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Published Aug 20, 2025 • Last updated 12 hours ago • 4 minute read
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Running back Brady Oliveira. Photo by Kevin King /Winnipeg SunArticle content
The last time the Winnipeg Blue Bombers travelled to Montreal they experienced some divine intervention to nail down top spot in the CFL West.
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This time they’d just like to get back on the straight and narrow path that eventually leads there.
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Thursday’s tilt kicks off the second half of the season for a 5-4 team that’s already had enough ups and downs to make any stomach queasy.
“You’d like to hope that we go on a nice little run here,” running back Brady Oliveira said. “Let’s try and win out. It’s obviously tough. But we’ve done it before… we’ve gone on nice little runs where we’ve won a ton of games in a row. Our focus, which I think is great, is not worrying about the second half of the season. It’s worrying about now, about beating Montreal this week and forgetting about who we play after that.
“Have the tunnel vision and have those blinders on.”
It was just last season when the Bombers rolled up eight straight wins, seven of them to start the second half, squashing the memory of a 2-6 start and setting up a memorable regular-season finale in Montreal.
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That’s when a sudden, late-game squall blew back an Alouettes punt and set Winnipeg up for a last-play, 51-yard field goal from Sergio Castillo. The 28-27 win put a bow on an 11-7 record and put the Bombers on the doorstep of a fifth straight Grey Cup appearance.
“God is a Bombers fan,” is how TSN broadcaster Duane Forde called it.
“That was a crazy one,” quarterback Zach Collaros recalled just before boarding the team’s charter flight on Wednesday. “The wind changing, it got dark. It was weird. Their punter shanked one, and Serge did what Serge does.”
It’s time for this team to start doing more of what this team does.
Oliveira averaging 59 yards per game on the ground isn’t it.
After seasons of more than 1,500 and 1,300 yards, the Winnipegger has just 413, averaging nearly a yard less per carry than he did the last two years.
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Of course he missed two games, but averages are averages.
“If we just finish this thing off right and make sure we’re winning games, the numbers are irrelevant to me,” Oliveira said.
Not that he’s given up reaching those heights again.
“I think I could do that every single year. And yeah, I want to win football games. But I still don’t see that out of the picture. I’m going to get going and it’s just a matter of time.”
If the passing game was carrying this team, the numbers from the top player in the CFL last year wouldn’t matter so much.
But Winnipeg’s air attack is ranked in the bottom half of the league in yardage and touchdowns, second-last in big plays, dead-last in efficiency and interceptions.
“We have a (long) ways to go,” Collaros, with a league-worst 9-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio, acknowledged of the offence. “We just need to continue to believe in what our core tenets are, and that starts with physicality and executing and paying attention to the details. All those things that sound cliche but really what makes a great football team and a great offence.
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“The rest will come with that.”
Collaros has missed time, too, and has a receiving corps in transition, without Dalton Schoen for one more game.
Which brings us to the other side of the ball, also injury depleted but showing more warts than the injury-depleted unit did a year ago.
Giving up 290-plus passing yards per game including chunks of 30 or more every week isn’t typical Winnipeg defence.
Last week it showed signs, giving up a big pass to Ottawa on the first play and the first play alone. There were long Ottawa drives, but there was also a goal-line stand and a critical stop at the end, producing another long Castillo game-winner.
A potential turning point?
“I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, this is the moment,’” defensive back Evan Holm said. “If we can be consistent and get the ball to Zach and Co., we’re going to be good.”
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Oliveira sees last week’s heart-stopper as just what the doctor ordered to end a turbulent first half of the season.
“Totally. This team has been in some tight games this year,” he said. “We’ve faced a lot of adversity. Down the stretch we’re going to start playing some really good football teams, teams that are going to be up at the right time, championship-calibre teams. We can use what we’ve learned in the past to benefit us down the road.”
Oliveira didn’t mention what’s immediately down that road – the back-to-back, annual clashes with rival Saskatchewan, who, at 8-1, have what the Bombers want: first place.
One of his questioners did, though.
“Of course I know we’ve got the Labour Day and Banjo Bowl. Those are my favourite games of the year, trust me. Those are two massive games. The most exciting games of the season to play in as a player. But still need to stay in the moment, handle Montreal first.”
Collaros allowed himself to peek into the distance, too, for a moment.
“Hopefully they’ll be important,” he said of the games with the rival Riders.
Two points on Thursday, even without a biblical gust of wind, would be a godsend.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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