The Bombers have been humbled in back-to-back games vs. the Riders.
Suddenly, the Canadian Football League landscape has changed.
No longer can you consider the Winnipeg Blue Bombers the dominant team in the league.
The Blue Bombers have gone from Swaggerville to Staggerville, humbled by Rider Pride.
The Bombers lost 45-23 at home on Sunday to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who beat them 27-7 the previous Sunday in Regina. Not only did the Roughriders outscore the Bombers 72-30 in two games, but they dominated Winnipeg in every aspect.
Sunday's game was the annual Banjo Bowl, coined from a remark by onetime Bombers' kicker Troy Westwood, who jokingly called the people of Saskatchewan a bunch of banjo-pickin' inbreds. The Riders overcame a 10-0 deficit to lay a hurtin' tune on the Bombers and their dejected fans at Canad Inns Stadium.
Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant threw a combined seven touchdowns and only one interception in the two-game series. He produced an average quarterback rating of 130 in his last two starts, which is pretty substantial when you factor in 100 is considered a good rating. Even though he completed only 14 of 27 passes for 230 yards in the win on Sunday, it was his four touchdown passes and only one interception that gave him a QB rating of 114.8. The previous week, he completed only 13 of 21 passes 232 yards, but had a QB rating of 147.3 with three touchdown passes and no interceptions.
Durant relished the win in Winnipeg, taunting the Bombers' fans, who clearly must be wondering what has happened to their team.
Winnipeg counterpart Buck Pierce had no touchdown passes and a whopping five turnovers in the back-to-back series. He has also taken a pounding. He was removed from the game late in the fourth quarter on Sunday to prevent him from taking a further beating. Pierce had a quarterback rating of only 28.2 in the game. Even though he completed 21 of 33 passes for 287 yards, his five interceptions proved to be the telling stats. This is the second consecutive game Pierce has had a sub-100 quarterback rating, albeit the last game wasn't nearly as brutal as the most recent.
What may have been a more telling stat are the sacks by both teams, each of which had two. The Bombers were running away in this department at one point, and while they are still first with 31, they have a total of only five in their last three games. The Riders have six sacks in their last three and now have a total of 14, third worst in the league but a far improvement from what seemed only a few weeks ago to be a lost season - literally.
The Riders are still only 3-7 and are last in the West Division, but are 2-0 since firing head coach Greg Marshall and offensive co-ordinator Doug Berry and replacing them with former Riders' head coach Ken Miller. He returned to the sidelines after giving up that post in the off-season to concentrate on his role of vice-president of football operations. Miller has given Durant the freedom to call his own plays. While Durant said he and Berry were on the same page, it seems as if the quarterback has found a comfort level with his former head coach.
Receiver Andy Fantuz played his first game for the Riders since the Chicago Bears cut him nine days before, but really didn't factor significantly into the overall outcome, catching two passes for 47 yards. Instead, if was fellow receiver Chris Getzlaf who became the key cog, catching only two passes, but both for touchdowns. He now has five touchdowns on only eight catches in his last three games.
The Bombers lead the East with a 7-3 record, but are only two points ahead of Montreal, which plays host to Winnipeg this Sunday. The Bombers' may have lost the services of middle linebacker Joe Lobendahn with an undetermined leg injury. He had to be assisted off the field in the latest loss. Lobendahn has been one of the better all-around defensive players this year with 32 tackles, two sacks, one interception and four forced fumbles.
The Als stunned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43-13 on Sunday at Molson Stadium, ending a two-game losing streak that included a 44-21 defeat against the Cats in Hamilton on Labour Day.
Quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who statistically had been in a slide in terms of his standards, completed 31 of 45 passes for 421 yards - the most he has totaled this year in a game - and four touchdown passes. He had a QB rating of 128.1. Calvillo now has 3,100 passing yards this season, which is 190 better than Calgary's Henry Burris, who led his team to a 30-20 victory over Edmonton on Friday at Commonwealth Stadium. The Stamps lead the West with a 7-3 record, two ahead of the Eskimos.
The Als' return to form means they could tie Winnipeg for first in the East by beating them this Sunday. Had the Als lost to Hamilton, which had beaten them twice this year, they would have slid to third in the division and lost the season series to the Cats.
B.C. beat Toronto 28-6 on Saturday to raise its record to 4-6 and is the hottest team in the CFL with a three-game win streak, albeit sweeping Toronto, which has the worst record in the league at 2-8, in a home-and-home series.
The CFL season became a different landscape - far more competitive that is - with this week's games. Of the eight teams, only the Argos looked hopelessly out of the race for the playoffs now. Saskatchewan and B.C. now have a chance to challenge for a playoff spot only a few weeks after they both looked in sad shape, while Winnipeg has suddenly been humbled.
