Written by: Andrew Parker
Last week’s victory in Hamilton put the Winnipeg Blue Bombers back on track, and tomorrow they will be looking to keep that pace up as they travel to Edmonton to visit the 8-6 Eskimos. The 33-17 win over the Tiger-Cats showcased several aspects that Bomber fans are hoping will be present again. At the top of that list are no doubt the over-100 yard efforts by Greg Carr, Clarence Denmark, and Chris Garrett.
Buck Pierce also showed great leadership last week, completing 16 of 25 for 239 yards, plus one thrown touchdown and one he ran himself. Pierce commented on the close race in the West division, with three teams tied at the top rung.
“There’s such a logjam in the standings over there in the west that they’re going to be playing hard because they – just like us – want to finish first. The last time we played them we had some success but a lot has happened since then and we need to build off of the kind of game we had last week,” said Pierce.
That previous meeting with Edmonton was back on August 5, when Winnipeg came out on top 28-16 at home, right in the middle of a 5-game win streak. But now both teams are coming off one win, and Edmonton’s last match, a 17-1 drubbing of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, will have definitely put a spring in their step. It also earned Eskie running back Jerome Messam the Canadian Player of the Week award, his fourth of the season. But looking to put a stop to both Messam and the Eskimos’ spring is Brandon Stewart. You’ll remember Stewart from last week, when he dropped your jaw by grabbing an interception and running it all the way back for a score.
“We control our own destiny from here on out. We’ve got a playoff spot locked up which means we’ve accomplished our first goal but it’s all about getting into the playoffs on a high and getting that East final, which is something we can only do if we take care of business starting this week in Edmonton,” said the defensive back.
With resilient defense highlighted by plays like Stewart’s and the aforementioned offensive showing, Winnipeg’s strong performance didn’t go unnoticed by head coach Paul LaPolice. He spoke earlier about the importance of tomorrow’s game, despite upcoming circumstances and the fact that both Winnipeg and Edmonton have locked down playoff berths.
“Last week’s win over Hamilton was one of the most complete games we’ve had all year. Everything was working: offence, defense and special teams. Now, having said that, there are still some things that we can improve on and we need to if we want to be successful down the stretch. People can talk all they want about next week’s game against Montreal and how important that game might be in regards to first place, but we haven’t even thought about next week. I can tell you that every single man in our locker room is focused on beating the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday night,” said LaPolice.
The fans are focused as well, and can catch the game tomorrow night at 6 PM.
