Now that's a rivalry

During the course of today's playoff showdown I checked out the historical rivalry between the Eskimos and Blue Bombers. I knew it was close as both teams have taken their turn at ascendancy, especially in the 1950s when they were by far the class of the old Western Interprovincial Football Union (which is before even my time, but the scores are recorded on stone tablets). The two teams met in the post-season 10 times in the 11 years 1950-60, including 9 times in the best-of-3 finals with 7 of those series going the limit. That's an incredible 26 playoff games over those 11 seasons, with each team winning 13 games and advancing 5 times. 13 games were played in each town, with the visitors winning 5. Four of the series were upsets, with each side winning twice.

Many of the games were defensive tong wars in brutal conditions, if scores like 4-1, 5-4 and 4-2 are our guide. One such occasion occurred in 1957 when the Bombers ended the Esks' run of three Grey Cups by winning Game 3 in Edmonton by the highly unusual score of 17-2 in overtime. That was a famously wind-blown game that ended Pop Ivy's otherwise triumphant four-year run as Eskimos coach.

Since the CFL became a truly integrated national league in 1961 (when interlocking play started) the teams have met more rarely in the post-season, in part due to the rise of other powers and rivalries in the west and in part because Winnipeg has bounced back and forth between conferences. The teams did meet 5 times in 6 years 1980-85, with the Esks scraping by the Bombers en route to their 5th straight Cup and the Bombers ending the dynastic run the next year with a decisive home victory in Warren Moon's last game, 25 years ago this week.

Overall since 1961, the old rivals have met 8 more times in single-game Western playoffs, splitting 4 wins apiece; and twice in the Grey Cup game in the early 90s, each team winning once. So the series was still dead even, until today's unusual meeting in the East playoffs. Today's win gives the Eskimos the leg up again, the green and gold having won the series or sudden death game 11 times to Winnipeg's 10. Counting all of those best of three series that went the limit in the old WIFU, Eskimos have won 19 games, the Bombers 18. Winnipeg has actually outscored Edmonton 673-622 for an average game score of EDM 17 WPG 18.
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For those who are interested in such trivia, here's the playoff history of the remarkably even Edmonton-v.-Winnipeg rivalry, scraped from Iggy's CFL. Edmonton always listed first, series winner in italics, * designates home team.

1950 WIFU F : EDM 17 WPG* 16; 12*-22; 6-29*
1951 WIFU SF: EDM* 4 WPG 1
1952 WIFU F : EDM 12 WPG* 28; 18*-12; 22-11*
1953 WIFU F : EDM* 25 WPG 7; 17-21*; 24-30
1954 WIFU F : EDM* 9 WPG 3; 6-12*; 10*-5
1955 WIFU F : EDM* 29 WPG 6; 26-6*
1957 WIFU F : EDM* 7 WPG 19; 5-4*; 2*-17 (ot)
1958 WIFU F : EDM 7 WPG* 30; 30*-7; 7-23*
1959 WIFU F : EDM 11 WPG* 19; 8*-16
1960 WIFU F : EDM 16 WPG* 22, 10*-5; 4-2*

1966 WFC SF : EDM 8 WPG* 16
1976 WFC SF : EDM 14 WPG* 12
1980 West F : EDM* 34 WPG 24
1982 West F : EDM* 24 WPG 21
1983 West SF: EDM 22 WPG* 49
1984 West SF: EDM 20 WPG* 55
1985 West SF: EDM 15 WPG* 22

1990 GREY CUP: EDM 11 WPG 50
1993 GREY CUP: EDM 33 WPG 23

1996 West SF: EDM* 68 WPG 7
2008 East SF: EDM 29 WPG* 21

Playoff game day -- Eskimos at Winnipeg

Saturday morning the Eskimos will play their first playoff game since the last time Ricky Ray lifted the Grey Cup, three long years ago.

Again for the heck of it, I'll run a live blog, or turn it into a game day thread if the comments section gets rolling. Canadian football is maybe my fourth favourite team sport behind hockey, baseball and soccer, but I have been following the CFL since the early 60s and still like to watch it at this time of year. Come to think of it, football should be just right for blogging, with its ratio of 6 seconds of action to 30 seconds of getting off the pile and standing around in little circles. Whatever, if I remember to wake up I'll be here at 11 a.m. MST. Please feel free to drop by.
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Staurday morning: Whaddya know, I did wake up, sort of. Pretty groggy after being out 'til 5 doing some astronomy, but I'm here in front of the big screen with my laptop hooked up, so how tough can it be?
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Rereading that: Staurday? Not a promising start.
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1/13:07 - Not a promising start for Ricky Ray either as two passes find turf and look horrible doing so. His arm was hit on the second throw. We're going into the harsh prairie wind, which combined with bitter cold provides the sort of natural challenges that can make football compelling.
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1 / 12:00 - "There is no infraction on the play." The referee has already established there are no rules against Winnipeg. At least they're upfront about that sort of thing in this league, not like the NHL.

1/10:34 - Bombers miss a field goal, but Edmonton returner errs by conceding the single point immediately, rather than killing time by running around the end zone for a while. That will give Eskimos one or two more plays into the wind, something they don't really need. the guy frankly looked like he couldn't wait to get off the field, looks pretty miserable out there. Winnipeg 1, Edmonton 0
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... and once again the colour guy agrees with me. :) Coming out of commercial, he makes the same point about clock management.
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Just as I was going to comment how Edmonton was managing field position not too bad, Winnipeg has a one-play, 80-year touchdown drive. Edmonton's pass defenders manage to make contact with each other, but the receiver eludes both and trots the rest of the way. Winnipeg 8, Edmonton 0
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1/5:23 - The surround sound really gives the sense of the crowd willing on the defensive front on third and short. There's a muffled but enthusiastic sound to a playoff crowd on a cold November day. Having attended probably 15 playoff games at Clarke and Commonwelath over the years, I can empathize.
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... and with that I'm moving into the comments section ...