Finally, the schedule makers got it right! The CFL season will kick off with a Grey Cup rematch.

However, the Bombers (at least as far as what they are saying) do not see this as a Grey Cup rematch.

“We’re not looking at it as a Grey Cup rematch,” added defensive end Willie Jefferson. “We’re looking at it as the first game of the season, the first real game since last year and we’re just ready to go out there and give it our all.

“It does feel like — for the guys that were here last year — the thing in the back of our mind is that we finally get to stick it to the guys that beat us last year for the championship.”

So what do we expect to see? First off, I expect to see the most complete Bombers roster that we have seen this year. Getting past the pre-season, and having guys come off the injured list will be a welcome treat for Bomber fans! However, not all the Bombers are off the 6 Game Injured List. On there remains  LB Adam Bighill, DB Jamal Parker and DT Cam Lawson who were all moved to the six-game injured list during camp. As a result, we can expect some of those guys to actually miss 6 games as you can only pull a couple of guys off the six-game injured list early through out the whole season.

But will we see a complete Bombers team? That I do not know, as the depths charts have not been released at the time of writing this.

Still, here is what I will be looking for.

Quarterback

How well does Collaros do at avoiding hits? Last year there were times where he admittedly held the ball too long and took some hits. I also want to see how accurate he will be. Last year he had some accuracy issues through part of the season.

I also want to see if Streveler is going to be able to stretch the field. In pre-season he was not taking any deep shots. Has his game evolved or do we know what we have in Streveler – which is a lot of good! Streveler will also take some hits away from Collaros which is a good thing. It could be beneficial to the Bombers if Streveler could stretch the feild…so long as it is not at the detriment of his strengths.

Returns

Who will be the returner(s) for the Bombers? They may try a couple of guys out…but they simply cannot bobble and drop the ball. I guarantee you this, one bobbled ball, and that guy will no longer be the returner.

Kick Coverage

The Bombers kick coverage generally looked good in their home pre-season game. Often in the last couple of years their kick coverage has been slow do the field.

New Coordinators

The Bombers named Jordan Younger as Defensive Coordinator and Mike Miller as Special Teams Coordinator. Will those units be on the same page with their new coordinators? We will find out on Thursday. For sure, the defense is going to look different this year.

Final Thoughts

I do not expect the Bombers to be dominant this year. Far too many changes. Bob Irving is predicting a 12 win season for the Bombers. I think 12 is a good number. As a result, I also would not be surprised to see the Bombers end up in second place in the West.

What I am looking for on Thursday night is a Bombers win. I took them in the CFL Pick’Em.

Should the Bombers win this will be the first time the beat Montreal in a season opener. The other six times (2016, 2013, 2006, 2000, 1998 and 1985) the Bombers lost.

I would also like to see a dominant win by the Bombers. They put up 47 points against Montreal in the regular season to beat then 47-17. However, Montreal bested Winnipeg in the 2023 Grey Cup, coming back from a 10 point deficit at half time to win 28-24.

However, I do not think it will be a dominate win by the Bombers. Not enough of their starters played in pre-season and I expect it will take a while for them to get on the same page.

If you are looking for tickets there are still a lot of great seats left. Buy them here!

If you are looking for the Bombers official 48 HOUR PRIMER | 2024 HOME OPENER here it is!

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