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News September 22, 2024

Upon Further Review | Wpg 27 Edm 14

The Blue Bombers in the tunnel just prior to Saturday's win over Edmonton at Commonwealth Stadium

@EdTaitWFC

The visitors’ locker room at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is a long, rectangular space certainly not ideal for 50 or so size-large football players along with their equipment bags and the temporary food and drink tables all jammed into the tiny area.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers rookie linebacker Michael Ayers stood there amid the mass of humanity and paraphernalia following Saturday night’s 27-14 win over the Elks, having deftly tip-toed around the mess to find a spot to chat with a couple of reporters .

And the ear-to-ear grin on his mug perfectly captured the mood of the room as the celebratory sounds of a sixth-straight victory roared all around.

Now, it could be said the 25-year-old product of the Division II Ashland University Eagles — a guy who signed here after a shot with the Seattle Seahawks in 2023 — is emblematic of the not-so subtle makeover the Blue Bombers roster has undergone this year.

The club’s 0-4/2-6 start to the season has been blabbed about ad nauseam for months — including in this space — across the Canadian Football League. Yet a narrative that clearly needs to be discussed further is how so many of the new faces — like Ayers — have not just grown into their gigs but continue to morph into difference makers as the Blue Bombers have raced back to the top of the West Division.

Ayers, for example, made one of Saturday’s critical plays by intercepting a Tre Ford pass with 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter of a game then tied at 10-10 — a pick that led to a Brady Oliveira score which was part of a 17-4 run for the Blue Bombers in the final frame that sealed the deal.

Ayers kept the football as a memento and said it was his first interception since his final college game at Ashland. And in what was one of the game’s many subplots, his contributions on defence — four defensive tackles, two more on defence and the pick — came after he was rushed into the starter’s role at linebacker after Kyrie Wilson, just coming off the six-game injured list, suffered a new injury as the Bombers were preparing to play.

“It was right before the game. (Wilson) didn’t even tell he was injured or anything,” said Ayers. “He was just going over the (defensive) packages with me and I was confused at first. I was like, ‘What’s going… why?’ I didn’t even know. You prepare throughout the week as if you are going to play and be the starter. I’m behind him, watching him all week, studying him and watching what he’s doing to help me prepare and I’ve got great teammates around me that help me get lined up and fulfill my job so I can do the best for my team.

“… It feels big because we’ve got a lot of vets in this locker room that are counting on young guys like me to step in and not miss a beat for what they’ve got going on. I’m the new guy here, the rookie, and they’ve been here for a long time, and they have their expectations — they have high expectations and goals and so they’re expecting a lot of of me. Hopefully I can do my best to fulfill that.”

He wasn’t alone Saturday or throughout this impressive resurgence for the Blue Bombers this season. Linebacker Tony Jones, cut adrift by the Elks in training camp, was all over the field with an interception, sack, forced fumble and recovery and a team-high six tackles. Pokey Wilson led the club with five catches for 55 yards and scored his third TD of the season while rookie receivers Kevens Clercius and Keric Wheatfall chipped in with three catches each — all three of Wheatfall’s receptions converting second-down situations.

Consider this, too, as further evidence of the change this team has undergone: 11 starters from last year’s Grey Cup are either currently injured — Wilson, Adam Bighill, and Jamal Parker on defence, receivers Dalton Schoen and Drew Wolitarsky on offence — or no longer here, like Demerio Houston, Jackson Jeffcoat, Rasheed Bailey, Ricky Walker, Jemarcus Hardrick and Geoff Gray. Doubling down on that, the team is also without Chris Streveler, along with defensive tackles Cam Lawson and Miles Fox, both of whom were expected to start or have heavy workloads this year.

“Right on time,” said head coach Mike O’Shea of the Ayers interception. “They had just had a big run (35 yards by Justin Rankin) so he went up and got it. Good for him. It’s nice for a young guy when they make a play — their teammates are so excited for him because he grinds it out on special teams and he’s getting his chance on defence a little bit because of his work on special teams and then he goes out there and makes a big play for us.

