History

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are set to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina for the 2022 Labour Day Classic! 

When these teams meet it is always an entertaining game! Sometimes the entertainment is lopsided like in 2021 when the Bombers won 23-8. In that game Cody Fajardo did not throw a touchdown and only completed 59% of his passes.

However the Bombers have not always bested the Roughriders in this yearly rivalry game. 

No. In fact, Saskatchewan has won 14 of the last 16 Labour Day Classic games against Winnipeg! Additionally in the early-mid 1990s Saskatchewan crushed Winnipeg a couple of times. Notably, in 1991 Saskatchewan beat Winnipeg by a score of 56-23 scoring the most points in any Labour Day Classic between these teams. Also in 1995 Saskatchewan beat Winnipeg by a score of 56-4, the largest margin of victory in any Labour Day Classic between these teams. 

However, these are not the 1995 Bombers that went 7-11 on the season – just a touch better than Saskatchewan that year who went 6-12.

Bombers/Riders Labour Day Classic series (since 1950) 37-19. In 2009 the series was at 27-16…you can see Winnipeg usually does not fair well in this game.

However, it is 2022 and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are back-to-back Grey Cup Champions. 

Preview

Gone From 2021

Winnipeg will be without some top performers from their 2021 Labour Day Classic victory.

In the 2021 game Andrew Harris rushed for 95 yards on 16 carries. However, Winnipeg does have the league’s leading rusher in Brady Oliveira now in Harris’ spot.

Winnipeg is also without Kenny Lawler and Darvin Adams who caught 2/3 for 48 yards and 4/6 for 60 yards respectively. 

Quarterback vs Quarterback 

2019 Labour Day Classic

In 2019 Fajardo would only complete 23/39 – a completion percentage of 59. He would throw for 211 yards and also end up being picked off 3 times.

As for Collaros, he would go 19/27 – a completion percentage of 70.4%. He would throw for 245 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

The Bombers will be without their 2019 backup quarterback Sean McGuire who scored 2 short yardage touchdowns. However with Dakota Prukop and Drew Brown backing up Collaros a strong argument could be made that Winnipeg has improved at the backup quarterback position. 

In 2022 there is no comparison between Winnipeg’s and Saskatchewan’s starting quarterbacks.

Fajardo

In his 10 games this season Fajardo has thrown for 2148 yards. With those yards he has thrown an abysmal 12 touchdowns and way too many interceptions (9 to be exact). In the CFL anything better than a 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio is good. Fajardo is nowhere near that. 

Collaros

In his 11 games this season Collaros has thrown for 2749 yards. He has thrown 20 touchdowns and an uncharacteristic 10 interceptions (2 of those interceptions came in the last game vs Calgary). 

Matchup

On paper the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders matchup fairly closely. However I would not put too much stock in the statistics! When these two teams face each other – especially in the Labour Day Classic and the Banjo Bowl – anything can happen. For example, the statistics say that Saskatchewan has forced nearly 1 more fumble per game than Winnipeg has this season. The statistics also show that Saskatchewan has one more quarterback sack per game this season than Winnipeg does.

However, you know guys like Willie Jefferson, Adam Bighill, Jackson Jeffcoat come to play in the Labour Day Classic! So far this season Saskatchewan has fumbled the ball 20 times compared to Winnipeg’s 11 fumbles. I expect Winnipeg will really put the pressure on Fajardo.

*At the time of writing this, Saskatchewan had not yet released it’s starting lineup.

Fans 3 Keys To The Game

A HUGE shout out to Ray & Benny Talk Sports for providing the 3 Keys to this game!
Make sure to watch their whole show and subscribe to their Youtube channel!

You could do one for the next game! This is your invitation right here. Video, 2:20 minutes or less – hey it could be 30 seconds. Put it up on Twitter. Mention me, and I will grab it and put it in the article for the game it pertains to.

If you do not have Twitter and you are reading this on Facebook. Send the video to me in Messenger.

I am sure all of you have 3 things the Bombers could do each game to win.

If I have 2 in an article, no big deal!

If I get 10, I’d make a tweet thread and use them all!

Injury Report

Ok here’s the real one, but I like the above one better! (Remember, if any player misses any part of any practice they are automatically listed as “Questionable,” even if it was a maintenance day.

Predictions

*Already having documented that Saskatchewan often owns the Labour Day Classic, I am predicting that Winnipeg wins it this year!

*I predict Zach Collaros disappoints his former team one more time with another Bomber win! (Bonus: I predict Saskatchewan wishes they kept Collaros. Did you remember that Collaros used to play for Saskatchewan and lead the Roughriders to a late Labour Day Classic comeback win in 2018?)

*I predict that there will be more Bomber jerseys in Mosaic for the Labour Day Classic than Roughrider jerseys in Winnipeg at the Banjo Bowl! After all the Banjo Bowl which occurs one week after the Labour Day Classic was sold out over a week before the Labour Day Classic game! (We will have to wait until the Banjo Bowl to verify this prediction).

*I predict that the Bombers will have more pressure on Fajardo than Saskatchewan has on Collaros, and that Winnipeg sacks Fajardo 3 times!

*I am predicting that Winnipeg intercepts Fajardo twice and it will be at the hands of two of these three players: Willie Jefferson, Adam Bighill, Jackson Jeffcoat. Jason Mass has been calling quick-strike plays…but Fajardo is not a quick-strike quarterback. That opens the door wide for some interceptions.

*Why not?! I will throw this one in as well. I predict that Willie Jefferson returns an interception for a touchdown!

*I predict that Dalton Schoen sees more balls his way than he did against Calgary and adds another touchdown to his total of 6 so far on the season.

*I am predicting that both the running back for Winnipeg – Brady Oliveira – and for Saskatchewan – Jamal Morrow both have big games…but Oliveira is the only guy to rush for over 100 yards in that game. (It should be noted that Brady Oliveira leads the league in rushing yards and Jamal Morrow is second in the league).

*This is an easy one, but I predict that Garrett Marino is going to try and do Garrett Marino things. I also predict that Winnipeg will not put up with Marino’s actions and will be willing to get into another street fight if necessary just like in the 2021 Banjo Bowl where Marino was ejected.

*I predict that Fajardo finds a way, as impossible as it may seem, to hit the crossbar again with the ball as he attempts, but fails, at throwing a touchdown! (Remember, this happened to Fajardo both in the 2019 Western Final, and in the 2021 Labour Day Classic).

*I predict that the Bombers take another step closer to securing a Western Final game at IG Field and win a hard fought battle at Mosaic Stadium.

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

Find all my articles here.

Written by a Bomber fan, for the Bomber fans.

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