Bob Irving
CFL.ca
If you believe in karma, and I’m not sure I do. But it’s partly what Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans are pinning their hopes on when the Bombers square off against the B.C. Lions on Sunday in the 99th Grey cup game at B.C. Place Stadium.
The last time the Bombers won the Grey cup, 21 long years ago in 1990, the victory came at B.C. Place in Vancouver, site of this Sunday’s 99th Canadian Football League championship.
Mike Riley’s Bombers demolished an Edmonton team that had scored 140 more points than they did that season. And they achieved the win with a scrappy quarterback named Tom Burgess, who you could easily compare to Buck Pierce. Burgess was tough, gutsy, admired by his teammates, all the same qualities that Pierce possesses.
That 1990 Bomber team also did it by playing lights-out defence. Kind of the way the Blue Bombers did in beating Hamilton 19-3 in the CFL Eastern Final. The final score in that game in Edmonton 21 years ago was Winnipeg 50 Eskimos 11. Nobody saw that coming.
Take or leave the karma argument. But do consider these facts. Blue Bomber defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke has confused and confounded Anthony Calvillo, Kevin Glenn and Travis Lulay with his schemes this season.
Lulay has been magical in guiding the Lions to 11 wins in their last 12 games. He has all the appearance of becoming a special player if he isn’t that already. However on Sunday he will be put to the supreme test by Burke and his gang of Blue and Gold defensive demons.
Also, nobody should sell the Bombers short on resolve. They came back to win a number of their games early in the season when they ran out to a 7-1 start. And even later in the year, when their play became somewhat inconsistent, they showed a tremendous aptitude for not giving up.
In losses against Montreal, Toronto and Calgary, they fell way behind but clawed their way back to the point where they had a chance to win all three of those games.
I don’t remember the last time a team went into the Grey Cup game on the kind of hot streak the B.C. Lions have enjoyed. They should be the favorites. But anybody who sells the Bomber short is making a big mistake.
This team has guts and it has character, and above all, the Bombers have a defence that can be a difference maker. I think they are quite capable of pulling off an upset and providing Winnipeg with its 11th Grey Cup championship.
