It’s still a fresh and open wound. And it’s certainly going to take some time to heal – no doubt much longer for some than others.
Still, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won’t have to wait too long for their first crack at exacting some measure of revenge from their 110th Grey Cup loss to the Montreal Alouettes.
The Canadian Football League released its 2024 schedule today and the Blue Bombers will be front and centre in the curtain raiser for the entire season with a home date on Thursday, June 6th against the Grey Cup champion Als.
And, yes, it stings just as much to type those last words as to say them.
That showdown will come exactly 201 days after the 110th Grey Cup, a game won by the Alouettes 28-24 with a touchdown inside the final minute.
The Blue Bombers – 2024 edition – will make their debut on May 20th with a preseason game in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, before returning home to face the Calgary Stampeders in their final dress rehearsal on May 31st and then the Als six days later in the opener.
The 2024 schedule returns to a balanced format, with each team playing each other at least twice – once at home and away. Winnipeg will face division rivals Saskatchewan and the B.C. Lions three times over its 18-game slate and all other opponents twice.
The other notable nuggets from the Blue Bombers schedule:
- A big change for fans who despised the number of Thursday night home games in ’23: of the 10 home dates – including preseason – seven will come on Friday nights, including five before Labour Day – with two other home games coming on Thursday nights and the Banjo Bowl on its traditional Saturday afternoon date in September.
- The Blue Bombers will have three bye weeks again, coming in Week 10 (mid-August), Week 15 (mid-September) and Week 20 (mid-October). Winnipeg will be the last team to enjoy its first bye week.
- There are three back-to-backs with the same opponents – but one coming with an asterisk. Winnipeg will face B.C. in successive games, but with the second matchup coming after the first bye week in August. The other two are the traditional Labour Day Classic/Banjo Bowl showdowns with Saskatchewan and then two games with the Elks in six days – on the road in Edmonton on September 21st followed by a home game with the green and gold on September 27th.
- The Blue Bombers have a stretch of four straight divisional games in September, with the Labour Day Classic/Banjo Bowl matchup with the Riders followed by the home and home with the Elks. Winnipeg will then finish the regular season with three straight against the East with trips to Hamilton and Montreal wrapped around a visit by the Argonauts.
- The tightest window between games comes in late July-early August with a trip to Toronto on July 27th followed by a home date against B.C. on August 1st.
- The playoffs begin with the East and West Semifinals on Saturday, November 2nd, followed by the divisional finals on November 9th. The 111th Grey Cup will be held Sunday, November 17th at B.C. Place in Vancouver
Here’s a more detailed look at the Blue Bombers slate of regular-season games, after the preseason contests in Saskatchewan and at home against Calgary (all times Central):
GAME 1 | MONTREAL AT WINNIPEG
When: Thursday, June 6th, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: The CFL schedule makers get it right this year with a Grey Cup rematch to open the season. A year ago, the Blue Bombers and Argos – who battled in the 109th Grey Cup – met only once, with the rematch not occurring until Week 17, September 29th, in Winnipeg.
GAME 2 | WINNIPEG AT OTTAWA
When: Thursday, June 13th, 6:30 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers and RedBlacks have served up some outstanding showdowns in their meetings in the nation’s capital over the past few years. Winnipeg fell 31-28 in overtime a year ago, won 19-12 in 2022, 29-14 in 2019, 40-32 in OT in 2018 and won 33-30 on a last second Justin Medlock field goal in 2017.
GAME 3 | B.C. AT WINNIPEG
When: Friday, June 21st, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: A sometimes overlooked Blue Bombers stat – Winnipeg was 9-2 against West Division opponents in 2023, losing once to the Lions and once to Saskatchewan. Here’s the nugget: over the past four seasons Winnipeg is 34-7 against the West Division.
GAME 4 | WINNIPEG AT CALGARY
When: Saturday, June 29th, 6 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers have won six straight over the Stampeders since a 13-12 loss in Calgary at the end of 2021, when a bunch of regulars were rested in the regular-season finale before the playoffs. That run includes three victories at McMahon Stadium, including 19-18 and 36-13 wins last year.
GAME 5 | OTTAWA AT WINNIPEG
When: Friday, July 5th, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: Winnipeg finished last season with a 14-4 record – matching Ottawa’s win total over the last four years. The Blue Bombers are 51-17 over the last four years; Ottawa is 14-54.
