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Published Aug 29, 2025 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira, pictured in action earlier this season. File photo Photo by Kevin King /Winnipeg SunArticle content
He knows the drill, knows it’s pretty much a mandated mantra around the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to not look past the next game.
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But running back Brady Oliveira is human, after all, as human as they come. A man with a big, open heart and as open a mind.
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So when he was chatting with a couple of scribes after practice the other day, Oliveira allowed that mind to wander ahead, just a little.
“I don’t know who we have after the Banjo Bowl,” he began. “But I do know right now we have back-to-back with Sask and I understand the importance of that… we take care of business and we’re right back in this thing.”
In the next breath, as if breaking a tackle, the 28-year-old bounced even further outside.
“Then it’s anyone’s, when it comes to the top of the West Division,” he said. “We understand the importance of that, the last number of years hosting the West Final here. It makes the path to a Grey Cup a lot easier.”
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At that point, he’d squeezed all the yardage he could from this run. It was back to the huddle.
“That’s way in the distance,” he acknowledged. “But we understand, at least I understand, the importance of it.”
And so we come to another Labour Day Classic bursting with implications.
Let’s be honest, if the 6-4 Bombers fall to 8-2 Saskatchewan on Sunday, their pathway to the top of the CFL West becomes, not impassable, but steep and narrow.
The one redeeming factor: they have two more games against the Riders.
But there’s 7-3 Calgary, too, a Labour Day win over Edmonton away from littering the climb with another obstacle. An obstacle the Bombers have to step fully over, because they’ve already lost the season series to the Stamps.
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As unpredictable as this weekend can be, there is a trend Oliveira would love to reverse.
In the last three Labour Day Classics, the three-time 1,000-yard runner and league rushing champ the last two years has averaged just 56 yards.
The sorry story by the numbers: 12 carries for 42 yards with a long of seven last season, 17 for 88 (long, 18) the year before and 12 for 38 in 2022, with a long of five.
Winnipeg has two of those, barely. But the Riders defence knows this team’s bread and butter and has done a better-than-average job of putting it on ice.
There have been exceptions, most notably an 18-carry, 154-yard feast in the Banjo Bowl two years ago. That game saw Oliveira produce a career-high 211 combined yards.
The reigning Most Outstanding Player Award winner just so happens to be coming off a game one yard shy of that combination in Montreal.
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That makes Sunday’s tilt a collision of confidence wearing blue and gold and of heightened awareness in green and white.
“I notice that, for sure. Especially after big outings,” Oliveira said. “They already know what they want to do when they play the Bombers. But I do notice that after a really good performance they’re really keying on the run. Which is fine, because then how do you stop the deep threat?”
It’s the game of cat and mouse that football coaches play every week.
If the Saskatchewan defence is the cat, they’re dealing with a rodent that continues to grow.
Over the last three games, Oliveira has got his claws on 23 passes for 202 yards, by far the most productive stretch he’s enjoyed on that side of the ledger.
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On pace to shatter his career-best receiving total, he’s added a dimension to his game that was apparently always there, waiting to be developed.
“Pretty quickly into it, his hands were comparable to any receiver we have,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “He’s got excellent, excellent hands.”
Combined with that bullish running style…
“I haven’t had to, but I’m sure he’s a tough guy to tackle,” O’Shea said. “Out in the open field, on the edge.”
Oliveira says it’s been all about building trust with quarterback Zach Collaros.
“Early in my career, yeah, when I go outside, slim chance that I’m going to get the ball,” he said. “Now… I’m a very viable option. I’m not a receiver, but he can trust me out there. I’m going to be Mr. Reliable for you.
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“You can check the ball down to me and I’ll put our team in a positive situation.”
Oliveira is positive about another thing: he peaks in the second half of seasons.
“I just start rolling, start feeling really good,” is how he put it. “Everything becomes second nature when it comes to my eyes, my reads, my cuts, catching the football. Everything just becomes easy.”
Easy, but only because of the hard work that he’s put in.
That work hadn’t paid off in a 100-yard effort through his first seven games.
Last week came the windfall.
“Great confidence booster last week in Montreal against an incredible defence,” Oliveira said. “And we’re going to go up against another really good Riders defence. But understand that we put a beating on those boys in Montreal. Now we can go into Sask and carry that confidence and let this thing roll.”
But not let it roll too far or out of sight.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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