For a nothing game, Friday night’s matchup between the B.C. Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers produced a bevy of storylines to chew on between now and the West Final, which the Bombers will host at IG Field in a couple of weeks.
Chief among them, the win — a 24-9 scoreline for the hometown Bombers in front of 23,685 — ensured they’d finish their dominant 2022 campaign with 15 victories, the most in a single season during their storied existence.
“It says a lot about the group of guys that we’ve got in this locker room,” running back Brady Oliveira said. “We’ve got a lot of selfless guys, lots of guys that trust the process and try and work on their craft every single day when they come into the locker room and onto the field. We got a lot of guys that just want to be great every single day, whatever their role is, they just are going to give it their all.
“So, I think it’s great. We preach every single week to go 1-0 so the fact that we’re going to go into this bye week on a win, that’s a positive. Fifteen wins is great, but we know where we want to be at the end of the year.”
Secondly, the Bombers sent a message to the visiting Lions: if they’re able to secure a flight back to Winnipeg in a fortnight, having dispatched the Calgary Stampeders in next week’s West semifinal game, the road to Regina and the 109th Grey Cup next month won’t be an easily traversed, even with Canadian pivot Nathan Rourke back behind centre.
For all intents and purposes, Friday’s game was played in the first quarter, with both teams fielding full-strength lineups, including Rourke’s return after an eight-game layoff due to a Lisfranc sprain that required surgery to repair.
Rourke, who was shelved while leading the CFL in passing yards and touchdowns, looked nothing more than pedestrian in Winnipeg, completing seven passes for 68 yards.
Winnipeg welcomed him back to action with a Casey Sayles strip sack on the Victoria native on B.C.’s very first drive of the game. Jake Thomas would recover the football, and he’d extend his hand to Rourke moments later, a gesture that he’d help him off the turf, only to retract it in the end.
Nothing came easy for Rourke and the second-place Lions the night.
For Zach Collaros and his highly weaponized offence, everything was done with surgical precision in the first quarter.
Collaros went 4-for-5, tossing the ball 68 yards and for two touchdowns — a 22-yard strike to pending most outstanding rookie Dalton Schoen to make it 7-0 and then an 11-yard pass on the run to Rasheed Bailey to double the advantage, 14-0.
The pair of majors for Collaros gave him 37 touchdown passes on the season, second-most all-time for the Bombers in a single season as he surpassed Matt Dunigan’s 36 he threw in 1993.
Khari Jones owns the record after he tossed 46 two decades ago in 2002, including 23 to Bombers legend Milt Stegall.
Collaros also pushed his streak of at least one passing touchdown in a game to 14 games.
“It hasn’t come up. It probably won’t come up,” Collaros said, answering a question on his touchdown total and the record 15th win. “We have a lot in front of us, obviously, that we still need to accomplish. This is where the real fun starts.
“It’s something that we’ll reflect on after the season.”
Schoen finished with 84 yards in the game on two receptions, including a 62-yard catch and run in the second quarter, putting him nearly 140 yards clear of second-place Montreal’s Eugene Lewis, who will not play this weekend against Toronto.
The 25-year-old’s first-quarter touchdown was his league-leading 16th, which is five more than B.C.’s Dominque Rhymes, the nearest receiver.
Schoen, like Collaros before him, wasn’t allowing himself to dwell on his accomplishments.
“I think that’s kind of maybe a downside of this profession, at least for myself, that I don’t ever want to take a step back and look at it,” Schoen said. “But I told some people this week, I think I will lose my edge and I don’t really want to look at what’s happening in the past.
“It’s just how I like to operate. (Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea) does a good job preaching to us about the process. For me, I have my process that I like to go do, week in and week out, and I think it’s been working so far. I’m just going to stick with that on not reflect on anything until this is all way behind me.”
On the ground, meanwhile, Winnipegger Oliveira became just the fourth Canadian running back to rush for 1,000 yards in a season since 2000.
He came in the game needing 71 to hit quadruple digits and surpassed it by a single yard on a 20-yard third-quarter scamper to finish the season with 1,001. Oliveira had nine carries in two quarters of work.
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” said Oliveira, who weathered early-season criticism stemming from low rushing totals. “The way that I started this season, no one probably thought I’d be here. I think it’s just a testament to all the hard work I had put into this.
“The fact that I was able to get that with my offensive line and just prove to myself that I can do this and that I belong. And me being a Winnipegger, it means so much more to me the fact that I’m able to go out there and play hard for these fans and for the city. I just want to put on for my city and help my team win football games, so, it’s a great accomplishment.”
Only fellow Winnipegger Andrew Harris (five times), Jerome Messam (four times) and Jon Cornish (three times) had achieved the mark since the turn of the millennium.
Leading 17-6 at the half, the Bombers would tack on a one-yard touchdown run by Mike Miller off a direct snap in the third quarter to make it 24-6.
Marc Liegghio, who went 1-for-4 on field goal attempts last week, made the only one he was called upon to hit on Friday — a 13-yard chip shot with the second quarter winding down.
Liegghio made good on all three of his point-after kicks.
For O’Shea, he felt his team got accomplished what they wanted to in a game that meant nothing in terms of the standings.
“Have Zach see the pictures, make sure he’s seeing it, make sure we’re playing clean football, get some guys some reps that needed some, and get some guys that had missed some time back into the game and back into the flow” he said.
Receiver and Bombers nominee for most outstanding Canadian Nic Demski was rested for the game as the Bombers welcomed back receiver duo Greg Ellingson and Drew Wolitarsky, both of whom missed multiple weeks with their respective injuries.
They each brought down a ball in the game, with Ellingson snagging a 26-yard grab on three targets and Wolitarsky a nine-yard snag on his only target.
Dakota Prukop played the second and third quarters, and part of the fourth, completing four of his 10 attempts for 110 yards. Drew Brown spelled him for the remainder of the final frame, going 0-for-4.
The Bombers will now have a week to rest and prepare for the West Final, which will be contested on Nov. 13.
Who meets them at IG Field will be decided next week when the Lions play host to the Stamps at B.C. Place.
sbilleck@postmedia.com
Twitter: @scottbilleck
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