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IT"S GAME DAY!!!! WESTERN FINALS!!! Let's Pick up where we left off the last time we beat the Stumps!! WEST DIVISION FINAL | WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (10-8) at CALGARY STAMPEDERS (13-5) THE 4-1-1 Kickoff: 3:30 p.m. Sunday; McMahon Stadium, Calgary TV: TSN, RDS, ESPN News Radio: CJOB The forecast: A mix of sun and cloud. High +5C, low zero. Vegas line: The Stampeders are favoured by five points. Streaks: Winnipeg: 1W; Calgary: 1W. Home/Road: The Bombers are 5-5 on the road this year, including last week’s West Semi-Final win in Regina; the Stampeders are 7-2 at home. Head to head, 2018: The Bombers and Stamps split their season series 1-1. Calgary won 39-26 at home on August 25, with the Bombers countering with a 29-21 victory at Investors Group Field on October 26. Playoff history: The Bombers and Stampeders last met in the postseason in the 2001 Grey Cup, a 27-19 Calgary win. The last non-Grey Cup playoff game between Winnipeg and Calgary was the 1982 West Semi-Final in Winnipeg, a 24-3 Bombers win. Winnipeg and Calgary last met in a West Final in 1965, a best-of-three series won by the Bombers 2-1. Winnipeg then lost to Hamilton in the ’65 Grey Cup, dubbed the Wind Bowl because of blustery conditions. Winnipeg and Calgary have met six times in the West Final, with the Bombers 6-0 after wins in 1945, 1946, 1947, 1961, 1962 and 1965. (with thanks Ed Tait) https://www.bluebombers.com/2018/11/17/game-preview-west-final/ https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/06/181118-position-chart-Cgy.pdf If anyone has an image link to Stumps Depth chart- please let me know.

IT'S GAME DAY!!!! Bring on the Johnny Manziels !!!!! GAME 13 | MONTREAL ALOUETTES (3-9) at WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (5-7) THE 4-1-1 Kickoff: 7:30 p.m., Friday; Investors Group Field, Winnipeg TV: TSN, RDS, ESPN+ Radio: CJOB The forecast: Sunny with a high of 14C, periods of rain overnight with a low of 5C. Vegas line: The Bombers are favoured by 10.5 points. Streaks: Montreal: 1L; Winnipeg: 4L Home/Road: Montreal is 2-4 on the road; the Bombers are 3-3 at home. Series: The Alouettes lead the all-time series (since 1961) 48-45-2. Recent history: The Bombers crushed the Alouettes 56-10 in Montreal during a Week 2 matchup back on June 22nd. Winnipeg has won four straight against the Als, dating back to dropping their 2016 season opener to Montreal and is 11-4 in its last 15 meetings against the Larks. (Thanks to Ed Tait)

