Upon Further Review | WPG 34 BC 26 OT

Let’s rewind to late Friday night/early Saturday morning and the scene from inside a euphoric Winnipeg Blue Bombers dressing room at B.C. Place.

The Blue Bombers had just applied the finishing strokes on a masterful comeback win, a 34-26 overtime decision that improved the club to 12-4 and gave them the all-important season series in a potential first place tiebreaker with the Lions.

The music blared inside the confined space, just as it does after every win. And amid the back slaps, fist bumps and high-fives there were also some still taking a moment to decompress after a ‘did that just really happen?’ comeback that saw the club rally from a 10-point deficit inside the final three minutes of regulation and in a game in which they trailed by as much as 14, and four times were down by 10.

“How would I describe that one? Oh God, dude. Let me think,” began receiver Drew Wolitarsky, who scored a TD with 2:11 remaining in regulation that brought the club to within a field goal at 26-23. “You know what? That had Grey Cup 2021 vibes, man.

“It was about faith. Again, there were so many times we could have been frustrated. I mean, three turnovers in the red zone, two in the fourth quarter… you drive and drive and drive and then you turn the ball over, that is really hard to get over in football. But we just continued to push. The confidence in our ability to move the ball was there, it was just about finishing. We did what we had to do. And that third-and-one stop late by our D was insanely big. So many plays that could have determined that game and just made one more than them. Right now, there’s a whirlwind of emotions. Obviously, there’s some frustrations from those turnovers but we had ours, they had theirs, and everybody has those moments. Again, it’s about faith and staying with it and the team that stayed with it, won.

“They felt us creeping up and that’s a scary feeling when the Bombers are creeping up on you.”

We could put a period/full stop on that complete and perfect summation from Wolitarsky and dive into some Thanksgiving bird right now, but the Blue Bombers rally and all the layers to it deserve a much deeper dive.

Ultimately, that theme – the idea of belief – was what kept being repeated afterward, and we touched on it briefly in our Game Recap.

“After the Toronto game last week Woli (Wolitarsky) broke us down and portrayed a message of ‘belief’ – that if everyone is on the same page and everyone believes and if the entire locker room takes that to the sidelines, that’s a powerful thing,” said running back Brady Oliveira, who was sensational in the victory with 152 yards from scrimmage on 20 touches. “That was the message during a good week of practice: have good energy and believe because down the stretch there’s going to be tight games.

“And that message was relayed throughout the game in the huddle – believe, believe, believe, and understand that we’re going to make plays and go out there and win this football game.”

That was evident late in the game and in overtime, when the Blue Bombers scored on their first possession and then saw Zach Collaros connect with Kenny Lawler on a two-point conversion, and then push the Lions backward on their first touch before a third-and-18 ended the game.

All that coming after two Collaros fumbles in the score zone in the fourth quarter that could have been backbreakers.

“The majority of us have been together for a long time in there,” Collaros said afterward. “We’ve been through many different circumstances together. I just know everybody believes in each other.”

Maybe that sounds too melodramatic to many, but that emotion and energy – euphoria-meets-belief – was palpable late Friday night.

What an exciting win last night! Saw a lot of Blue in BC Place last night and I loved it. Can’t stress how great our fans are 🙏🏾 #ForTheW

— Jackson Jeffcoat (@elJEFEcoat44) October 7, 2023

“That’s simply a good win against a good opponent. And we needed to get this W,” said defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat, who was solid with two sacks and three tackles. “Hey, hat’s off to them, that’s a really good team, but we buckled down to make our plays.

“When we were going into overtime it was, ‘This is what we want.’ We thrive on that. I told the guys, ‘Let’s get it going. There’s no better time than now.’ That’s belief.”

More on the Blue Bombers win in Vancouver in this week’s edition of UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

THREE NUMBERS THAT JUMP OUT… after a second look at the stats package, available here.

