Als, Bombers to clash in 110th Grey Cup

The Montreal Alouettes  look to continue their underdog run while the Winnipeg Blue Bombers want their third Grey Cup in four seasons.

The CFL championship takes place on Sunday at Tim Hortons Field. Kickoff for the 110th Grey Cup is set for 5 p.m.

“The fact that I’ve got to experience my fourth time being at a Grey Cup, it’s pretty special because I’ve only been in the league for four years so its been quite the honour,” said Bombers running back Brady Oliveira. “I play this game to win games and win championships – that’s the ultimate end goal. I’m just appreciative that myself and my teammates and my coaches have another shot at this thing to go win another one.”

For the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, getting to the Grey Cup has been commonplace since 2019. The team has appeared in the championship game every year since they made the trade for quarterback Zach Collaros at the CFL Trade Deadline in 2019.

Collaros began that season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders before he was dealt to the Toronto Argonauts due to the emergence of Cody Fajardo – who will quarterback the Alouettes in the Grey Cup.

“It’s been cool talking to everyone and really thankful and grateful that the ‘What Ifs?’ fell this way – not just from a career standpoint but from the relationships you’re able to make,” Collaros said. “The relationships my wife has been able to make with all of my teammates’ wives and my children have life-long friends and I like to think about a lot of these guys in the locker room as lifelong friends.”

This is the Als’ first Grey Cup appearance since the 2010 Grey Cup where Montreal beat the Riders 21-18.

The Bombers (14-4) finished first in the CFL West Division for the third straight season and reached the Grey Cup by defeating the B.C. Lions 24-13 in the West Final.

Winnipeg will be looking to finish the job this season after being defeated 24-23 in last year’s Grey Cup by the Argos at Mosaic Stadium.

The Alouettes (11-7) were one of the biggest surprises in the CFL in 2023 after ownership issues just ahead of free agency. This led to the team losing quarterback Trevor Harris, and slotbacks Jake Wieneke and Eugene Lewis. Harris and Wieneke signed in Saskatchewan while Lewis went to Edmonton to play with the Elks.

The Als also hired Jason Maas as the team’s new head coach after he was fired from the Riders after two seasons as the team’s offensive coordinator and also signed Fajardo, who wasn’t brought back to Saskatchewan after a 6-12 2022 season.

Montreal finished in second place in the East Division, defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 27-12 in the East semifinal before beating the 16-2 Argos 38-17 thanks to the Als’ defence recording nine turnovers in the game.

Despite this being the 110th edition of the Grey Cup, it is the first time the Bombers and Als will meet in the championship game.

Though Fajardo is familiar with facing the Bombers in the playoffs after back-to-back West Finals where the Riders met Winnipeg. The Bombers won both of those contests with a 20-13 win at Mosaic Stadium in 2019 and then a 21-17 victory at IG Field in 2021. The 2020 CFL season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everyone wants to talk about my record against Winnipeg and my biggest thing with that is just look at about every other quarterback’s record against Winnipeg,” Fajardo said. “They’ve had a good record every single year so if you pull any quarterback’s stats or records against Winnipeg, you’re going to see they aren’t winning very often.

“The one thing I do know about the Winnipeg games is they do come down to the wire.”

The two clubs have met twice in 2023, with the Bombers winning both meetings – 17-3 on July 1 and 47-17 Aug. 24.

“I’m extremely excited about the opportunity,” Fajardo said. “When Winnipeg (beat B.C. in the West Final) it was one of those things where it’s like I have one more opportunity to right all my wrongs by playing Winnipeg in the Grey Cup. What’s better than that?”

The Bombers once again come in with a vaunted offence led by Collaros and Oliveira. The Canadian rusher led the CFL with 1,534 yards while adding nine rushing scores. He was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian.

The Bombers’ offence comes into the game after scoring a CFL-high 594 points (33 per game) with 2,503 rushing yards (first in the CFL) and 5,263 yards in the air (second-most) in the regular season.

Meanwhile, the Als’ defence has been a tough out all season, only surrendering 21.8 points per game – only the Bombers’ defence gave up fewer points.

“They are flying around and they are fast,” Collaros said. “It’s going to be a really great challenge for us.”