What a game! How high did your heart rate monitor go on your smart watch, Bomber fans?

If you are a CFL fan you must have enjoyed that game! If you are a Bomber fan, you would have loved that game.

Both Calgary and Winnipeg had their teams going. However, with a 35-28 win, the Bombers move to 8-0 and Calgary moves to 4-2 on the season. The last time Winnipeg was 8-0 was 1960!

There are a lot of affordable ways to get out to the games in Winnipeg and if you are not there, you are missing out! This is history folks!

Official Highlight Video

If you missed the game or just want to watch the highlights one more time, here they are!

Big Game

*It will be hard for Calgary to catch Winnipeg for first place this season. Saturday night’s win gave Winnipeg the season series over Calgary. Calgary is now 4 games behind Winnipeg and would have to win 5 more games than Winnipeg in the remainder of the season to leap frog them in the standings.

What cannot be overlooked is that the Bombers have had a grueling schedule. They played 3 games in 15 days, two of them against Calgary, and will face Montreal in only 5 days. After facing Montreal the bombers will have played 6 of their 9 games on the road!

Standouts

*Rene Paredes went 5/5 for field goals hitting his career long of 53 yards! Milt Stegall picked Calgary to win and said the game would come down to field goals. Well, Milt was partially right. Calgary was perfect on field goals, but they had to kick field goals because the Winnipeg defence shut the door multiple times on Calgary. In fact, Calgary’s only touchdowns came in the third quarter.

 I tried to help you Milt:

*With 14 carries for 92 yards, Ka’Deem Carey was able to find the end zone twice this game, something he was unable to do in their previous meeting. After each of his two touchdowns he went over and gave the ball to one of his kids. Unfortunately – for his family, but not for Bomber fans – he did not get a third touchdown. One of the kids will be without. But make no mistake about it, he played a great game on front of his family!

*Brady Oliveira had a breakout game! With 15 carries for 110 yards he averaged 7.3 yards per carry. The TSN commentators said he looked like he was running mad. This was a sentiment echoed in my favorite post game show GameDay After Dark. Whether Brady was running mad or had other motivation, let’s see that again next game, please!

*Let’s just put these three guys together; Zach Collaros, Dalton Schoen, and Nic Demski. Zach Collaros went 22/30 for 270 yards and 4 touchdowns! Two of those touchdowns were caught by Nic Demski who made his return for the Bombers. Demski had missed four weeks and did not formally practice before the game. However, he caught 7/9 balls thrown his way for 69 yards. Not to be outdone, Schoen caught 4/8 passes – he should have caught at least one of those misses – and also got two touchdowns and piled up 80 yards.  

How Deep?

Just take a look at the Bombers’ injury list. It is riddled with all stars and impact players. Winnipeg is using their 3^rd string safety, second string center, and multiple other backups.

However, the Bombers have shown that they have players waiting in the wings for their chance. Case in point, Nick Hallett who is the third free safety to start this year for the Bombers. Yet when it counted, Hallett stepped up. On a second and 10 in the fourth quarter, Hallett times up the play perfectly and knocked down the pass. That forced Calgary to punt with 2:53 remaining. I was actually concerned that Hallett may have been a bit early on that play. Right after that play the three minute warning was issued. I said to my wife and kids that we may see a pass interference challenge coming out of the break as Calgary would have a lot of time to look at it. To my relief, when the game came back on there was no challenge. 

Closing Time Blunder

Calgary had a shot to extend their winning record after a bye week. Before Saturday’s game, after a bye week, the Calgary Stampeders team coached by Dave Dickenson were 12-2 and Bo Levi Mitchell was 14-2.

Now I get it, there was not much time left on the clock when Calgary got the ball back, only 17 seconds to be exact. However, you still have to give yourself a chance to win, and Calgary did not do that.

With 17 seconds left on the clock and on their own 15 yard line Bo Levi Mitchell completed and 8 yard pass to Hakunavanhu who got three additional yards for a first down.

Calgary is now on their own 23 yard line with 11 seconds and no time-outs to stop the clock, so the clock starts when the referee whistles in the play. At this point the game is pretty much over. Yet the game is never over until it is over. This is where fans should remember Milt Stegall’s last second catch and run to win the game in 2006 against Edmonton. More recently in 2017 Winnipeg came back to beat Montreal with 1:40 remaining and the Bombers down by 12 points. The point is this, however unlikely a comeback is, they do happen but only when you give yourself a chance for a comeback!

However, Calgary missed giving themselves that opportunity against the Bombers. With 11 seconds on the clock, and no time-outs, you have to know this is your last play. You cannot try to squeak two plays in. If you so happen to get a second play, count that as fortunate, but do not bank on it. At 8:00 pm on a Saturday night in Calgary the bank is closed. 

Someone forgot to remind Calgary about all of that. On their last play of the game they throw a 15 yard pass? Yes, I meant that to be a question, not a statement. At that point in the game there is only 1 play you call and one play you try…it is the Hail Mary. Yes, you quite literally throw up a prayer!

I get it, you are not going to toss the ball from your own 23 yard line to the other end zone. But you do not need to. You just need to extend the game. There is only one way to extend the game at that point and it is a penalty. If you are a Calgary fan, hopefully it is a pass interference penalty and you get another play at the spot of the foul. Then you take a shot at the end zone and hope for a touchdown or at least another pass interference penalty.

Likely? No. Possible? Yes. It just is not possible when you throw a 15 yard pass to an open receiver.

I am going to give Bo Levi Mitchell one more blunder, his post-game interview. Do you really want to give Winnipeg bulletin board material?

What did I get right? What did you disagree with? Let me know in the comments.

Written by a Bomber fan, for the Bomber fans.

Get the latest CFL news today from CFL News Hub.