It’s been portrayed as this daunting and haunted path leading smack dab into eternal misery. And the history of the Canadian Football League’s dozen crossover teams since 1996 serves as the hard, cold and frightening evidence.
On top of that, a fact which fans will hear over and over and over and over again in the next few days leading up to Saturday’s Eastern Semi-Final between the host Montreal Alouettes and interloping Winnipeg Blue Bombers — no crossover team has put together a pair of road playoff wins to advance to the Grey Cup.
Still, if anyone was the think the Blue Bombers are intimidated by any of this, well, clearly you need to spend more time around head coach Mike O’Shea & Co.
A scene from O’Shea’s press conference on Tuesday, opened by Paul Friesen of The Sun asking the Blue Bombers boss this:
“You’ve been around this league a helluva long time. Twelve times a West team has tried to get to the Grey Cup by crossing over and 0-for-12…”
To which O’Shea shrugged and said: “You know me, I don’t look at stats, so it doesn’t matter.”
And his answer to a follow-up question, might best capture the vibe in Bomberland as they finished their first full day of practice on Tuesday.
“Why is it so tough?”
“I don’t know that it is,” O’Shea said. “I’ve never been a part of the crossover.”
Of course, these are the answers you would expect from everyone in Blue Bombers colours because anything to the contrary — a sense of foreboding or being overwhelmed by the moment to come this Saturday — would be alarming. But even with a ton of new faces this season, this is still a playoff-hardened squad that features seven starters that were around for the 2019 Grey Cup run, the first of five consecutive visits to the championship in Zach Collaros, Stanley Bryant, Pat Neufeld, Nic Demski, Willie Jefferson, Jake Thomas and Kyrie Wilson and four others who were on the team as reserves or on the injured list in Nick Hallett, Shayne Gauthier, Tui Eli and Brady Oliveira.
Said Oliveira on Tuesday: “For me, it doesn’t matter if you’re in the West or in the East. The whole crossover thing is cool, though. I’ve heard no other team has made it out to the Grey Cup. I find that very intriguing and very motivating for us to be the first.
“So, why not us?”
It’s a good question, to be sure. The Blue Bombers and Alouettes were both 10-8 this year and have a ton of similarities, not the least of which is being backed by stingy defences and offensive attacks which have struggled when their starting pivots were down. Montreal was 7-0 in games Davis Alexander started this year — he is 11-0 to start his young career — while the Blue Bombers were 6-7 in games started by Zach Collaros, lost the three games he couldn’t finish, and were 4-1 in games started by Chris Streveler, however those results may have looked outside of the season opener.
“We’re excited. This is such a great opportunity and the first time a lot of us have played in a playoff game in the East,” said veteran guard Pat Neufeld. “It’s a great atmosphere there with a great team that has an attacking, dynamic defence. It’s going to be a big challenge.
“It really is one day at a time for us right now. It’s maximizing every single day we have together. A run isn’t guaranteed. You’re only guaranteed this day. We have a routine around here and you really lean on that now. That’s the standard around here now. We have that knowledge and grit which has been built over the years, and it has to be imparted by the leaders on the young guys — although, I say that almost tongue in cheek because there are no ‘young guys’ anymore. We’re in Week 22 of the schedule now.
“We talked about having great energy at practice, running around and executing at a high level because there’s no other choice right now.”
Blue Bombers defensive coordinator Jordan Younger when asked if he sensed anything different in the vibe today, given it’s a playoff week: “No, no, man. You know how the Blue Bombers are and how we stay in the moment and stay on task that way.
“This is that moment. It’s that, just wanting to be here, one more practice together, one more chance to get better. This is our last Day 2 (of the practice week). We’ll be moving on to Dat 3 and that will be our last Day 3. Then we’ll let the chips fall on Saturday and if we’re fortunate enough to win, I’ll say the same thing the next Day 1.”
OUCH REPORT: Receiver Nic Demski was in his jersey and sweats at practice on Tuesday but not a full participant — although he was doing some movement exercises and catching passes. QB Chris Streveler was also in attendance throwing lightly while wearing a brace on his injured knee.
“It’s cliché — everyone says you never want to see anyone go down,” said Oliveira of Streveler. “It just hits different when it’s one of your guys; a guy that I spend a lot of time with outside of this building… I’m rattled for the guy. The guy does everything right. He’s the definition of a true pro’s pro so to see a guy go down like that is brutal. But the guy has been through so much adversity. I’m not worried about what he has to face.”
“I was heartbroken,” added Collaros on the Streveler injury. “It’s hard to put into words. We’ve been talking the last couple of days and there’s not really anything you can say to make it better. I just love Chris. Everybody loves Chris. I get to work very closely with him day in and day out, so I understand his work ethic and how much he cares about this sport, how much he cares about this organization and his teammates. So, it was very tough to watch.
“He’s an emotional leader for us, for sure. When he’s out there he does a great job and, on the sidelines, or whatever it is he takes his role very seriously and leads. Any time you lose leadership like that it makes it tough.”
Injury Report: October 28, 2025#ForTheW | @DoctorsManitoba pic.twitter.com/wzCQcF9Gup
— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) October 28, 2025