Landry’s 5 takeaways from Week 16

By Don Landry

Hello, Brady Oliveira. I’m just so glad you guys didn’t decide to pretend to lay any eggs. More on “the chicken box,” below.

Here are this week’s takeaways.

ORDER HAS BEEN RESTORED

I commented, much earlier in the season, how weird it was to see the Winnipeg Blue Bombers moored at the bottom of the West Division standings.

Gonna take a while to get used to this new normal, I thought, as the Bombers got out to a 2-6 start.

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Now, after a Week 16 win in Edmonton, making it six victories in a line, the Blue Bombers are back to where we’ve been so accustomed to seeing them, which is to say as a bruising, physically dominating crew, determinedly stacking wins and taking it just one week at a time.

Expected to win and doing just that.

With a record of 8-6, the Blue Bombers have firm control of top spot in the West, two points ahead of the BC Lions and three up on Saskatchewan, and holding tie-breakers over each of them.

Turns out that reports of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ demise were greatly exaggerated.

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH BUT IN THIS CASE I’M HAPPY THAT THERE IS SO MUCH MATH

Below the Blue Bombers, and below the first-place Montreal Alouettes in the East, the waters are churning.

In the West, we’re in for a donnybrook for final playoff spots. The Saskatchewan Roughriders got a big win to more firmly grab hold of third place in the division, and closed to within a single point of the second place BC Lions. The Edmonton Elks are just three back of Saskatchewan and just four back of BC and also the Toronto Argonauts when you bring the crossover playoff race into it, with the Elks hosting Toronto during the final week of the season.

The Hamilton Ticats’ enormous win in Toronto on Friday night has them only four back of the third place Argos now and they own the tie-breaker too. The ‘Cats are merely three back of Saskatchewan for a possible crossover spot in the West and if you’d like to extrapolate things a wee bit more, you can say that the Argos are a point up on Saskatchewan with a West crossover in their sights as insurance should they be collared by the Ticats.

“Gotta win at least two,” Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said after the Hamilton loss. “Probably, maybe, might be three. We gotta win some football games.”

Most everybody else is in that same boat, coach.

Ottawa isn’t yet home and cooled out and Calgary is still in the running as well. Uncertainty rules.

Five weeks to go and there are so many possibilities. Bring on the games and bring on the complicated math that goes along with them.

THAT CHICKEN HAS FINALLY COME HOME TO ROOST

“What the hell is going on there,” I thought as I watched a bunch of Blue Bombers flapping their arms and strutting like barnyard chickens, both in the end zone and on the sideline.

“They call it the chicken coop, the chicken box, when you get in the end zone,” Winnipeg running back Brady Oliveira told reporters after he’d scored two touchdowns in Winnipeg’s 27-14 win over Edmonton.

Those were Oliveira’s first two majors of the season.

“We knew that whenever it was gonna happen,” Oliveira said of breaking his personal drought, “that our celebration was (to) cluck like a chicken. Walk like a chicken. That’s exactly what we did.

“At the end of the day, yes this is a business, this is pro sports. But you still gotta have fun.”

TREVOR DOESN’T MIND BEING OFF KILTER

That gust of wind you suddenly felt sweep over the prairie on Friday night was actually the collective exhaling of Saskatchewan Roughriders’ fans just after linebacker Jameer Thurman picked off a Jake Maier pass to ice a victory against the Calgary Stampeders.

First win for the Greenies since the middle of July. First post-Labour Day win for the team since the 2021 season.

To get it, the Riders employed new running back Ryquell Armstead heavily, rushing him 25 times (207 yards) compared to the 18 passing attempts made by quarterback Trevor Harris.

“It was really helpful for us in terms of being able to be balanced… actually probably more than balanced,” Harris told TSN after the game. “That might be one of the least amount of times I’ve thrown the ball in a game. It was beautiful.”

“Big win for us,” said Harris. “We’re fired up.”

THE FURTHER IT IS, THE NICER IT LOOKS

Remember when kicker Marc Liegghio was a Winnipeg Blue Bomber, struggling more often than not, finally leading to the Bombers parting ways with him after too many field goal misses?

He’s not the same guy at, now, and this season the Hamilton Ticats’ kicker is having a heck of a year (34-for-39 and 32-for-32 on convert attempts), including his six-for-six night in Friday’s 33-31 win over the Toronto Argonauts.

The nightmares are long left behind.

“Feels good to be tall,” cracked the five-foot-seven Liegghio (TSN) when asked about being lifted up onto his teammates’ shoulders after delivering a 48-yard walk-off field goal for the victory.

Would he have liked to be a little closer for that pressure-packed shot?

Maybe, Liegghio told reporters, before cracking a smile. “The further it is, the nicer it looks,” he said.

BONUS TAKEAWAY: Oh, that’s right. James Butler.

AND FINALLY… Six tackles, a knockdown, an interception and a sack while starting in place of Adam Bighill. You have our attention, Tony Jones.