Bombers hold off Riders for 26–21 victory in Banjo Bowl thriller

Saturday’s 26-21 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Banjo Bowl in front of another capacity crowd of 32,343 at Princess Auto Stadium had so many savoury layers to it.

Most important: not only is it a fifth straight ‘W’ to improve the club’s record to 7-6 – the first time over .500 this season – it keeps them atop the West Division, tied with the B.C. Lions but with a tiebreaker already secured. The Riders, meanwhile, are now 5-7-1 after a 5-1 start to their season.

The cherry on the whipped cream on the icing on top? The victory – which came in the 200th career game for Jake Thomas and 100th for Shayne Gauthier – pushed Mike O’Shea past Bud Grant into top spot in all-time coaching wins in franchise history at 103.

“That’s just another week of good Winnipeg football – offence, defence and special teams all contributing,” said Willie Jefferson inside a raucous Blue Bombers locker room. “It’s the defence taking the ball away and giving it to Zach (Collaros). It’s Zach controlling the offence, controlling the clock, getting first downs and staying on the field. It’s the special teams doing its thing. It’s just a good win.”

“We’re just finding ourselves. The beginning of the season was shaky. But like Coach O’Shea said at the beginning of the season, this year was going to be different. We had a target on our back and everybody gave us their best. After that start we had to put our head down and climb our way back to the top and now that we’re at the top we’ve got to pin our ears back, put our heads down and keep working.”

Winnipeg opened with a right cross from the get-go, jumping out to a 10-zip lead midway through the first quarter. But unlike previous Banjo Bowls – the last four seeing the Blue Bombers win by an average margin of 32 points – the Roughriders stood in the centre of the ring and kept firing punches back. Saskatchewan rallied to take a 17-13 lead in the third and held an 18-16 advantage heading into the fourth before the Blue Bombers delivered some critical shots in the final quarter, including a Collaros-to-Kenny Lawler touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter and a Sergio Castillo field goal with 1:05 left.

“When you’ve got two physical football teams meeting together it’s going to be a slugfest,” said Lawler. “You’ve just got to be the one to keep swinging and not let off. As tough as it got, we kept swinging, we kept hanging in there and we figured out how to pull it out.

“Just a tremendous team effort in all phases. We’ve been locked in, dialled in every practice and like we’ve said we’re just trying to go 1-0 each week and we’ve been doing that. We’ve been dialled in, focused, executing, figuring out how to win these close games. We’re back playing the type of football we play.”

More on another Banjo Bowl win – Winnipeg’s 13th in the 20-year history of the game – from our view in the press box…

103… AND COUNTING:

Head coach Mike O’Shea wants nothing to do with the spotlight, but it certainly focuses in on him on a day when the team secures its 103 win since be became head coach, allowing him to move past Grant into top spot in Blue Bombers history. O’Shea’s record is now 103-68, while Grant finished his days here at 102-56-2 before heading south to the Minnesota Vikings. It also moved him past Grant and John Hufnagel into ninth place on the Canadian Football League’s all-time list.

His 171 games as the boss is already the most in Winnipeg history.

“We talked a lot about it already… there’s just so many people that have been here for a huge chunk of it that make it easy every single day, not only to be successful but to come to work just every single day,” said O’Shea in his post-game press conference. “My wife’s standing right there… my family’s been there for all of it, the 60-something losses that they feel, too.

“It is what it is. Over time these numbers just add up. But I don’t think we’re a numbers-based team, we’re a process-based team. We’ve got a room, a whole basement full of people that are all in on the process and the outcomes just happen.”

“This right here meant everything,” said Lawler. “I’m not going to lie, during the game I wasn’t thinking about any of that. But it always feels good to come in after a win… man, it feels good to come out here and help Coach become the winningest coach in the franchise. As we honour our teammates, we honour him as well.”

