the helmet?’ My helmet was on the sidelines, I was going to run over there and (Mike) Benson (long-snapper) gives me his helmet.

“I could barely get it on my face. I didn’t know whose helmet it was and until I ran out after the drive and Benson was like, ‘That was my helmet.’ I said, ‘Dude, you’ve got a little head because that was tight on my face, and it hurt.’

“That one carry I got, I really felt it because I had this little helmet on my head. It was quite funny; we had some laughs on the sidelines after and we’ll probably laugh on the plane about it. Those are the memories I’ll remember, the little things like that with my teammates.”