The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have been the top team in Canadian football since the start of the 2021 CFL season. The Bombers needed the entire game plus overtime to upset the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 108th Grey Cup game, a come-from-behind 33-25 victory that disappointed a Tim Hortons Field crowd dressed almost exclusively in black and gold.
Blue Bombers Defend Grey Cup With Thrilling OT Win
After CFL Most Outstanding Player Zach Collaros threw a pair of interceptions that shifted the game in Hamilton’s favor, the Bombers, who seldom trailed throughout the regular season, found themselves down two scores heading into the fourth quarter. However, on a day when the wind howled the length of the field throughout the game, the Bombers took advantage of having the wind at their backs in the fourth quarter to grab a 25-22 lead with two minutes left. Hamilton quarterback Jeremiah Masoli drove his team the length of the field against the stingiest CFL defense in half-a-century, setting up first-and-10 from the Winnipeg five-yard line with under 30 seconds to go.
Research carried out by Beway insider suggests that the Bombers’ defense held strong, forcing a field goal and overtime, when they scored a touchdown on their only drive and intercepted Masoli to complete the first back-to-back Grey Cup wins since the Montreal Alouettes in 2009 and 2010. When the Bombers opened the CFL’s COVID-19 season with a convincing win over the Tiger-Cats at home, it appeared that they were bound to repeat.
Strong Season for Blue Bombers
While the other of the CFL’s eight teams struggled to find their footing in 2021, the Bombers sprinted to an 11-1 record and clinched first place in the West Division.
Despite being given scares in both the Western Final against Saskatchewan and the Grey Cup game on Sunday, they were able to make the big plays when they were needed the most in both games.
With their four-game winning streak to close the season, Winnipeg is now 17-1 in games started by quarterback Zach Collaros that matter since acquiring him in a deal with Toronto in October 2019.
Given the condensed schedule and various variables, such as the significant degree of turnover across most of the league outside of Winnipeg owing to the one-year layoff, where this Winnipeg club stands in the annals of great CFL teams will be heavily contested.
Hamilton has now lost back-to-back Grey Cup games against Winnipeg, and is currently 0-4 in Grey Cup games since their previous victory in 1999, the longest skid in the league.
Now comes the unpredictability. Both quarterbacks Dane Evans and Masoli, who came on to replace him in the second quarter of the Grey Cup game with a neck injury, are pending free agents.
Meanwhile, Orlondo Steinauer, Hamilton’s head coach, is rumored to be a top contender for the vacant defensive coordinator position at the University of Washington.
Given the seven-figure compensation and the fact that Steinauer and his wife are from the Seattle region, no one should be surprised if the Tiger-Cats are looking for a new head coach in the next few days.
In many respects, this Grey Cup game exemplified one of the most difficult decisions the CFL will have to make this off-season: how much to change a game that saw a drop in scoring and overall entertainment value during the regular season.
So much so that the NFL is forming a committee to look into every facet of the game, including the possibility of playing a four-down version of the game.
While this does not imply that American style regulations should be implemented across the board, any step in that direction is likely to spark heated debate among casual spectators and resentment among CFL fans.
The first half of Sunday’s game exemplified everything that has irritated fans throughout the season: low-scoring football controlled by defense, and quarterbacks sprinting for their lives while attempting to pass the ball.
The second half, on the other hand, illustrated why the three-down game is so popular, as the game opened up with clutch plays on both sides, leading to one of the most exciting Grey Cup finishes ever.
How to keep such aspects of the game while improving the entire game will be the focus of the league’s off-season, which will also include the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement with its players.
A year ago, no one knew if the 2021 season would be played, and the CFL’s very existence was in doubt.
And, despite a long journey, a few diversions, and some hard glances in the mirror along the way, the CFL looked like the tenacious league we’ve long known it to be on Sunday.
Tim White, the Ticats’ returner, elected to give up a single point on the subsequent kickoff, which changed the outcome.
On the Tabbies’ next drive, Jaelin Acklin missed a possible game-winning touchdown, forcing Michael Domagala to settle for a matching field goal, driving the game into overtime for Adams’ game-winning touchdown catch.
The loss extended the Ticats’ Grey Cup skid to 22 years. It’s the CFL’s longest active dry streak. Since 1972, the Ticats haven’t won a Grey Cup in their hometown.