For your perusal.. Game Day CFL Game Notes After losing 8 of 9 meetings dating back to 2012, the Blue Bombers have won the last two games against the Ti-Cats. Matt Nichols led Winnipeg to a 38-11 win on Aug 3/16 to sweep the 2016 season series but Zach Collaros was out for both games. Over the two games, Winnipeg created a 12-2 (+10) edge in Takeaways and won despite being outgained in each contest. Hamilton passed for 702 yards and 4 completions of 30+ yards but threw 5 interceptions in the two games, two by Maurice Leggett and one by Taylor Loffler. Andy Fantuz and Luke Tasker led Hamilton with 14 and 11 catches respectively. Hamilton has played only one game against Eastern rivals thus far. Nichols has now led THREE late 4th Quarter game winning drives in 2017 on top of 5 last year and so has engineered 8 in his last 15 starts. Overall in that stretch of 15 starts he has led Winnipeg to a 10-5 record. Collaros now has a 10-game losing streak as a starter however and the most recent QB to have recorded that was Casey Printers across 2008-09. The CFL record for consecutive starts lost is 13 by Lynn Amedee 1963-64 (EDM). The Tiger-Cats started well this year with 9 QB Sacks and 33 QB Pressures in their first 4 games. Over the last two contests however they have just one Sack and 8 Pressures on the opposing QB. Justin Medlock reaches career game #100 this week and through the first 99 has accumulated 1,036 points (#22 all- time). His career totals cover: TOR 174 pts in 21 GP, HAM 559 pts in 54 GP, WPG 303 pts in 24 GP. Justin has averaged 12.6 points per game for Winnipeg, the highest average of any player in club history ahead of Trevor Kennard (9.8 per game). Last week Hamilton ran the ball just 6 times at Edmonton for a season-low. Their 6 rushing plays matches the lowest by any CFL club since 2008 (Montreal at SSK on Jul 19/08, 5 rushes for 13 yards). Darvin Adams: Has taken over the Winnipeg receiving lead and has made at least 4 receptions in every game this season. Adams, Bakari Grant (SSK) and Anthony Coombs (TOR) are the only players with 4+ catches in every game in 2017. Adams has been targeted 27 times in the last two games and leads the Bombers with 3 TD grabs and 3 receptions of 30+ yards. Despite allowing the fewest QB Pressures in the CFL (28), the Bombers Matt Nichols has been sacked 11 times in the last 3 games pushing the total to 16 for the season (tied for #6). Winnipeg has yet to score a TD this season on any drive where they have allowed a QB Sack. Their TD% when NOT allowing a Sack is 25%, tied for 3rd with Edmonton and behind only Calgary (28%) and BC (27%). The Bombers starting lineup has been the most consistent thus far with only 29 different players having at least one to date. For Winnipeg, 18 of a possible 24 players have made all 6 starts thus far, and 23 players have made at least 4 starts. The Bombers are 9-3 on the road in their last 12 visits around the CFL compared to a 6-6 home mark since the start of 2016. They have had at least an even or better road than home record in 5 of the last 7 seasons. Receiver T.J. Thorpe will get his fourth straight start since coming off the practice roster. The 24-year-old has quickly become one of Nichols’ favourite marks, averaging almost nine targets a game and has caught 20 of 26 passes thrown in his direction. Zach Collaros had his best game of the season last week, throwing for 282 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Receiver Damarr Aultman had a team high 74 yards and a touchdown in his CFL debut. The Ticats rank last in the CFL in points and yards allowed per game. Numbers - 4 – League leading interceptions for Bombers defensive back T.J. Heath. 5 – Quarterback sacks by Jamaal Westerman, tied for fourth in the league. 487 – Average total yards the Ticats defence has given up through six games this, ranking last in the league heading into Week 8.

Calgary @ Toronto ?‍? Some interesting game notes for this West - East confrontation.. Ricky Ray has passed for 2,282 yards - an average of 380.3 per game and has recorded a career-high 6 straight games of 300+ yards. Andrew Buckley 10-for-10: The Calgary #2 QB challenged the CFL record last week for most pass attempts in a game without an interception or incompletion. Home team dominance 16-8: The home team has now won the last 7 CFL games and 12 of the last 14. For the season home teams have dominated winning 16 times to just 8 losses. West Division clubs have won the last 6, and 12 of the last 13 inter-divisional games. Toronto's record is a good example of this effect as they are 3-0 vs the East, and 0-3 vs the West in 2017. This game features the #1 and #2 offences in the CFL with Calgary at 420.2 yards per game and Toronto at 401.5. Calgary comes in with six consecutive wins over Toronto and 7 in the last 8 meetings. Last week the Stamps did not target McDaniel on any of their pass attempts and thus his magnificent streak of 76 straight games with at least one reception ended. He last failed to catch a pass on Aug 25/12 (and he was not targeted in that game either). ?‍?(not that they had to)  Jerome Messam rushing: In his first 4 games he had 48 carries for 188 yards, 1 TD and an average of only 3.9 yards. Since being ejected on Jul 14/17, his totals are: 39 carries for 226 yards, 4 TDs and a 5.8 yard average. Calgary O-Line Excellence: The Stampeders have not allowed a Sack in the last two games and just two in the last 4 contests in 2017. They went 3 games in a row last year without allowing a Sack on their QBs and over their last 22 games have given up just 20 or less than one per game. What makes it more remarkable is that 11 different players have started over this 22-game span.  Bo Levi Mitchell 16 games in a row: Mitchell is off to a career-best start this season with a 5,496-yard pace despite sitting out the entire 2nd half last week. He is now riding a streak of 16 consecutive games with at least one TD pass (Reminder: games where a QB does not see the field at all are excluded from streak calculation as no opportunity is there to extend it). Mitchell has thrown at least one TD pass in 37 of his last 38 games. Anthony Coombs: Over his last 3 games he made 25 receptions which is tied for #1 in the CFL for all players over Weeks #4-6. Over his last two games Ray has not thrown an interception covering 93 straight pass attempts. He has just 3 picks in 266 throws this year. Shawn Lemon: Has logged 4 Sacks and 9 QB Pressures over his last 5 games and ranks #3 for the season with 11 Pressures overall. His total of 15 Sacks & Pressures is tied for #1 in the CFL

Let's see the push and shove from the Bombers. Punk them Eskimos. FOR THE W! The new campaign... FOR THE T!