The Corbett Report, September 27, 2025

Introduction

The Bombers are playing their 5th game in September and come into the game with a 1-3 record this month.  I’ve had the privilege of attending all 4 of their games this month and let me tell ya, this team truly is “Living on a Prayer”.  The sole victory this month was last week against Ottawa where the Bombers won 26-18.  Sounds decent right? Gotta say, it was the ugliest game, at least offensively, I’ve ever witnessed.  Chris Streveler, in for the injured Zach Collaros, completed just 4 passes, only 3 to his own team.  His total passing output was a meager 54 yards.  That had to be the lowest passing yardage of any team in a victory, ever.  Fortunately, starter Zach Collaros is back this week and surely he’s got to do better than that! The Bombers have yet to put together a complete performance this year.  It’ll be a challenge against the 9-5 Ti-Cats who two weeks ago easily defeated the Bombers 32-21 in a game that seemed to lack urgency, as if the outcome was a forgone conclusion.  Let’s see if Saturday’s rematch can reverse the Bombers’ recent fortunes.

Welcome to week 17. Welcome to the Corbett Report.

Standings

Team	GP	W	L	T	Pts	Pts for	Pts Against
West
Saskatchewan	13	10	3	0	20	363	306
Calgary	13	8	5	0	16	343	297
Winnipeg	14	7	7	0	14	363	370
BC	14	7	7	0	14	430	408
Edmonton	14	5	9	0	10	336	388
East
Hamilton	14	9	5	0	18	420	375
Montreal	14	7	7	0	14	328	353
Toronto	14	5	9	0	10	414	438
Ottawa	14	4	10	0	8	351	413

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. (line unchanged from last report)
Bombers

Looking back on last week’s stats, it’s rather difficult to understand how the Bombers won the game.  I’ve already mentioned the anemic passing attack.  Add to that the fact that the Bombers gave up 452 yards of net offence and one can quickly go “WTF Just Happened?”  Well, a missed field goal return for a TD and another for a 50-yard gain made a difference, but the Bombers can’t rely on those plays every week.  Perhaps the return of Collaros will provide the spark that this team needs. 

On the ground the team is solid.  In fact, last week’s 100-yard rushing performance by Oliveria was one of the bright spots. The team however has become too predictable with the “handoff to Brady” play on EVERY first down.

Some diversity on offence and some consistency on defence will be needed to beat the Ti-Cats.

Ti-Cats

The Ti-Cats enter the game on a 3-game winning streak including last week’s thriller against Edmonton where a last-second field goal won them the game.  Bo-Levi is having a banner year, completing 68.7 % of his passes and leading the league in yardage with 4,194 yards of passing.  This combined with his TD-Interception ratio of 28-8 provides a short explanation as to why the Cats are first in the East.

If they do have a weakness, it might be on defence.  The Ti-Cats sit in the low-middle of the pack in most defensive categories. The Bombers need to exploit the Ti-Cats defence if they have any hope of winning this game.

Keys to the game

For the Bombers to win

• Win the turnover battle
• Zach stretches out the Ti-Cats defence
• Run Brady Run

For the Ti-Cats to win

• Bo-Levi continues to make his case for league MVP
• Sack Zach often
• Win the turnover battle

The predictions

The Corbett report is 35-30 so far this year, 8-6 in Bomber Games.  Here are this week’s predictions:

• Look for Montreal at home to hand Calgary their 3^rd straight loss
• BC should have an easy time at home against the Argos
• Edmonton provides the upset of the week with a win at home against the Riders

And in our feature game, look for a better outing for the Bombers this week than last (could it get any worse?) but in the end it won’t be enough.

Ti-Cats 32 Bombers 21

Be sure to check out jcorbettreport.com