1 – Oliveira finished with 11 carries for 67 yards (a six-yard carry by Nic Demski was originally credited to him, changing the total in the stats sheet) and another 85 yards on eight receptions.

That pushes his league-leading rushing total to 1,426 yards and establishes a new Blue Bombers single season record for rushing yards by a Canadian, eclipsing the 1,390 yards Andrew Harris had in 2017.

That 1,426 total also moved him into 9^th spot on the Blue Bombers all-time single season rushing total, regardless of nationality. The eight ahead of him: 1. Robert Mimbs (1,769 in 1991); Willard Reaves (1,733 in 1984); 3. Charles Roberts (1,624 in 2005); 4. Charles Roberts (1,609 in 2006); 5. Charles Roberts (1,554 in 2003); 6. Mack Herron (1,527 in 1972); 7. Charles Roberts (1,572 in 2004) and 8. Willard Reaves (1,471 yards in 1987).

It’s also now just shy of the second-highest single-rushing mark set by a Canadian in CFL history, as Calgary’s Jon Cornish had 1,813 yards in 2013 and 1,457 yards in 2012.

2 –Lions QB Vernon Adams, Jr. finished the night 19 of 33 for 352 yards with one TD and no interceptions. Inside that total: Adams, Jr. had 252 yards at halftime and of the 100 he had in the second half, 65 of that came on the final play of regulation – a last-second heave that was pulled in by Dominique Rhymes before a touchdown-saving tackle by Jamal Parker at the Winnipeg five-yard line.

The Lions were 13-of-22 on second-down conversions (59 percent) on the game, but just 3-of-9 in the second half.

“It was simply about getting off the field in the second half,” said defensive end Willie Jefferson who picked up a sack to end his eight-game drought. “Win on first down and make them have to go second and long and second and extra-long if we could. It was about getting into Vernon’s face and make it harder for him to throw the ball over the top of us and make it hard for him to find his receivers and get him to move around inside the pocket.”

3 – Collaros completed 31-of-41 passes for 389 yards with two TDs and one interception. That yardage total is his second highest as a Blue Bomber (he had 417 in a win over B.C. on October 1, 2021) and moved him past Kerry Joseph into 20^th place on the CFL’s all-time list at 28,474.

A thought on his game Friday… yes, he had the three turnovers with a pick and two fumbles in the score zone, but he also authored a rally that came with Dalton Schoen on the sidelines (he was injured and did not return) and he spread the ball around to nine different receivers. His fingerprints were all over a critical win and that’s exactly why he should still be front and centre in the Most Outstanding Player conversation.

SO MANY CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE WIN… as the Blue Bombers rallied and outscored the Lions 18-0 after falling behind 26-16 in the fourth quarter. Two that stand out on defence were the third-and-one from the Winnipeg 53-yard line with 1:54 remaining and then the game-saving tackle by Parker on the last play of regulation.

Ricky Walker was the lead on the third-down stop, knifing into the pile to stop Dom Davis on a QB sneak.

“We did our film study, and we knew in our short yardage that they had an indicator of where they like to go, so I just trusted my keys, fired off, got gap penetration and the next thing I know I had Davis in my arms and I just grabbed him and kept trying to drive him back until my teammates came,” Walker explained.

“It felt like we had stopped them because they didn’t have any movement and I was in the backfield. I could hear the crowd screaming and yelling and knowing he was short, man, that’s a great feeling.

“That’s a tough situation with the yard off the ball. It’s like a gimme most times in our league, but it came down to who wanted it more. Fourth quarter… you’re just trying to make a play to help your team and I’m excited I could help make it happen.”

The Parker play is all the talk in Vancouver; had Rhymes gone down before the clock went to 00:00, the Lions might have been in position to kick a game-winning field goal. Of course, he was also five yards from winning it outright, too, before Parker dragged him down.

“We always preach, ‘Run to the ball, run to the ball, run to the ball,’” said Parker. “You never know what’s going to happen, but good things almost always happen when you run to the ball. You play until the whistle is blown and so I was just doing what was second nature.

