The Corbett Report, September 6, 2025

Introduction

As today’s song says, the inaugural Banjo Bowl took place in 2004.  Since then, it’s been played 20 times with the Bombers boasting a 13-7 overall record.  It hasn’t always been that way.  After winning the inaugural Banjo Bowl, the Bombers managed to win just 4 more in the first 10 years of the event.  In particular, the years 2008 to 2012 saw Rider fans leaping off their combines in glee as the Riders won 4 of the 5 games during those years.  Fast forward though to the last 10 years, all at the current stadium (whatever name it has this week), and you’ll see the Bombers have righted the ship (something Gilligan and the Skipper never seemed able to do).  Since moving to the friendly confines of IG Field (aka Investors Group Field, aka Princess Auto Stadium, aka . . . tba) the Bombers have posted a 9-2 record against the stubblejumpers from the west.  Odds are against the Riders for that reason, and it’s also hard to win back-to-back games, period.  We’ll see what happens today but whatever the outcome, it’s sure to be a fun-filled afternoon as the Bombers seek revenge against the Riders. I’m not usually a cheerleading kinda guy, but what the hell.  GO BLUE!!!

Welcome to week 14. Welcome to the Corbett Report.

Standings

Team	GP	W	L	T	Pts	Pts for	Pts Against
West
Saskatchewan	11	9	2	0	18	311	245
Calgary	11	8	3	0	16	301	214
Winnipeg	11	6	5	0	12	303	299
BC	11	5	6	0	10	307	324
Edmonton	11	4	7	0	8	248	309
East
Hamilton	11	6	5	0	12	333	318
Montreal	11	5	6	0	10	250	277
Toronto	12	4	8	0	8	364	387
Ottawa	11	3	8	0	6	272	316

A quick look at the standings and it’s easy to see the importance of this game.  Lose today and the Bombers are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs, never mind not hosting a home game.
Bombers

The Bombers’ struggles and inconsistences this year have been well documented in other award-winning (but lesser) publications, but, just for fun, let’s look at them.

• Fifth in points scored
• Sixth in net offence (yards)
• Fifth in yards allowed
• Seventh in Red Zone TDs
• Ninth in interceptions thrown
• Seventh in sacks allowed

Need I go on? Probably not.  Suffice to say, the Bombers, according to the stat sheet, are a mediocre, middle of the road team in 2025.  Today, one of two things will happen: 

The Bombers will drop to 6-6 and they’ll get one hand on the Mediocrity Trophy (yes it’s a thing GOOGLE IT) or,

The Bombers will defeat the jolly green Riders, move to 7-5 and the good ship Bombers will be afloat for another week.

Riders

The Riders are 9-2 but according to past editions of the Corbett Report (well, that and the ACTUAL standings) they’ve been here before.  In 2019 as an example, the Riders were 7-3 coming into the Banjo Bowl.  They lost that game 51-6 and ended the 2019 season with another loss to the Bombers in the Western Final (The Bombers as I’m sure you know ended up winning the Grey Cup that year with a (Jim checks his shirt) 33-12 victory over Hamilton.  It’s not unheard of that the Riders struggle in the second half of a season.  This year might not be an exception either.  Sure, the Riders won last week but it was only by the thinnest of margins in the friendly confines of Mosaic Stadium (trust me, I was there, it was very Rider-friendly). The week before, they suffered a 32-15 loss to the Stamps in a game where they failed to score a point in the second half.  Today could be the start of another late season collapse by the Riders. 

Keys to the game

For the Bombers to win

Last week was close but not close enough.  To get over the finish line with a victory this week the Bombers will need to:

• Give the ball to Brady more
• Quite throwing interceptions (GREEN IS NOT THE COLOUR)
• Stop the big pass play

For the Riders to win

• 2 or more turnovers (maybe one apple and one cherry)
• Hit the big passing plays
• Score early and get on a roll

The predictions

The Corbett report is 30-20 so far this year, 7-4 in Bomber Games.  Here are this week’s predictions:

Tonight, look for a BC win over Ottawa, then on Saturday it’s a triple header and it’ll be:

• Edmonton over the Stamps (I keep picking the Elks, who knows why)
• Hamilton over Montreal

And in our feature game look for the 11^th consecutive sellout crowd to fire up the Bombers as they get revenge on the Riders. 

Bombers 32 Riders 30

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