There was no golden harvest moon rising above the stadium last night, the overcast sky saw to that.
But there was something else, something that brought an even warmer glow to the few Blue Bomber fans who showed up, probably even to those who didn't.
Hope.
Let's face it, it's been in scarce supply around here this season, a four-letter word even the diehards have been dropping from their vocabularies.
But the gang that couldn't shoot straight for most of 2009 pulled the trigger and hit the mark for the second straight week, this time over the Edmonton Eskimos.
Workmanlike
The worst Bomber crowd in a decade, just south of 22,000, saw the home team piece together a workmanlike 27-17 victory, and it's been a while since you could describe a Winnipeg game as workmanlike.
Balanced offence? Check.
Stingy defence? Check.
Consistent special teams? Check again.
But the Bombers went one further, checking off a box they're not very familiar with: the big play.
When Jovon Johnson took a missed Noel Prefontaine field goal 118 yards for the major early in the second half, it was as if every player on the Winnipeg sideline gobbled a bottle of happy pills, with a pleasant side effect: confidence.
Until then, the 13-10 Bomber lead perfectly reflected a game neither team appeared willing to grab by the throat.
But Johnson put both his hands on the Green and Gold larynx and squeezed.
And suddenly, the words "Bombers" and "playoffs" don't sound ridiculous in the same sentence.
If last week's squeaker over the hapless Toronto Argos left you grousing, "So what?," this one has to produce a curious, "What's next?"
Now, a two-game win "streak" hardly qualifies as being on a roll.
Then again, the way this season has gone -- the on- and off-field bungling, the soap operas, the pitiful offensive attack -- the Bombers at least aren't running on squared wheels anymore.
I wouldn't stack 'em up against the Montreal Alouettes or anything, but who's to say they can't take their 5-8 mark into Hamilton next week and make it three straight, barging right into the race for second place in the CFL East?
Not me.
So what's changed?
Well, for starters, head coach Mike Kelly's offence has begun to resemble the real thing since Kelly's taken his mitts off it and allowed others to do some much-needed tinkering.
Getting the running backs involved in the passing attack, for instance.
This offence isn't going to bowl you over with 400-yard passing games. But when you have a defence like Winnipeg's and a kick and return game that's getting better all the time, all you need is an average attack.
At the controls, quarterback Michael Bishop is beginning to look like the smart, careful player few thought he could be. Yeah, he still put some balls up for grabs, and if the Edmonton defence had any hands he would have paid dearly.
But hands up everybody who predicted Bishop would match Edmonton's Ricky Ray, yard for yard.
OK, Mrs. Bishop, you can put your hand down now.
At times, you wondered what they did with the real Eskimos.
Employing an offence that looked eerily Winnipegish, Ray looked more like Ricky Martin, except he didn't hit any high notes.
Livin' la Vida Loca, this was not.
Plenty of credit goes to Winnipeg's dirty dozen, which blitzed at the right time, dropped back into coverage at the right time and generally made life miserable for the Edmonton receivers.
That gave the Bomber offence a chance to find its feet.
It was still far from perfect.
But for two weeks in a row, a team that looked dead to rights, at 3-8, made some progress.
And the four-letter words aimed at it aren't all nasty, anymore.
Contact Paul at paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca or 632-2788.
