Riders vs. Bombers: Labour Day Classic 2024

It’s Labour Day! The biggest regular season game on the schedule. The only time the stadium sells out. It’s big. It’ll be packed. It’ll be loud. The stakes couldn’t be any higher unless they were BC’s payroll.

Since 2005, when we appeased the football gods (and a certain robed prognosticator) by benching Nealon Greene, we have absolutely dominated the annual classic. We haven’t really lost unless you count the Dickenson years (asterisks) and the Jones blow it up year (double asterisks). We have won with the like of Brett Smith, Michael Bishop, Rocky Butler and most recently Jake Dolegala. If you don’t believe in Labour Day magic after reading that list of winning QBs then you must believe in the inherent talent and winning nature of those 4 (and likely be a product of the Manitoba education system). 

History aside, this is an important game. A month of not winning has eroded our lead in the West. We win and we take the season series with the Bombers and move 3 points up on them. We lose and they jump ahead a point and the season series will come down to Banjo Bowl… a game where we fare about as well as Shawn Lemon’s legal defense.

Lost of talk about the “resurgence” of the Bombers after a 2-6 start. I think their winning has masked the fact that they still have a ton of issues. Also I would add that their 3 game winning streak has included beating the worst team in the CFL (and almost losing) and beating Nathan Rourke on 3 days practice after a year and half out of the CFL (and won by just 9 despite dominating every aspect of that game). Not exactly the toughest schedule. Its true that their defense is playing very well. But their offense remains awful. Like, so awful that they couldn’t score if they were an attractive cousin at a Manitoba family reunion. They have the least touchdowns and least points overall of any team. 

“But Prophet”, you say “Sure the offense sucked at the start of the year but they have been doing much better since turning it around”. To that I say, in their 3 game winning streak they have a total of just 4 TDs and that is offset by 6 turnovers over that period. Any player not named Brady in that offense has not been very good.

So let’s start on defense. Our #1 run D goes up against their #2 rushing attack. Their #8 passing attack goes up against our #12 pass D (yes I realize there are only 9 teams but I stand by that rating). Stop Olivera, stop the Bombers. We did it when we played them Week 7. The Bombers are digging deep into their OL depth and we need to take advantage. Micah and Carney should have big days in the trenches. They should be able to elicit a category 5 Collaros temper tantrum. What worries me though is that pass D… or at least what should be pass D. We are currently very heavy on the pass and very light on the D part of that. With Lawler, Demski and Wilson, I expect yards. The key (and we struggle here) will be limiting the long passes. Force Collaros to string together long drives and the drive will either stall or he will throw a pick. I know we want to be super aggressive but we can’t let them behind us for easy yards. And if they spent anytime watching film that’s what they are going to try. 

As mentioned, while the Bombers O sucks, their D does not. They are #1 against the pass. They are second worst against the run (they are like the bizzaro us). So with Harris coming off one of the worst games I’ve seen him play, make it easy on him by feeding Hickson. Attack the one primary weakness in a very good D. Adam Bighill checks back in so that means we need to target getting him iso’ed on receivers doing short crossers. Tyrell Ford is becoming a problem so we should avoid him unless guys are wide open. Most of all Harris needs to make smart decisions (i.e. the opposite of whatever the hell he did last game). Bane and Ajou on crossers. Baker on seams. Spread it around be aggressive but not reckless. This will be Harris' first LDC... hopefully it brings out his best.  

I thought it was worth noting that the Bombers have the worst kick return game in the CFL. I’m sure it has nothing to do with letting Janarion Grant walk in the offseason in favour of paying Streveler a ton of money to plunge 3 times a game (side note, Streveler is going to fake a dive and throw in this game… it will end in an INT though). Castillo is also struggling a bit. 

This will be a close low scoring affair. 2 solid defenses. 2 not great offenses… check that, 1 not great offense and one god awful one. I’ll give you two reasons why I think things slant in our favour. 1 – The Bombers are 1-4 on the road and average 16.2 points in road games. 2 – They lead the league in giveaways and we have 10 takeaways more than the next closest team. There will be turnovers (plural) in this one. After weeks and weeks of failing to have any kind of finish, we finally play a strong 4^th quarter fueled by an electric Labour Day crowd.

Riders by a Hickson TD. 

Side note: if the final thing on the Maxtron prior to Bring Em’ out is not a clip of Ken Miller saying “What do Riders do?” we have failed immensely. 

Other side note: You will hear a lot of Bomber fans quoting the “4 Cups in 100 years stat” this weekend. First of all its 4 cups in 114 years, I know math is hard when you run out of your 9 remaining fingers to count on but please try to get it right. But second, did you know that in the past 30 years the Bombers have the exact same number of Grey Cups as the Riders and twice as many Grey Cup loses?