Ugly football never looked so good, as Blue Bombers avoid fifth loss

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It wasn’t a night for the faint of heart. You might even call it ugly.

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The 28,000-plus who showed up on a perfect Friday night for an aerial circus instead got a slug-fest in the south end of town.

When the rubber pellets had settled, the Blue Bombers were walking off the field, some limping, a little bruised, perhaps, but winners for the first time this season.

Led by kindred spirits Chris Streveler and Brady Oliveira, the Bombers outlasted the Ottawa Redblacks 25-16 in a game that had nothing to do with three-down football’s wide-open reputation.

This was more of an old-school, back-alley brawl.

Both teams had more yards on the ground than they did through the air, and how often do you see that in the CFL?

“That’s our brand of football,” Oliveira said, after grinding out his first 100-yard game of the season. “That’s what we like to play here. And we finally got back to it.”

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Off to a sluggish start this season after missing all of training camp with an injury, Oliveira was back to his old self, lowering the boom on would-be tacklers and getting every inch from every run.

He finished with 129 yards rushing, more than each team passed for, lugging the ball 23 times – more times than each team threw it.

His quarterback ran for 79 more, taking every hit the defence dished out and getting back up for more.

After not starting a game for five years, not playing much at all in that time, Streveler must have felt like he’d just played three games.

“Never better,” he said. “It feels amazing.”

He knew what he’d just been through, though, where those 60 minutes of football ranked on the physical scale.

“It felt like a 10 out of 10.”

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Both he and his running back appeared shaken up for a time, Oliveira even leaving the field for the trainer’s room at one point.

But his night wasn’t done.

“It’s a fight, man,” the Winnipegger said. “I needed to be out there for my teammates. I didn’t want to let them down. I had to get back out there.”

He and Streveler finished the game the same way they’d started it.

The game’s opening drive featured Oliveira on four of the first five plays, Streveler keeping on the other, leading to the first three points.

And when the Bombers offence took the ball one last time with 2:20 to go, up by just six and needing to kill the clock, it was Oliveira getting it six times, Streveler the other two.

One last Sergio Castillo field goal and the deal was sealed.

Nobody else touched the ball on that final drive, just like nobody else touched it on the first one.

“That’s how we’re used to playing football,” Streveler said. “And to see it show up in a game where we needed it is big.”

It’s hard to fathom where a fifth straight loss and third straight at home would have left this team.

And it’s not like one win solves all its problems.

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They took far too many penalties on Friday – eight for 95 yards – and the passing game, well, no need to harp on that.

Starter Zach Collaros is expected to return to practice next week.

And receiver Lucky Whitehead should start working his way onto that depleted receiving corps.

So there’s reason to believe the air attack will improve.

Another reason: what we saw from the offensive line against Ottawa.

“That was more the way we envision ourselves playing,” veteran Pat Neufeld said. “We played physical. We were grinding it out in the run game. It felt like we’re getting back on track. So it’s definitely a weight off the shoulders.”

Neufeld was on his way back to the O-line end of the room with a case of beer under his arm as he spoke, no doubt a hog’s ultimate reward for a job well done.

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Over on the defence’s end, they deserved an ale or two, as well.

First in line to raise a beer as a toast would be their head coach.

“That first half was unbelievable by the defence,” Mike O’Shea said. “Stifling. It’s pretty pleasing to see all three phases work like that together.”

The defence gave up just three points in the first half, rendering the Redblacks offence lifeless.

A bad hit by Winnipeg’s Redha Kramdi took out starting quarterback Dru Brown, but it didn’t matter.

Led by Willie Jefferson’s best performance of the season, the dark side played its best game of the year, overall.

Meanwhile, the Bombers offence was grinding down the Ottawa defence.

“I do enjoy that kind of football. It’s very pleasing,” O’Shea said. “I don’t know what the score was in the first half (13-3), it might have seemed a little boring. But not for us on the sideline. For our team, it’s pretty cool.”

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This team, with all its changes, needed to find out it can still win like that. That it can still win, period.

“Winning is hard,” O’Shea said. “As we’ve shown this year. So they need to savour this moment. I don’t know that coaches get that benefit. We’d like to. It’s on our board: try to be happier. But there’s always stuff to fix.”

The lack of discipline, for one.

“We made it hard on ourselves,” the coach acknowledged. “We’ll fix it tomorrow. Tonight, have a good time.”

It’s been a while, after all.

We’ll give the last word to the quarterback, who embraced his running mate on their way off the field and who actually got a little emotional when he tried to describe what it felt like to play this much again. And to win.

“It honestly makes me emotional because I know how rare these opportunities are, and it’s really special,” Streveler said. “I just know how hard these guys work in this building, and what we expect of ourselves is high. And to start the season the way we did is frustrating.

“But guys put their heads down, they continued to work, to push… and it showed up.”

They showed up.

The alternative would not have been pretty.

pfriesen@postmedia.com
X: @friesensunmedia

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