EDMONTON – It was hardly a trade that generated big, splashy headlines across the Canadian Football League the moment it was made official.

It was instead viewed simply as a shrewd move made out of necessity and with a band-aid/stop-gap feel to it.

Rewind to September 2, 2015…

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were in the throes of a three-game losing skid, had dropped five of their last six, and lost quarterback Drew Willy to injury when GM Kyle Walters made a deal with the Edmonton Eskimos for Matt Nichols.

Officially, all the Bombers surrendered was a conditional seventh-round pick for Nichols, with the pick upgraded to a fifth-rounder after the veteran established himself as the club’s starter.

Now, the most important benefit of this deal has been the role Nichols has played in helping breathe life back in the Bombers franchise, one which is 28-16 since he became the unquestioned starter.

The bonus – especially as it applies to Saturday night’s critical West Division showdown here – is what Nichols consistently brings against his old club, especially here in Edmonton.

Consider these numbers:

• The Bombers are 3-3 overall in Nichols’ six starts against the Esks, including last year’s West Semi-Final loss.
• His passing totals in those six games include five 300-yard performances and 1,953 yards through the air, a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 10:1 and a completion percentage of 70.8.
• Most importantly, at least in this moment, is this: the Bombers have won their last two visits to Edmonton, emerging with a 30-23 victory back on July 28, 2016 in what was Nichols’ first start after the QB change from Willy, and last year’s 28-19 victory on September 30 that improved the club to 10-3 and all but sealed a home playoff date for the first time since 2011.

All that is not insignificant, given Commonwealth Stadium has long been a graveyard for the Bombers – give or take the 1984 Grey Cup and the Milt Stegall 100-yard miracle in the summer of 2006.

This is where playoff dreams have died. This is where regular seasons have gone awry. This is where the franchise suffered the worst lost in its history – a 68-7 shellacking in the 1996 West Semi-Final – that was Cal Murphy’s last game on the Bombers sideline.

But when Nichols has lined up across his old club here over the past couple of years, it’s like some of the mysticism about Commonwealth and the Eskimos has disappeared.

Nichols was asked by bluebombers.com earlier in the week if that comes from a pent up prove-they-were-wrong emotion about his old club.

“There’s a little bit of that, sure,” he began. “But mostly, it just feels natural for me looking over and seeing the Edmonton uniform and helmet. I mean, I went against them in practice every day for over five years. So, there is a comfort with that. Really, a lot of it just comes from the comfort level of playing in that stadium because it’s been so many games for me. It’s just one of those things. I think that if I was ever to go play anywhere else and then play Winnipeg it would probably feel the same way.”

Good point, that.

There’s also this: Nichols welcomed the trade to Winnipeg some three years ago. The Eskimos were Mike Reilly’s team then, as they are now, and the coaching staff at the time – led by current Saskatchewan boss Chris Jones – had a fascination with young prospect James Franklin, now in Toronto.

In other words, no one needed to spell out to him in detail where his place was on the Eskimos QB depth chart.

“(The trade) was something I was excited about immediately, to be honest,” Nichols said. “The way it was going for me there… it wasn’t panning out for me there to be in the position I wanted to be in. Even in ’15 when I was playing it was because Mike was hurt and we knew he was coming back relatively soon.

“That coaching staff also wanted to see James Franklin play a little bit so there were a couple of times where we were winning football games and I felt I was playing pretty well but ended up getting pulled from games so they could see him play. That is what it is, but it definitely was a little frustrating. At the time of the trade I knew Drew was hurt and Winnipeg had a little bit of a need, so part of me wanted to go and ask for it (a trade) even if they weren’t planning on trading me.

“This is a place I felt I could come and help turn things around,” Nichols added. “It’s obviously been great for me.”

BOMBERS REPORT | September 28

FINAL PUSH:

Several Bombers have spoken this week about the change in the weather signifying the importance of the stretch run to the playoffs. That, plus the obvious effect any win or loss has on the standings, has already given this game a postseason feel.

“As you start getting into October or close to October, things start shaping up picture-wise,” said Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill upon arrival at Commonwealth late Friday afternoon. “You start realizing even more the importance of every single game moving forward. This week is no different.

“We realize we have an opportunity to go 1-1 in the series and knowing we play them another time (in the regular season finale), that’s important. Knowing we could be tied with them in third place, that’s important. We haven’t played them since Week 1 (a 33-30 loss in the CFL season opener). It was a long game, lightning-delayed, but a game in which we left some stuff on the table with some mistakes. We’ve been itching to play Edmonton again.”

MORE TO GIVE:

One of the common narratives in Bomberland over the last few days was the number of plays left on the table in the win over Montreal and how that can’t happen against a team like Edmonton, Ottawa, Saskatchewan or Calgary – the club’s final five opponents.

“I saw them leave a lot on the table,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “The film doesn’t lie. There were enough opportunities to make the game better for us. We watch that, they see they missed some opportunities and I don’t think they look at it in a negative light, they look at it in a positive light and say, ‘OK, we can do better and this is how we’re going to do it.’”