“It’s pretty cool.”

ICYMI, here is our game recap from Saturday night:

Game Recap | WPG 27 EDM 14

And what follows is the rest of this week’s UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

THERE’S BEEN A TON OF DISCUSSION… over the last few weeks about how muddied the picture is for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player Award with no clear-cut front-runners — outside of maybe Montreal QB Cody Fajardo — having established themselves as the lead horse.

Well, Oliveira’s performance Saturday certainly puts him back in the conversation — if he never truly left it. The gifted workhorse rushed 18 times for 127 yards and his first two TDs of the season against the Elks, and also pulled in two passes for 11 yards — the second a critical reception late that helped convert a second-and-five with just over four minutes remaining with the new set of downs taking an additional two minutes off the clock and setting up a Sergio Castillo field goal.

“He managed to crack off a few real good ones and had some tough ones, too,” said O’Shea of Oliveira’s overall rushing performance. “I thought the catch near the end in the fourth where he ended up going flat, broke a tackle and then turned it up, went north and stayed in bounds after he got the first down… that was a huge play. Taking on two guys at the end there and then staying in bounds was headsy.”

In addition to the two scores, Oliveira recaptured the rushing lead — he’s now at 1,021 yards, 62 yards ahead of B.C.’s William Stanback — and has already established a career high in receptions for 46.

“You really start to feel it when you impose your will on a grown man and our offensive line was doing that in the second half and just allowing me to do what I do,” said Oliveira, the runner-up to Toronto’s Chad Kelly for the MOP honour a year ago. “I ran better in the second half with the way I was hitting it, maybe not being as timid. I was just getting north and trusting my abilities and knowing my abilities. I’m a big back and it’s hard to tackle me when I’m going north-south.

“I just got back to who I am as a running back and we were all on the page in the second half.”

THREE NUMBERS WHICH STOOD OUT… after a second glance at the stats package, which can be found here:

1 As much as the offence struggled in the first half, they finished the night converting on three of four trips to the score zone, with all three scores coming in the final 30 minutes. The Elks, meanwhile, never even got into the score zone.

“They had a week off, we had a week off and we were trying to figure out how they were going to approach defending us,” said Collaros. “Those are the kind of things that happen in the first quarter. You’d obviously like to create more explosives, but as the game went on we had an idea of what they were doing and made some plays.”

2 Friday’s rematch will offer the usual punch/counter-punch dance that comes in the second game of a back-to-back. And as solid as the defence was, one area the Blue Bombers will look to shore up is their work against the run as the Elks rushed for 195 yards on 23 carries for a 8.5 yards per carry average. Edmonton’s Rankin finished with 157 yards on just 14 carries — a jaw-dropping 11.2 yards per touch.

“We could have tackled better, especially in the first half,” said O’Shea. “They’ll get it fixed. They certainly out numbered us to the edge a couple times. We’ll fix it.

3 A lot of eyeballs on Collaros’ TD-to-interception differential — it’s now 9:14 — and that’s obviously a talking point.

A few other big-picture numbers — Saturday’s win improved Collaros to 80-46 as a starter in his career and 46-14 with the Blue Bombers. He recently passed Khari Jones into third spot on the franchise’s all-time QB wins list with 46 and now trails only two legends in Ken Ploen (82-52-1) and Dieter Brock (71-48-1). Collaros’ winning percentage of 76.7 is second only to Jim Van Pelt (20-5, 80 percent), with Matt Nichols at 65.0 (39-21), Jack Jacobs at 63.7 (38-21-3), Ploen at 61.1, Jones at 60.1 and Brock at 59.6.

AND, FINALLY… for those of you weary of all these words — first of all, thanks for making it this far — and second, here is a video recap of Saturday’s ‘W’: