Bombers win Labour Day Classic for first time in 12 years, with help from a call

Heading into Sunday's Labour Day Classic game between the 5-4 Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the 1-8 Saskatchewan Roughriders, history was on the side of a close late finish favouring the Riders. The teams had played 52 Labour Day weekend matchups since 1949, with Saskatchewan going 34-18 in those games and 28 of those games being decided in the last three minutes. Recent history helped the Riders, too, as they'd won all but three of the last 16 Labour Day Classics and the last 11 straight, with the Bombers' last win coming in 2004. This one did go down to the wire with a ton of back-and-forth moments, but it was Winnipeg who prevailed in the end with a 28-25 win, and they did so in an unusual and controversial way.

The Bombers controlled this one for most of the game, leading 10-0 after the first quarter and 16-3 at the half. However, they weren't able to convert a lot of their red-zone trips into touchdowns, and Saskatchewan started making a comeback in the third quarter. After a Medlock field goal (he made seven of his eight attempts on the day) extended the lead to 19-3 at 10:02 of the third quarter, the Riders started to come to life. They went two-and-out on their next drive, but then got a good punt from Josh Bartel and a muff by Kevin Fogg that started Winnipeg off at their own eight; a defensive stand then gave Saskatchewan the ball back near midfield, and they would go on to pull off two straight touchdowns and two two-point conversions to tie the game at 19. The Bombers struck back with a field goal, an interception, another field goal, and another interception, and they looked in great shape leading with just over a minute left, but then Kendial Lawrence did this on a punt return:

That's an 85-yard touchdown return on a 60-yard punt, and it should have given the Riders the lead, but kicker Tyler Crapigna (who made just one of his three field goals on the day) missed the extra point to leave the game tied at 25. That left the Bombers with a chance to win with even just a rouge on their final drive, and they wound up getting into field-goal range thanks to a controversial pass interference call:

That doesn't look like much of a push from Justin Cox on Weston Dressler, and from the angle presented, calling that pass interference (negating the interception Cox came up with and putting the Bombers in field goal range) seems like a stretch. However, it's possible the contact was more blatant from the official's angle. An interesting note here is that the Riders couldn't challenge this after using their two timeouts on unsuccessful (and faint-hope) challenges early in the game; you can challenge penalties (not regular plays) inside the final three minutes, so if Saskatchewan had conserved a timeout, they might have been able to get this overturned. Rider fans aren't wrong to be upset about that call, though; from the view shown on the broadcast, it looked like the wrong one.

This wasn't the worst call of this season, but it's one that certainly had a big effect on the game. Being annoyed by that is reasonable. (Presuming it's part of a giant CFL conspiracy against the Riders, not so much, but hey, to each their own.) It did lead to Medlock's game-winning field goal, and it prevented Saskatchewan from getting their own shot to win after the interception, either in regulation or in overtime. A different outcome on the call wouldn't necessarily have led to a Rider win (their offence was creating plenty of its own turnovers at this point), but it might have.

In the end, though, this game could have turned at any other number of points. If Winnipeg's offence had been able to turn a few more drives into touchdowns, this wouldn't have been as dramatic. If Saskatchewan's offence had woken up in the first half, or if Crapigna had made his two missed field goals, they wouldn't have needed this late interception. If the Riders hadn't kept turning the ball over, they wouldn't have needed this call to go their way. Saskatchewan fans do have a cause for complaint here, but one that fits in with the complaints we see every week, not such an egregious one that there's cause to storm the league offices. As for Bombers' fans, they should be happy they escaped with a Labour Day Classic win for the first time in 12 years. The best part is that these teams get to settle it on the field when they face each other again in the Banjo Bowl in Winnipeg next Sunday. If that game's anything like this one, it will be a classic too.