Game 2: Blue Bombers (1-0) at Lions (1-1)

Kickoff: Saturday, June 21st, 6 p.m. CDT; B.C. Place, Vancouver
TV/Streaming: TSN 1/3, CTV, CBS SportsNetwork; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB (pre-game begins at 4 p.m. CDT); Play-by-play: Derek Taylor/analyst: Doug Brown; Sirius XM (ch. 167)

Scene Setter

History has proven time and time again in the Canadian Football League that these things always go in cycles. The good times — the glory days — are invariably followed by dark ages.

And Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans have certainly experienced all of that over the franchise’s existence.

So, one day — some day — we should all expect the Blue Bombers to go through a streak where road wins are a rarity and venturing into enemy territory is once again both a scary proposition and a tough ask.

Before we go any further, let’s state this: that time does not appear to be anywhere on the horizon right now.

The Blue Bombers enter this weekend’s visit to B.C. Place on the left coast for their first road trip of 2025 with an impressive streak intact, having gone four straight seasons of posting a winning record on the road — 2021 (4-3), 2022 (7-2), 2023 (6-3) and 2024 (5-4).

A couple of things worth noting here:

• The four straight road winning seasons is the second-longest in franchise history, next to six straight from 1957-62. Over that span the Blue Bombers made five Grey Cup appearances in six years, were a remarkable 41-7 away from Winnipeg Stadium and cranked out an astonishing 20 straight wins on the road — a CFL record that still stands.
• On the flip side, the Blue Bombers lost 13 straight on the road over a stretch from September of 1997 to July of 1999 — a franchise record and the fifth-longest road drought in CFL history.

One more number for context:

• In between these two historic road runs — 1957-62 and 2021- — the Blue Bombers posted winning road record seasons just 12 times in 57 years.

Question is, what are the factors that have led to this recent road run by the Blue Bombers?

“I don’t think there’s any secret sauce or anything,” said veteran guard Pat Neufeld this week when the subject was broached in a conversation with bluebombers.com. “It’s really just that we cherish spending time with each other on the road, simple as that. It’s awesome spending time together. As an offensive line, we’ve been going out on the road for meals since at least 2015. We spend a lot of time together and we just get a chance to hunker down and block out distractions. All you have is football and your teammates.

“Ultimately, though, this is our job,” Neufeld added. “We have to go out there and perform and the stakes are higher because you’re on the road and you don’t have the comforts of home. You’ve got to lock in that much more mentally and make sure you overcome any distractions.”

All this lends credence to the theory that says teams that are dominant at home and even just .500 on the road usually are contenders come November. It certainly didn’t start that way for the Blue Bombers a year ago, when they lost their first four road games before reeling off five in a row, including a critical 28-27 victory in Montreal that clinched first place in the West Division.

Essentially, over the course of a season the club went from Road Worriers to Road Warriors.

“Everyone knows how important each game is during the season. We saw it last year where it came down to the last week,” said Neufeld. “We’ve been in that position, like last year, where we faltered at the beginning of the year and weren’t executing and not winning games, we felt like we should have won. We weren’t trying to discredit our opponents; it was about focussing on ourselves and believing that we weren’t leaving it all on the field and we just couldn’t have that.

“This week is going to be a challenge. B.C. is a really tough place to play. It can be loud, and it can get hot and muggy in there and they’re a really good team with a dynamic defence that can cause a lot of problems. We’re going in as full prepared as possible and are expecting a different team with them at home.”

This weekend also offers a bit of an early-season oddity for both clubs. This is the last regular-season meeting between the Blue Bombers and Lions and — even though the end of the schedule is eons away — B.C. would have to win and win by 15 points or more to capture the season series.

Not that anyone is really talking about that. Nor are they talking about the consecutive seasons with a winning road record.

“It’s always just a business trip, you can put it like that,” said Blue Bombers defensive back Deatrick Nichols with a shrug when asked of the road success. “This is our job, and we take this very seriously. Winning is fun and we put that in front of everything, and it comes with playing football home or on the road. Going away on the road, we have each other’s back and that’s what we do — we play for each other.

“It’s not easy to get a win no matter who you’re playing or where you’re playing.”

“I do remember when I came in as a rookie the veterans showed us right away how to handle your business on a road trip,” added Evan Holm with a grin. “It IS a business trip, and we try to bring the same energy we have at home on the road.

“I wish I could tell you there was some sort of magic formula,” he added with a grin and a shrug. “It’s just Osh (head coach Mike O’Shea) gets us ready. That’s it. And it works.”

THE LINEUP: The Blue Bombers have made four changes to this week’s lineup from last week. On are QB Zach Collaros, RB Quinton Cooley, LS Ian Leroux and LB Fabian Weitz. Off are RB Brady Oliveira, QB Chase Artopoeus, LS Mike Benson and OL Micah Vanterpool. Oliveira, Benson and Vanterpool all move to the one-game injured list. Gabe Wallace starts at right guard for Vanterpool.

This will mark the first CFL start for Peterson, who was so effective in relief of Oliveira last week and mark the first games for Cooley and Leroux.

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