When it comes to right now and the immediate future of my friends, Mike Kelly and Brett McNeil, Saturday night’s 29-24 win over the Toronto Argonauts was a blessing.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers needed a victory, no matter how chippy or nail-biting, and thanks to the obvious fact that they finally played a game without seven or eight turnovers, the Bombers built a 29-9 lead and held on to beat the sad-sack Argos by five.
For now, that’s a big victory. Winnipeg “improved” to 4-8 with the win and as a result, Winnipeg is just two points back of B.C., in the race for the final playoff spot in the East. Yep, that’s “the East.” If the playoffs started today, with the CFL’s crossover playoff system, 5-7 B.C. would finish third in the East and go to Hamilton for the Eastern semifinal.
However, there are still six games to play this season and the Bombers have four of them at home. Winnipeg is clearly a better football team at Canad Inns Stadium than they are away from it, so there is no reason to believe that the Bombers can’t catch B.C. and sneak into the playoffs.
Winnipeg plays host to an inconsistent Edmonton team this coming Friday night, goes to Hamilton on Oct. 12, plays host to B.C. on Oct. 18, plays host to Montreal on Oct. 24, goes to Montreal on Oct. 31 and plays host to Hamilton on Nov. 8. There is a chance this team could be 8-10 before it’s over and with that, they could play host to the Eastern semifinal.
There was another good reason for a win on Saturday: With a record of 4-8, Mike Kelly has now won as many games as Jeff Reinebold did in his first year as head coach — 1997. That means, with one more victory, the media can no longer call Kelly “Jeff Reinebold-like.” Go Bombers Go!
However, on the downside, the Bombers are back in the playoff hunt. That means Winnipeg will have to go with the veteran Michael Bishop for the remainder of the season. There will be very little opportunity to play Casey Bramlet or Ricky Santos, the alleged “quarterbacks of the future.”
Because of that, one senses this team won’t improve dramatically next year. And this team still needs to improve dramatically next year if Mike Kelly is going to be around a for long time, not just for a good time.
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