By Canadian Press

Blue Bombers beat Redblacks 31-1, extending unbeaten streak to five games

Jul 19, 2019 | 8:46 PM

WINNIPEG — After getting off to a slow start Friday night, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have come out with a win overwhelming the Ottawa Redblacks 31-1 and extending their unbeaten streak to five games.

They scored 28 points to Ottawa’s 1 in the first half alone on touchdowns from Winston Rose, Andrew Harris, Kenny Lawler and Chris Streveler. It is the first time in 59 years the Bombers have managed to win five straight to open a season.

But it was the Bomber defence that broke open a scoreless first quarter at 8:32 when an interception by Rose was carried 71 yards for a touchdown.

Jonathon Jennings, making his first start behind centre for the Redblacks (2-3), spent four seasons with the B.C. Lions where he passed for 66 touchdowns and threw 51 interceptions.

Ottawa picked up a single on a 75-yard punt by Richie Leone to make it 7-1 before the end of the first before 25,350 fans at IGF Field.

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But the Bomber offence clicked less than a minute into the second when Matt Nichols threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Harris, who also had enough on the ground in the first half to move past Tracy Ham into 11th place on the CFL’s all-time rushing list.

Nichols followed it up about three minutes later with a 54-yard-touchdown throw to Lawler to make it 21-1. It was Lawler’s first for Winnipeg.

The Redblacks kept the ball on the ground later in the quarter and looked to be closing in on scoring territory when a procedure call snuffed the drive.

Then Nichols’ 34-yard pass to Harris got the Bombers into Ottawa territory with just under three minutes left. Backup quarterback Streveler carried it the last three yards and the Bombers extended their lead to 28-1 with just 13 seconds left.

The quarterback numbers in the first half told the story. Nichols completed 14 out of 19 throws for 192 yards while Jennings managed only five out of 11 for just 33 yards.

The Bombers failed on a third and goal just over nine minutes into the scoreless third quarter when Streveler came up short but Ottawa couldn’t get the ball out of their own territory.

Streveler came in for Nichols early in the fourth quarter but couldn’t add another major, although Justin Medlock kicked a 33-yard field goal for the Bombers at 4:22 to make it 31-1.

Ottawa put William Arndt in at quarterback when they finally got the ball but it didn’t change their luck.

Nichols returned to lead the Bombers for another series but Streveler came back for the final minutes. Nichols also set a new record for the Bombers by completing his 19th consecutive pass in the fourth.

Winnipeg wide-receiver Lucky Whitehead went down late in the fourth but walked off under his own power.

An end-zone pass from Arndt with just over a minute left was intercepted by Winnipeg defensive back Chris Humes and that was about as close Ottawa came to scoring all night.

Scott Edmonds, The Canadian Press