On Saturday July 15 the 4-1 Winnipeg Bombers will take on the 1-3 Ottawa Redblacks in an afternoon match. While the Redblacks try and figure out who their starting quarterback will be for the rest of the season, the Bombers will be looking to stay ahead of the rest of the CFL teams. With the BC Lions on a bye week Winnipeg could take top spot in the league with a win.

However the Redblacks are bringing in some reinforcements at the quarterback position, leaving no stone unturned, and the Bombers better not take them for granted!

Redblacks Depth Chart

Bombers Depth Chart

Predictions

Anyone who has watched the Bombers over the last number of years knows that they are not putting up the same amount of points offensively. While a win is a win, winning in relatively low scoring games does make the margin for error slimmer. You never want to let teams hang around no matter what their record is. I think that if Winnipeg lets Ottawa hang around this game is going to be decided in the last two minutes!

I know what the critics are saying, “Come on! Ottawa is starting another new quarterback!” Hey, I hear you, but I have been watching this league long enough to tell you that it is not unusual for a quarterback getting their first start to get a win. The rest of their season might stink, but it is that first game where I have seen new quarterbacks play above their future potential.

The Bombers can help mitigate against that by continuing to cause turnovers.

Additionally if Willy Jefferson and Jackson Jeffcoat, can get to the quarterback like they did last week, it will be a long night for Redblacks’ quarterback Crum. One thing is for certain, Dustin Crum will make the Bombers say, “Oh, Crumb!” or the two Jeff’s will literally make Dustin a crumb! If Jefferson and Jeffcoat can get to the Redblacks quarterback, I see Winnipeg going “1-0” this week – as is their mantra.

I also predict that Dustin Crum will either be the Redblacks leading rusher or second on that list for this upcoming game. The Bombers have proven to be susceptible to the run – with Dedrick Mills from Calgary illustrating that last week. However, the Bombers have also shown that they can shut down the run, as Mills rushed for less than 25 yard in the second half of that game.

When you look at the points for and against, it appears that Ottawa has not put up a lot of points…but they have also kept their opponents to low scores. However, that statistic is a bit misleading in this case when you look at the actual game scores.

In Week 1 Ottawa lost to Montreal by a score of 19-12; in Week 2 they lost to Calgary by a score of 15-26; Week 3 was a bye week; in Week 4 they beat Edmonton 26-7; and in Week 5 they lost to Hamilton 21-13. Their win against Edmonton really skews their points for and against statistic. Someone could argue that Ottawa has yet to play a good team, and they would be right. But at 1-4 (regardless of quarterbacks being injured) Ottawa coaches have to bee feeling the pressure to find a way to win or risk being handed their walking papers. So I predict that if by the mid season the Redblacks are not close to 0.333 win percentage, we are going to see some coaching changes their and see a bunch of people with the word “interim” before their title.

As for Winnipeg, I expect that they will come in focused. I predict that Winnipeg will do more of this:

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