Tuesday Morning Sentimonies: Labour Day Magic

Riders 32 – Bombers 26 (OT)

We just win a Labour Day and I’m glad this team is back to remembering that. In my time watching football I have come to expect the Riders to win on Labour Day. Doesn’t matter our record, Winnipeg’s record, which QB is playing. We win. I just expect it. But my kids do not share my confidence as their generation has seen us lose 3 of 4 from 2021 to 2024. But we are back baby!  

I could have done without all the late game drama. Call me old fashioned but I could do with a boring win every now and then. But we certainly did not get boring. For then 5th year in a row the game was decided by 6 points or less.  

Credit goes to the defense in this one. They made Olivera a complete non-factor. They had 3 sacks, 4 tackles for a loss, held the Bombers to 16 points through 3 quarters and added 2 points of their own. The front 7 was disruptive. I think its borderline criminal how much Tommy Condell ignores his best offensive weapon but the few times he remembered he existed its not like we allowed Olivera much. Needed to close out better in the fourth but they were not exactly getting much help for a lot of the game from the O or a certain kicker I will be swearing about shortly (#foreshadowing) so I give them a bit of a pass. Thurman and Roberson had big games. Since becoming a starter you sure don’t hear Oladipo’s name much (which tells me he not doing anything to hurt us). He had a great knockdown in the endzone.  

Offensively we were anything but consistent but were able to get majors when we needed it. Harris had an up and down game but he didn’t turn the ball over (only Mimbs managed to do that) and with Winnipeg clearly keying on KeeSean he was able to adjust and find other receivers. His top target was Duncan-Busby who had a massive game. Conley had a solid game and had multiple big plays just getting open as an outlet valve for Harris. Credit needs to go to the O-line. Zero sacks allowed. Ceresna and Jefferson were non-factors for most of the game. Full team effort as you even saw guys like Keesean get big blocks on that one Tommy Time TD. 

I unfortunately now need to swear about the return of Alex Fale. Had he made either of his misses there could have been a far less dramatic finish. For the record on that single he got, I have no clue what Vaval was thinking. He had no reason to touch that ball. I’m sure Winnipeg fans are wondering how different the end of that game could have been had he not stupidly given us that point. But back to our failures. Yes Fale can make kicks, even some long ones. But he simply cannot be trusted to deliver any level of consistency. Do we think we will suddenly improve when the temperature drops come playoff time?  That’s like assuming Winnipeg fans will suddenly overcome generations of inbreeding and poor dental hygiene.

Credit to the crowd. It was loud. An electric atmosphere fitting for the Labour Day Classic. A huge win, against a division rival. Mostly important everyone went home happy… well except  the Bomber fans but at least they could pretend that it was the rain and now their tears than soaked their faces. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Despite my outrage in the moment, upon rewatching (and sobering up) I am less outraged about the horse collar and roughing the passer calls. They were soft (particularly the roughing the passer) but technically correct.

-        There was at least one major offside by Winnipeg that the refs somehow missed.

-        That drop by Wiebe could have been huge. That was an easy TD if he held on. Good on him for making up for it with that long catch and run.

Labour Day Classic 2026

It’s the most anticipated regular season game on the calendar. It’s tradition. It’s iconic. It’s a day where we celebrate labour by not labouring. It’s the Labour Day Classic!!

Regular readers will know that I generally open my Labour Day post with some jokes or smart assed comments about Winnipeg fans. I will go a different direction this year. It seems the new hot trend when you don’t like someone is to arbitrarily rename important geographic locations. With that in mind I would like to make the following announcement:

-       Winnipeg will be henceforth known as Loserpeg (that one’s pretty obvious)

-       Lake Winnipeg will be renamed Lake Poor Dental Hygiene (also fairly obvious)

-       And in recognition of their preferred romantic partners, Manitoba will be renamed Attractive Barnyard Animal-itoba.

Thank you for your cooperation on this.

Onto the game…

Labour Day aside this is a massive game in terms of the standings in the west. One game separates these teams and second place is up for grabs. Add in an electric (and likely intoxicated) sold out crowd and Mosaic will be rocking.

The Bombers for me can be described by a Toby Keith lyric “I ain’t as good as a I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was”. If the comical streak of Grey Cup choke jobs, followed by appearing in the crossover last year were not sign enough, watching the Bombers this year has made it painfully obvious that they are a team on the decline. But, like last week’s game against Montreal showed, they still have the talent to play at a high level in small doses, so they cannot be taken lightly. 

After spending most of the start of the season seemingly not remembering that Brady Olivera is on the roster, the Bombers have finally gone back to feeding him the ball. Low and behold good things happen. I don’t know how you look at that offense and make any other determination than Olivera is your best chance but it would seem Tommy Condell disagrees. In what could be a rain game the #1 key is slowing down Olivera. The Riders have the #2 run D in the CFL so they are certainly up to the challenge. I am very excited to see what Aubrey Miller can do as a starter. He is a demon on teams and that mentality is going to be needed to stop Olivera. Without Olivera Winnipeg is a subpar passing attack, an o-line that gives up a ton of sacks and a QB who amazingly keeps hurting his “neck” when his head is bounced off the turf. I know Demski is a Rider killer and will probably have 2 TDs but if our D-line can disrupt Collaros and get pressure on him good things will happen… for us. 

Offensively I am begging… begging… for 4 quarters of effort. We can’t sleep through the first half or disappear for two quarter to build drama. We need consistent production. Winnipeg is #1 in pass defense but 2^nd worst in run D. Again on a day that might feature rain we need to see a lot of Conley. Jefferson and Ceresna are beasts along that line. Running helps negate their pass rush. When Harris does throw he needs patience and good decisions. Take what they are giving and don’t turn the damn ball over. Passing game will clearly need to run through KeeSean but I see Wiebe playing a big roll underneath. Also, would not shock me to see Mueller try and get Letcher some offense touches to show a new wrinkle. We need to get TDs and not settle for FGs (because we all know O’Shea loves to settle for FGs).

The one thing I can say with a fair degree of certainty is that this game will be close. In the last 4 Labour Day Classics the largest margin of victory was 4 points. Great for excitement, bad for my heart.

Two things have me believing in a win. 1 – It’s Labour Day. I have seen Brett Smith, Jake Dolgeala, Rocky Butler, Michael Bishop all win on Labour Day and it was not because they were particularly excellent QBs. There is something magical about this game that always favours the Riders. 2 – Winnipeg is 5-1 vs. the East but 1-4 vs. the West. Despite what the Manitoba education system might teach you, Saskatchewan is in the West.

So rest up your livers, vocal chords and hearts and get ready to let loose on Sunday.

Riders by a Tommy Time TD (who else?)