WINNIPEG \u2014 Brady Oliveira rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown, while adding another 80 through the air to lead the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to a 33-21 victory over the winless Ottawa Redblacks at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Winnipeg native also continued to climb the CFL’s all-time rushing leaders list.<\/p>\n
Oliveira, who had 235 rushing yards on 33 carries over the previous two games, needed 67 more to jump from 24th to 21st in the all-time list. He now has 6,212 career yards, surpassing fellow Canadian Jon Cornish, and is just 22 yards shy of Willie Burden at 20th.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg improved to 5-4 with the win and snapped a two-game losing streak on home turf. The Bombers entered the game with a 1-4 record at Princess Auto Stadium, the most losses in a single season since 2016.<\/p>\n
Losses to the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders in recent weeks had seriously threatened Winnipeg’s playoff position in the West Division. With the victory, the Bombers now sit a game up on the Lions (4-5) and Stampeders (4-6), with a game in hand on Calgary.<\/p>\n
Since 2014, the Bombers are 14-7 against the Redblacks, winning the last five matches. Winnipeg edged Ottawa 36-34 in overtime in Week 7.<\/p>\n
The Redblacks continued their dreadful season, still in search of their first victory. Ottawa dropped to 0-9 with the loss and its lengthy losing skid dating back to last season is now at 15 games.<\/p>\n
According to Sportsnet Stats, the skid eclipses the modern record (after 1958) of 14 losses by the 1994 Shreveport Pirates. In Canadian football history, only the 1948-49 Hamilton Wildcats (16 consecutive losses) and the 1928-32 Ottawa Senators and Rough Riders (25 consecutive losses) have more.<\/p>\n
No team in CFL history has ever made the playoffs after losing their first six games, let alone nine. B.C. is the only team to claim a championship after starting the season 0-5, winning the Grey Cup in 2011.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros returned after missing four games with a neck injury and went 21-for-31 passing for 222 yards.<\/p>\n
The Bombers recorded 305 net yards on offence, with short-yardage quarterback Bryce Perkins punching in a pair of touchdowns. Sergio Castillo rounded out the scoring with four field goals, connecting from 46, 56, 31 and 43 yards.<\/p>\n
Tim White led all receivers with 85 yards on eight receptions.<\/p>\n
Ottawa quarterback Jake Maier threw for 314 yards on 28-of-43 passing, along with two touchdowns and an interception.<\/p>\n
Ottawa’s offence totalled 333 net yards, with running back Greg Bell and receiver Ayden Eberhardt adding touchdowns.<\/p>\n
It was a slow start, with Brett Lauther’s 37-yard field goal giving the Redblacks a 3-0 lead after the first quarter. The Bombers answered back early in the second with Perkins’ first score.<\/p>\n
Minutes later, the Bombers got a serious scare as Collaros was on the receiving end of a clean, but blindside hit from Ottawa linebacker Lucas Cormier.<\/p>\n
The Bombers veteran pivot stayed on the field in visible pain for several minutes before walking off. Collaros was sacked a season-high four times.<\/p>\n
Collaros returned before the drive was over, leading to a Castillo field goal. Oliveira punched in a five-yard rushing touchdown on their next series to put Winnipeg up 17-6 late in the half.<\/p>\n
A 75-yard kickoff return from Ottawa’s Kalil Pimpleton gave the Redblacks life, with Maier finding a wide-open Bell in the middle of the end zone to cut the Bombers’ lead to 17-12.<\/p>\n
Castillo’s 56-yarder with zeros on the clock made it 20-12 through 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
After trading field goals in the third quarter, another Castillo kick put Winnipeg up 26-15.<\/p>\n
A roughing-the-passer penalty on Bombers defensive lineman Jake Ceresna and an illegal contact flag on defensive back Deatrick Nichols helped mount Ottawa’s brief comeback. Maier capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown to Eberhardt, with a failed two-point convert making it 26-21.<\/p>\n
Perkins added his second rushing touchdown with just over two minutes left to put the game away. The Redblacks got as close as Winnipeg’s six-yard line but the series ended with a turnover on downs.<\/p>\n
Redblacks: Visit the Montreal Alouettes on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Blue Bombers: Visit the Edmonton Elks on Friday, Aug. 21.<\/p>\n
With files from SN Staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 Brady Oliveira rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown, while adding another 80 through the air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-858679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}