Winnipeg Blue Bombers peaking as CFL playoff race heats up

Zach Collaros gets a warm feeling when the temperature begins to drop and the leaves turn a burnt orange.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback calls it football weather, and it reminds him of home.

“U.S. guys from the midwest, it feels like football,” Collaros said Tuesday.

“You don’t start usually until the end of August. We’re a little further west here so the smell is a little bit different in the morning here, for sure, but when I go home in September and October and walk out my parents’ front door in the morning, you can kind of feel the wetness on the grass and the crispness in the air — it just feels like football.”

That crisp October wind tends to blow in more than the ghouls and goblins in costumes. It can bring out a different type of beast on the gridiron, as the urgency heightens with each game and the playoff race in the Canadian Football League reaches a boiling point.

That’s been the case with Collaros since arriving in the Manitoba capital. Since 2021, the veteran pivot is 76-for-99 and averaging 307 passing yards while tossing for 16 touchdowns to just one interception in the Bombers’ four playoff-clinching victories.

Collaros was overcome by a familiar feeling before last week’s 55-27 thrashing of the Edmonton Elks, which saw him throw for a season-high 432 yards and a career-high six touchdown passes while leading the club to an eighth-consecutive playoff berth.

“It was just something that I kinda felt during warmups, not just necessarily myself but looking around at the guys and just how locked in everybody was, just had a good feeling about the night,” Collaros said following the club’s practice at Princess Auto Stadium, where the Bombers are preparing to travel to Hamilton to face the Tiger-Cats on Friday (6 p.m. CT).

“What a beautiful night it was, too. It was rocking from pregame on through. The guys were feeling good and we did a good job on the game.”

“What a beautiful night it was, too. It was rocking from pregame on through. The guys were feeling good and we did a good job on the game.”–Zach Collaros

The Bombers’ 526 total yards of offence was a season-high for a group that has struggled for much of the season and only now isn’t the lowest-scoring unit in the three-down loop.

Collaros was at the centre of it and shared the wealth, as six different players recorded a reception and the talents of Kenny Lawler (eight receptions for 130 yards and two touchdowns) and Nic Demski (four catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns) were unleashed.

“It was good to see,” said offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce. “I think that’s really just a culmination of doing the right things that we’ve been asking them to do — playing fast, being on the same page, all those type of things. So, when 12 guys are right, it can look good at times.

“We’ve seen flashes of our guys doing things, but the execution has to be there. Offensive football, if one is wrong, we’re all wrong. If 12 are right, we’re all right, and it can look good.”

Collaros has had a tumultuous season, winning despite entering last week’s contest with a league-high 14 interceptions to nine touchdowns. Running back Brady Oliveira has found the best players find a way to turn it on when it matters most, regardless of their struggles.

“If you want to be a great player, you got to show up in those big games. When the lights turn on, you got to go out and show out,” said Oliveria, whose 17 touches for 119 yards and a touchdown added to his case for the league’s Most Outstanding Player award.

“A player like Zach — he’s going to go down as one of the greatest players to ever play in this league at that position — it’s exactly what he does. He understands what big games are… that’s the guy that I want back there to be my quarterback, to be the leader of this team, the leader of this offence because you see what he does.

“I think we’re peaking at the perfect time, near the end of our season, and the way Zach has been playing, it’s exactly what we need for this team.”

Perhaps Collaros will deliver another vintage performance with another potential clinching scenario at hand when the Bombers face the Tiger-Cats. Should the Bombers win and the Saskatchewan Roughriders lose to the Edmonton Elks on Saturday, Winnipeg will earn the top seed and a bye to the West Division Final for the fourth consecutive season.

“I don’t think it means anything today,” Collaros said of last week’s outing. “What matters is what we did on the practice field today and what we’re going to do in this game here and moving forward.”

Injury update

Bombers defensive lineman Miles Fox was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice session for the first time since going down with an injury early in the year.

Fox was pegged to be a key piece along the club’s front four but hasn’t played since Week 2. He was placed on the six-game injured list but has since been upgraded to the one-game IL, meaning he’s eligible to return to game action at any time.

Though Fox will be available to play this week, head coach Mike O’Shea wasn’t ready to declare the third-year pro game-ready.

“He’d be available. I don’t know how that fits yet, but he was off for quite a bit so he needs a bit more work,” O’Shea said. “I know he feels good. I know he’s ready to go. I’m not sure where that all fits in.”

Offensive lineman Gabe Wallace and fullback Bailey Feltmate, both on the six-game injured list, also practised in a limited capacity. O’Shea said neither player is available just yet but are “certainly making strides.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

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Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He’s reported primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports and writes a weekly real estate feature for the business section. Read more about Josh.

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