“To be honest, it’s a bit of a blur,” Parker added with a grin. “I saw the ball in the air, and it got tipped. Then I heard the crowd screaming and I thought, ‘I gotta haul ass and make the tackle.’”

“Fantastic effort,” added O’Shea. “Let’s be honest, it’s pro football. That’s the kind of effort his teammates deserve – I’m not taking anything away from Park – that’s going to be a great piece of video that everybody is going to learn from. If we want to get to where we want to get to that’s the kind of effort we’re going to need from everybody all the time.”

Given the defensive adjustments made by Blue Bombers defensive coordinator Richie Hall and his staff that countered the Lions first half success, it seemed only fitting that the game ended with an Evan Holm pass knock down in overtime.

“We didn’t want it any other way,” said Walker. “We wanted the defence to win the game or end the game. That’s been our mindset all year: every time we’re on the field it’s zero, one, three (points) and never six. I’m grateful. It seems like we’re starting to click at the right time with playoffs coming.”

JG IS BACK AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS… The Blue Bombers, as expected, got a boost from ace returner Janarion Grant, who returned two kickoffs for 45 yards and had an 8.5-yard average on punt returns.

He also made an impact on offence, pulling in his first career TD pass from Collaros for Winnipeg’s first score.

“That was pretty cool. That’s my first offensive touchdown,” said Grant. “I really wanted one on special teams, too, and we were almost there but didn’t get one.

“That was a great play design. It opened up very well and then once I got the ball, I did the rest and got physical near the goal line and that was all she wrote.”

As for his work on the returns, Grant said:

“I felt great, but I also felt I could have done better. That’s my mentality, to take it back every time. That’s what I try to do. We did great, but now I want to see the film and see what we can do better and what I can do better.”

ONE MORE ON THE WORK OF OLIVEIRA… The Blue Bombers had two possessions in the final 5:45 of regulation and then one in OT. In those three drives the club ran 17 offensive plays that led to a TD and FG in regulation before Oliveira’s TD run in overtime. Of those 17 snaps, Oliveira had nine of them – five receptions for 55 yards and four rushes for 26 yards.

“He’s a beauty,” said O’Shea of Oliveira with a grin. “He’s a workhorse. He has no problem pulling himself off the carpet and even though it might seem like he’s tired he’s just going to line up and get the ball again and do it again. He’s got a lot of respect from everybody on the team, and he obviously respects everybody on the team, too… no one’s surprised. No one is every surprised when he gets the ball what he can do.”

Added Collaros: “What I see from him is what I see every week – he’s a great player, he’s a talented kid, a tough kid and he was out there just dog tired and stayed in the game and finished it. He’s just an unbelievable competitor, an unbelievable person and teammate. I love the guy, we all do.”

AND FINALLY… let’s finish with this: as joyous as the mood was in the Blue Bombers locker room after the game, there was also a collective sense of being both physically and emotionally spent.

There’s the bye this week, and then two games to officially lock up first in the West Division.

“We’re not done yet. We can’t rest. We’ve still got work to do,” said O’Shea. “This emotional high coming off this game, it’s kind of good we’ve got a bye week so we can just relax a little bit and come down from it. If we had to play on a short week here, you’d see guys be fairly tired from not only the game but also the emotions of it.”

On that subject, we opened with a quote from Wolitarsky and will end with one here, too. Here is the veteran receiver on the emotion at the end of the game.

“On that last play you’re trying not to get your hopes up and you have to start thinking about the next OT period. At the same time, it’s third and 18. You see the ball in the air, you see Holm running over and I’m thinking, ‘This shit’s covered.’

“A moment like that is just so surreal. It’s like this battle, this war, and then it’s over. What a feeling to be completely depleted, but to have it happen in a win. We made one more play and we’re in here victorious. But we can sure make it easier on ourselves, too.”