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It couldn’t have been drawn up any better if Cal Murphy and Ron Lancaster had dreamed it up it while sharing a cold one at a bar inside the Pearly Gates.
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It’s the Labour Day Classic on legal steroids. The Banjo Bowl with a full band – plugged in.
The first December playoff game in the prairie history of three-down football will feature the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders.
It’s the CFL’s most bitter rivalry, one that’s already produced a brawl and ejections this season.
It’s also a rematch of the last West Final, a teeth-chattering, fingernail-chewing classic that had stomachs churning and left Bomber lineman Jermarcus Hardrick calling it the craziest game of his football career: “And it’s not even close.”
The way ticket sales are going, it could be a full house, too.
“It was a long week, waiting around to see who we were going to play,” Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros said, Tuesday. “It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere. It feels like we haven’t played at home in a long time. Playing in front of these fans in this province has been amazing. You really feel the energy as soon as you step onto the field. Not just for the game… you can feel it as you approach the stadium.”
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That’s not all they’ll feel on Sunday.
By the time the sun sets, the mercury will likely have dipped to double-digits on the wrong side of the freezing mark.
The only thing more valuable than a tuque will be liquid antifreeze sold by the cup.
“I’m sure the Rum Hut will be rocking up there,” Collaros continued. “I don’t know what the weather’s going to be like. Hopefully pretty cold, and it’ll be a really fun one.”
It’ll only be fun for those who win.
To that end, Collaros took notes from the Riders-Stampeders semifinal on the weekend.
Not surprisingly, they lead to a familiar conclusion: don’t turn the ball over.
“In bad-weather games or games of bigger magnitude, it’s definitely more in the back of your mind,” Collaros said. “With that, though, you don’t want to hold yourself back… so there’s a fine line that you’ve got to balance. You can talk about it all you want, but you’ve got to go out there and execute and actually do it. And it starts with me on offence.”
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While Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo somehow survived four interceptions against Calgary, the usual outcome of that kind of day at the office is the one Collaros is more familiar with.
“I think I threw four interceptions at UConn and we got killed one year,” he said, recalling his days at the University of Cincinnati.
The quarterback matchup is a juicy one, the CFL’s top passer this season in Collaros on one side, the league’s most elusive running passer in Fajardo on the other.
The intangibles are tasty, too.
While the Bombers lead the loop in enough statistical categories to choke a gopher, the Riders might be just as physical.
In this year’s Banjo Bowl, they had two players ejected after a melee just before half-time. Apparently, some bad feelings had carried over from the previous Labour Day weekend.
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The Bombers won both of those slug-fests going away, leaving bruises in the shape of a 56-17 combined score on Gang Green.
But the visitors will hit town on the high that comes with a playoff win, while the first-place hosts won’t have played a game that means anything in a month.
That doesn’t mean they spent the bye week in pajamas.
“There’s different ways you can approach the bye,” Collaros said. “We chose that we’re all going to be in here. Use this time to get better. It’s a veteran team. It’s the culture. It’s the standard that’s been set here.”
That standard produced 15 West Division all-stars, something the Riders, who had just two, will likely chew on as grist for their own mill.
Not that nobody in blue and gold carries a chip on their shoulders.
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Being the defending Grey Cup champs hasn’t dulled the edges of players like linebacker Adam Bighill, the West finalist for the top defensive player of the year.
You’ll find the same fire in Collaros, the Most Outstanding Player Award finalist who admits he’s never really satisfied.
“He demands a lot out of his teammates, and that has rubbed off on a lot of people,” offensive coordinator Buck Pierce said. “He’s a fiery guy but does it in a good way.”
Collaros has said he was never more fired up than he was for the 2019 West Final against the team that gave up on him after a season-opening concussion that season.
His revenge that day: a 20-13 win.
“I don’t think those feelings will ever go away,” the quarterback said. “And if you can’t get up for one of these games then you shouldn’t be playing.”
Kindly Cal and the Little General would drink to that.
pfriesen@postmedia.com
Twitter: @friesensunmedia
FRIESEN: Bombers-Riders West Final a match made in heaven - Winnipeg Sun
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