Written by: Andrew Parker
Recovering from back-to-back losses to the Saskatchewan Roughriders can’t be easy, but the Winnipeg Blue Bombers kept hope alive today with a victory led by Buck Pierce. In a 25-23 win over the East’s second-placed Montreal Alouettes, Pierce showed a world of improvement from last week and threw 2 touchdowns and 312 yards. On defence Winnipeg was threatened by several big runs from Brandon Whitaker, but maintained great pressure on Anthony Calvillo.
The game began as a first quarter blowout for Winnipeg, going up 14-0. To get things started on offence, Cory Watson pulled down a catch and turned it into 92 yards, breaking immediate pressure from two Als and fighting off a third tackle. With the addition of a Montreal penalty, this play moved the ball from 2nd down on the Bombers’ 5 yard line all the way to 1st and goal. After that, it was a pass to Greg Carr cutting in to give him his first touchdown of the year and Winnipeg the early lead.
Pierce’s accuracy continued with a pass to Terrence Edwards for a 38 yard gain on 2nd down. Building on that momentum, Pierce handed off to Fred Reid who found a hole and exploited it, running 47 yards for Winnipeg’s second major score.
Doug Brown got the defence going in the second quarter with a sack, but Montreal was able to find field goal range to make it 14-3. A few unfortunate events moved the ball for Montreal after that, with a facemask call against Odell Willis leading to another field goal. On the resulting kickoff, Tim Brown dropped the ball on the return, allowing Montreal to recover possession deep in Winnipeg territory. Willis’ third penalty of the game moved the ball up for Montreal again, and they scored on the following play.
Winnipeg showed some great gains in the last minutes of the half, gaining ground until they were stopped by an offside call. This forced Justin Palardy to attempt from 46 yards into the wind, but he came up big to put the Bombers up 17-14 at the half.
In the second half Winnipeg kept up their quarterback pressure and forced Calvillo to scramble and try to run for the first down, but he dropped the ball and Jonathon Hefney recovered nicely. As time ran out in the third quarter, Pierce found Edwards with plenty of room for a beautiful deep ball over his shoulder, running it in for another touchdown to end the quarter 25-14.
The fourth quarter yielded no scoring for the Bombers, and became more about holding the Alouettes off. Just under the 13 minute mark, Winnipeg was able to recover another Montreal fumble, this time thanks to Clint Kent. But on the following play, Pierce’s pass bounced off Edwards’ hands and into Jeff Hecht’s for a Montreal interception.
A pass interference call brought Montreal to first and goal, but Winnipeg was able to hold them to a field goal. Montreal moved the ball up again late in the game, scoring a touchdown and making Winnipeg fans nervous with less than three minutes left. In an attempt to tie the game they went for two points but threw incomplete.
To finish things off, big defence from Alex Suber stopped them two plays in a row, and a crucial 22 yard catch from Carr for a first down sealed the deal and kept Winnipeg’s 2 point lead until time ran out.
With the win Winnipeg remains undefeated against East division teams, and remains first in the CFL.