And then there’s this quote from Jefferson which will make O’Shea grin because it speaks of the team’s singular focus:

“Now is the time we can talk about all those accomplishments – Jake hitting 200 games; Shayne hitting 100 games; Coach O’Shea passing Bud Grant for most wins in Winnipeg history, we can talk about that now and celebrate that. But when we get back from the bye, it’s back to work.”

HERE WE GO AGAIN:

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the Banjo Bowl as Chris Streveler was hit low by Miles Brown with four minutes left in the third quarter as he dropped back to pass on a second-and-two. Streveler buckled on the shot and immediately grabbed his knee and was on crutches after the game. Brown, FYI, was the same lineman who was fined by the CFL for his helmet-to-chin hit on Collaros in last week’s Labour Day Classic.

“I believe it’s on the knee but other than that… I love all our guys, I don’t like to see anybody hurt,” said O’Shea of the injury and the incident. “I don’t want to see anybody hurt as the result of a penalty especially. Standing up here and trying to embarrass the league is not anything I’m trying to do.

“I have no thoughts on (Brown); all of my thoughts are on Chris Streveler and how he’s feeling. I would never waste time with that. He’s not on our team.”

“I can only really comment on Chris,” added Collaros. “I didn’t know (Streveler) that well before this season, but he’s just an unbelievable teammate, an unbelievable person; unreal in the room and just a guy that loves this game and loves his teammates. Anytime you see a guy go down, it hurts not being able to come back in, especially a guy that you spend so much time with. I spend a lot with him, being in the quarterback room, so I feel for him and I hope for the best. He’s just an amazing competitor.”

CHARLIE AND BRADY:

Spotted post-game: Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira chatting with Charles Roberts, the franchise’s all-time leading rusher and saluted at halftime by having his name added to the Ring of Honour.

Oliveira also had a throwback #1 jersey in his locker afterward — he wore it in the pre-game warm-up — to honour Roberts. And then he went out and put up some solid numbers with 11 rushes for 43 yards and six catches for 60 yards.

Brady Oliveira honouring Charles Roberts before his induction into the @Wpg_BlueBombers Ring of Honour tonight!❤️

via @bradyoliveira pic.twitter.com/u1h4KrDzIK

— CFL (@CFL) September 7, 2024

“This is special right here,” said Oliveira, grabbing the Roberts jersey. “I’m probably going to get this framed up during the bye week to go right in my man cave. It’s a guy I watched when I was a young kid, him and (Milt) Stegall. Both Bomber legends and obviously Charlie being a running back and the all-time leading rusher in Bomber history, he’s a guy that I looked up to.

“Shout out to our equipment manager (Brad) Fotty really coming through. He got this made up for me and that was super-generous of him and thoughtful. And then our food guy, Brent Tuck, brought it to Charles somehow during the game and I came in here at halftime and it was signed.”

KEY MOMENT

The Blue Bombers had capped an eight-play drive that covered just 22 yards but took 2:53 off the clock late in the game with a Sergio Castillo field goal to go ahead 26-21 with 1:08 left. That gave Harris & Co. enough time to try and march the field for a potential game-winning TD, but with 45 seconds remaining the Riders QB heaved a pass into an area with including three swarming Blue Bombers with Tyrell Ford emerging with his second interception of the game and sixth of the season.

Game. Set. Banjo Bowl.

KEY STAT: +2

It hasn’t been easy this season for the Blue Bombers in terms of ball security – they entered the weekend with a -8 turnover differential – but exited with a plus-2 on the day courtesy the two Ford picks and an offence that did not turn the ball over while controlling the ball for 34 minutes and three seconds.

NEXT:

The Blue Bombers will enjoy their second of three bye weeks now, with their return to action coming on Saturday, September 21st in Edmonton against the Elks with a scheduled start of 6 p.m. CDT. The club is next at home at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday, September 27th against the Elks with a 7 p.m. start.

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This story originally appeared at bluebombers.com and is republished here with permission.