Eastern Semi-Final: Blue Bombers (10-8) at Alouettes (10-8)

Kickoff: Saturday, November 1st, 1 p.m. CDT; Molson Stadium, Montreal
TV/Streaming: TSN 1/4/5; CTV; RDS; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB (pre-game begins at 11 a.m. CDT); Play-by-play: Derek Taylor/analyst: Doug Brown; Sirius XM (ch. 167)
Weather Forecast: Cloudy. High +6C

Scene Setter

MONTREAL — It’s a natural talking point all around Bomberland, even if the topic hasn’t officially been broached at all this week in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers clubhouse:

Does this veteran-dominated team — one which has appeared in five consecutive Grey Cups, winning two championships in 2019 and 2021 but dropping the last three — have one more run to glory in it?

“That topic, that kind of talk, hasn’t come up at all,” said veteran guard Pat Neufeld this week. “No one has mentioned that. It really is one day at a time for us. That’s our ultimate focus.”

And so, the Blue Bombers begin another playoff quest tomorrow afternoon here in Montreal against the Alouettes in the Eastern Semi-Final — not as the heavy favourites they have so often been over the last few years but attempting to be the first crossover team to advance to a Grey Cup game. The added bonus? This one is in their own backyard with the 112th championship scheduled for Princess Auto Stadium on November 16th.

FYI, there have been a dozen crossover teams since 1996, with only five winning a game to get to the Eastern Final but none advancing to the Grey Cup. Collectively, those squads are 5-12.

Still, as Brady Oliveira said earlier this week, ‘Why not us?’

Tony Jones

“Like Brady said, ‘Why not us?’,” said Tony Jones on Wednesday. “We know what we have in the locker room. We know what we can do and what we’re capable of. At the end of the day, all three phases are going to have to go out there and play elite football, assignment sound and let the chips fall.”

Vegas oddsmakers have listed the Blue Bombers as 5 1/2-point underdogs to the Alouettes — the first time the team has not been favoured in a playoff game since the 2019 Grey Cup win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. And here’s Oliveira, when asked earlier this week if he thinks about keeping the Grey Cup streak alive with the possibility of six straight visits to the championship:

“That doesn’t matter. We lost the last three Grey Cups. I’m trying to win. That’s the only thing that’s been in the forefront of my mind. We all want to win a Grey Cup, and I want it so badly so the streak doesn’t matter.

“We understand it’s going to take a lot but that’s been the message around the locker room — we guaranteed another week together and understand that this thing is going to go by very quick. We’ve got to put more into it so that we can make sure that we’re here at the end of the year and make sure we finish the thing the right way this year.”

With that preamble out of the way, here are 3 Key Storylines for Saturday’s Eastern Semi-Final:

THE VET VS. THE NEWBIE

Blue Bombers defensive coordinator Jordan Younger

We touched on this extensively in this week’s 48-Hour Primer — Zach Collaros vs. Davis Alexander in an enticing QB matchup — and CFL fans have an understanding of what it looks like when the Blue Bombers pivot is comfy in the pocket and has time to cut up defences with the precision of a surgeon.

As for Alexander, well, even with his 11-0 record as a starter over the last two years it is worth pointing out that eight of those victories came against teams which did not qualify for the playoffs in 2024-25. Now he has an opportunity on this stage to further cement his place as a CFL star.

And he can expect some different looks from the Winnipeg defence in his first career playoff start.

“We believe in wrinkles. We have a lot of wrinkles,” said Blue Bombers defensive coordinator Jordan Younger this week. “And I believe it’s a big part of why we have success is every time a quarterback plays against us there’s no other template to follow. They’ve got to study us, and we change week in and week out, we trade pieces week in and week out and I think we’re at a point now where everybody has a good understanding of how to fit in the different places in the system and we’re going to try and make it hard on them that way.

“We’re trending in the right direction. All of that to this moment here. All of that to this moment when it’s win or go home.”

SOME SIGNS OF LIFE FROM THE ‘O’?

Keric Wheatfall

Winnipeg’s offence had some flashes this season and, to be blunt, some efforts they needed to be flushed, too. The Blue Bombers finished seventh in offensive points at 23.1, were second in rushing at 124.1 yards per game but last in passing at 235.0 yards per game.

Of course, Collaros missed five starts and didn’t finish three others, while Dalton Schoen has been out since July as part of a receiving corps which underwent a ton of change.

When the attack is on, it can look like the season opener when Chris Streveler threw for three touchdowns, or the 40-3 spanking of Hamilton in September when Collaros completed 80 percent of his passes and the attack churned out over 500 yards of net offence.

There’s also this: no team threw more interceptions than Winnipeg this season — 28 — and the team’s -11 turnover differential was second-worst in the CFL.

“We’ve got to be clean, crisp, pristine, execute, not give the ball away, be assignment sound,” said offensive coordinator Jason Hogan earlier this week.

And when asked what gives him confidence his unit can do it now, what with the stakes so high, he added:

“We’ve done it all year; we just haven’t done it for 60 minutes every game. We’ve done it in certain aspects of the game, certain quarters… we’ve just got to do it from start to finish.”

LET THE BIG DAWG EAT

Brady Oliveira

Some Brady Oliveira playoff numbers which scream out for #20 to be the busiest man in the Blue Bombers offence on Saturday:

He has started six playoff games, including Grey Cups, over the last three games and in that span, he has rushed 100 times for 643 yards, or a sparkling 6.1-yard average.

On top of that, in those six playoff contests he has posted four — FOUR — 100-yard efforts, including 130 yards in the 2022 West Final, 109 yards in the 2023 West Final followed by 119 yards in the Grey Cup and then an additional 119 yards in last year’s West Final.

And get this: in the two playoff games he started where he didn’t rush for 100, he still finished with 26 carries for 166 yards, or an average of 6.4 yards per carry.

As stingy as Montreal’s defence is — they allowed the fewest net yards per game this year at 338.4 — they were sixth against the run, surrendering 103.1 yards per game. Oliveira had over 200 yards from scrimmage in the win in Montreal in August and even last week, with the ‘O Train’ parked, Winnipeg churned out 177 yards on the ground.

“There’s nothing more than I want than to come back here, play in my back yard with all my boys, all my teammates,” said Oliveira, essentially capturing the mood of the entire squad in one concise sentence. “We all want that. We want to be back here for that big game at the end of the year.”

THE LINEUP: The Blue Bombers depth chart for tomorrow features nine changes from last week’s game against the Als when a bunch of regulars were rested. The most noteworthy change sees receiver Nic Demski — the team’s leading pass catcher and a West Division All-Star — added with a ‘GTD’ designation, game-time decision. His return could be massive for an attack that could use as many weapons as possible.

Also on are: QB Zach Collaros, WR Pokey Wilson, LT Stanley Bryant, DEs Willie Jefferson and James Vaughters, dime Redha Kramdi and kick returner/cornerback Trey Vaval.

Off are: RB/KR Peyton Logan, QB Chris Streveler, WR Cam Echols, DB Jake Kelly, DEs Kydran Jenkins and Matthew Jaworski, OL Ethan Vibert, RB Matthew Peterson and OL Michael Vanterpool.

The one-game injured list now features Echols, Jaworski, Jenkins, Kelly, Logan, Peterson, Streveler, Vanterpool and Vibert along with DBs Michael Griffin II and Ridge Texada, WR Dillon Mitchell and LB Major Williams.

The six-game injured list includes WR Dalton Schoen, LB Lane Novak, DT Tanner Schmekel, OL Eric Lofton, CB Terrell Bonds, WR Kody Case and DB Enock Makonzo.

FULL DEPTH CHART