WINNIPEG — It’s business as usual for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The Blue and Gold advanced to their fifth straight Grey Cup by taking down the Saskatchewan Roughriders 38-22 in the Western Final on Saturday at Princess Auto Stadium. That doesn’t mean that Mike O’Shea’s squad will be thinking about the four that came before, instead focusing at the task ahead.
“We’re gonna treat is as the 2024 Grey Cup, the way we’ve always approached things,” O’Shea told reporters after the game. “We’ve got enough young guys here that this will be their first. We’ve got enough vets that will guide them through the process, because it isn’t tricky. We’ve got a great staff that really has everything down to a tee and laser focused so they can just go about their days.”
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Two of the veterans leading the way for Winnipeg are quarterback Zach Collaros and receiver Kenny Lawler. The pivot was there for the entire five-year Grey Cup run, while Lawler is going into his fourth championship game with the Bombers after spending the 2022 season in Edmonton.
Collaros was once again instrumental in getting his team to the big game. The signal-caller threw for 301 yards and four touchdowns, with 177 yards and three majors going to Lawler. Despite all the success, Collaros isn’t taking for granted the degree of difficulty it takes to reach it.
“It’s so hard to get there, there’s so much work to put into dating back to February, January, whenever you start your training, watching the tape in the off-season, leading into training camp, getting to learn your new teammates, regulate yourself with old friends, all that stuff. It’s just such a journey, such a process. So much fun, but it’s just so difficult.”
“They’re all difficult, they’re all hard to get to, right? So you’ve got to enjoy it.”
All the success the Bombers have enjoyed didn’t preclude them from going through all kinds of adversity as well. From losing the last two Grey Cups to starting the season 2-6, nothing seems to throw this team off the rails.
It helps when you have veterans like Lawler, who are used to overcoming obstacles on their way to putting together performances like the one he showed on Saturday.
“I’ve been playing this game since I’m five years old. So, you know, nothing fazes me,” Lawler told reporters. “I have the best locker room, I have the best quarterback, and we put in work. Today was just a regular night, and we were just back at the office.”
They have one more week of office work ahead of them as they travel to Vancouver to face the Toronto Argonauts at BC Place on Sunday, November 17, for the 111th Grey Cup.