Bombers come up with a crazy win in Hamilton, but not everything is solved

After starting 0-2 despite a strong offseason and demonstrating plenty of angst about their poor start, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' 28-24 road win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Thursday night should relax the pressure a little. It wasn't just the outcome, either, as there were some tangible improvements in Winnipeg's play Thursday night. However, there's still a lot of work remaining to be done for this team to turn into a real West Division contender.

It's worth pointing out that there were a lot of bizarre plays in this one, and the Bombers got some very lucky bounces, including a Ryan Smith no-look TD catch, a three-man fumble recovery, a three-man interception, and a game-sealing deflected fumble recovery. Yes, they were the victims of other bad breaks, including a missed offside call on Chad Owens' touchdown, but the forces of luck still generally favoured Winnipeg in this one. In a game they only won by four, that should be kept in mind; this was a good win for the Bombers, and a needed one, but not necessarily a decisive one.

There were some positive signs for Winnipeg Thursday too, of course, and it does seem that this team has improved from what we saw from them in Weeks One and Two. Drew Willy's stat line was still far from perfect, but it was significantly better than his first two games (32 completions on 42 attempts, 76.2 per cent, 279 yards and a touchdown), and he was able to spread the ball around to a lot of receivers. Andrew Harris was pretty good (63 rushing yards on 13 carries, 38 receiving yards on five catches), and the defence had lots of standouts. Maurice Leggett had a particularly strong game with five tackles, a sack, and two interceptions, but Ian Wild (seven tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery), Adrian Hubbard (a tackle, a sack and a fumble recovery), and Jamaal Westerman (five tackles and a sack) all also turned in good showings. All of that bodes well for the future.

However, the Bombers were still far from dominant. The offence was struggling early, and it didn't do a great job of converting yards into touchdowns at any point. They had to settle for four field goals (on six attempts) from Justin Medlock, many from long range (including one Brandon Banks returned 120 yards for a touchdown, which wouldn't have been as long or as dangerous without a poorly-timed delay of game penalty from Winnipeg's confusion). The defence also gave up 367 passing yards to Jeremiah Masoli, and only survived that thanks to the turnovers. This was a much better showing from the Bombers, but one they'll still have to improve upon. Winnipeg fans can exhale in relief for now, but they shouldn't start throwing parties just yet.