GAME 6 | CALGARY AT WINNIPEG
When: Friday, July 12th, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: Calgary QB Jake Maier finished third in the CFL in passing yardage last year at 4,237, behind only Vernon Adams, Jr. of B.C. (4,679) and Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros (4,252). But in his three starts vs. Winnipeg – all Blue Bomber wins – he completed just 48.4 percent of his passes for 422 yards with one TD against two interceptions, one of them a Pick-6 by Demerio Houston.
GAME 7 | WINNIPEG AT SASKATCHEWAN
When: Friday, July 19th, 8:30 p.m.
Notable: Collaros has a career passing-efficiency rating of 118.2 vs the Roughriders – his best numbers against any CFL team. He is 11-4 vs. Saskatchewan lifetime with 34 touchdowns against just six interceptions.
GAME 8 | WINNIPEG AT TORONTO
When: Saturday, July 27th, 6 p.m.
Notable: Winnipeg did not play in Toronto in 2023. Worth noting: BMO Field hasn’t been that kind to the Blue Bombers since the Argos vacated Rogers Centre and set up shop there in 2016, with the club sporting a 3-3 record at the venue.
GAME 9 | B.C. AT WINNIPEG
When: Thursday, August 1st, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers were 8-1 in the regular season at IG Field last year with the lone loss a 30-6 spanking administered by the Lions last June. The team responded with a 50-14 win over B.C. in Winnipeg in August and then again in the Western Final 24-13, also at IG Field.
GAME 10 | WINNIPEG AT B.C.
When: Saturday, August 17th, 6 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers and Lions met once in Vancouver a year ago in a 34-26 Winnipeg win in overtime that was a CFL classic. Trailing twice by 10 points – including in the fourth quarter – Winnipeg out-scored B.C. 18-0, including the points in OT, for the win.
GAME 11 | HAMILTON AT WINNIPEG
When: Friday, August 23rd, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers committed nine turnovers in their two meetings with the Ticats last year and still somehow managed a split with a 42-31 win in the season opener – a game in which they had five turnovers – and then a loss in September in which they had four turnovers.
GAME 12 | WINNIPEG AT SASKATCHEWAN – THE LABOUR DAY CLASSIC
When: Sunday, September 1st, 6 p.m.
Notable: The Riders knocked off the Blue Bombers 32-30 in the LDC in 2023, a game unfortunately marred somewhat by Collaros being head-butted by Pete Robertson with just over four minutes remaining. Robertson was subsequently suspended for one game. Saskatchewan holds a 38-20 advance in the Labour Day Classics dating to 1949.
GAME 13 | SASKATCHEWAN AT WINNIPEG – THE BANJO BOWL
When: Saturday, September 7th, 3 p.m.
Notable: Over the last two Banjo Bowls Winnipeg has out-scored Saskatchewan 105-26 and – get this – in the 20 offensive possessions over those two games have scored 13 touchdowns and five field goals while punting just twice.
GAME 14 | WINNIPEG AT EDMONTON
When: Saturday, September 21st, 6 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers have won 10 straight games against Edmonton, including three last year. Among that trio of victories was the remarkable 38-29 decision in Edmonton last August in which the club overcame a 22-0 deficit – and with Dru Brown having replaced and injured Collaros.
GAME 15 | EDMONTON AT WINNIPEG
When: Friday, September 27th, 7 p.m.
Notable: Weird stat to chew on here: The Blue Bombers are 18-14 in September games from 2015-23 – statistically their worst of all months on the schedule with a .563 winning percentage. The others – June/July: 31-15 (.674); August: 19-8 (.704); October/November: 21-14 (.600).
GAME 16 | WINNIPEG AT HAMILTON
When: Friday, October 4th, 6 p.m.
Notable: Maybe a change of date in the annual visit to Hamilton is a good thing for the Blue Bombers. The club has visited Steeltown for the last two Canadian Football Hall of Fame Games each September and lost them both, including a 29-23 defeat a year ago. Their 48-31 loss in 2022 was also the most points surrendered by the club since a 52-26 loss to Hamilton in July of 2015.
GAME 17 | TORONTO AT WINNIPEG
When: Friday, October 11th, 7:30 p.m.
Notable: Toronto has met Winnipeg five times in the last three seasons, including the 2022 Grey Cup, and has started three different quarterbacks over those games – McLeod Bethel-Thompson (3 times), Cameron Dukes last year and Nick Arbuckle in 2021. Collaros, meanwhile, has started all five meetings for the Blue Bombers.
GAME 18 | WINNIPEG AT MONTREAL
When: Saturday, October 26th, 4 p.m.
Notable: The Blue Bombers will head into their finale coming off their third and final bye of the regular season. Consider this: heading into 2024 the club holds a 15-4 record since 2015 after a bye week – best in the CFL over that span.
