2011 Winnipeg Blue Bombers season

The 2011 Winnipeg Blue Bombers was the 54th season for the team in the Canadian Football League and their 79th overall. The Blue Bombers finished in first place in the East Division with a 10–8 record. The team clinched their first playoff berth since 2008 on October 7, 2011, after a 33–17 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. On November 20, 2011, The Blue Bombers defeated the Tiger-Cats 19–3 in the East Final, advancing to the 99th Grey Cup and extending their Grey Cup appearances record to 24. However, the Bombers lost the Grey Cup game 34–23 to the BC Lions, extending their drought to 21 years without a Grey Cup championship. Their Grey Cup appearance marked their final playoff game played in five seasons, failing to make the playoffs in the four subsequent seasons following their loss to the Lions team. Incidentally, their first playoff game subsequent to their four-year playoff drought was also against the same BC Lions team they lost in the Grey Cup game in 2011, losing in a 32-31 come-from-behind victory for the Lions, ending the 2016 Winnipeg Blue Bombers season. Additionally, the Blue Bombers wouldn't host another playoff game again until the 2017 CFL season, this time losing to the Edmonton Eskimos 39-32.

2011 Winnipeg Blue Bombers season
General managerJoe Mack
Head coachPaul LaPolice
Home fieldCanad Inns Stadium
Results
Record10–8
Division place1st, East
Playoff finishLost Grey Cup
Team MOPJovon Johnson
Team MOCCory Watson
Team MORClarence Denmark
Uniform

The Blue Bombers set a franchise record for season tickets sold with 21,155 with 2011 being marketed as the last season at Canad Inns Stadium before the move to Investors Group Field. This record was in turn broken in 2012 after more than 22,000 were sold.[1]

Offseason

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CFL draft

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The 2011 CFL Draft took place on Sunday, May 8, 2011.[2] The Blue Bombers had six selections in the draft, and, for the first time since 1975, had the first overall selection in the draft. Winnipeg selected linebacker Henoc Muamba with the pick, making him the first St. Francis Xavier X-Men player to be drafted first overall. The Bombers also had the fourth overall pick after trading Steven Jyles to the Toronto Argonauts, in which they selected Jade Etienne from the University of Saskatchewan.[3] Winnipeg also selected Kito Poblah in the 2011 supplemental draft, and must forfeit a first-round 2012 draft pick.[4]

Round Pick Player Position School/Club Team
1 1 Henoc Muamba LB St. Francis Xavier
1 4 Jade Etienne WR Saskatchewan
3 17 Brendan Dunn DL/OL Western Ontario
4 24 Paul Swiston OL Calgary
5 32 Carl Volny RB Central Michigan
6 41 Liam Mahoney WR Concordia

Preseason

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Week Date Opponent Score Result Attendance Record
A Thurs, June 16 at Montreal Alouettes 27–15 Loss 21,223 0–1
B Thurs, June 23 vs. Toronto Argonauts 30–23 Loss 29,117 0–2

Regular season

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Season standings

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Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 18 10 8 0 432 432 20 Details
Montreal Alouettes 18 10 8 0 515 468 20 Details
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 18 8 10 0 481 478 16 Details
Toronto Argonauts 18 6 12 0 397 498 12 Details

Season schedule

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Week Date Opponent Score Result Attendance Record
1 Fri, July 1 at Hamilton Tiger-Cats 24–16 Win 23,852 1–0
2 Fri, July 8 vs. Toronto Argonauts 22–16 Win 27,638 2–0
3 Thurs, July 14 vs. Calgary Stampeders 21–20 Loss 27,890 2–1
4 Sat, July 23 at Toronto Argonauts 33–24 Win 21,189 3–1
5 Thurs, July 28 vs. BC Lions 25–20 Win 29,533 4–1
6 Fri, Aug 5 vs. Edmonton Eskimos 28–16 Win 29,533 5–1
7 Sat, Aug 13 at BC Lions 30–17 Win 24,131 6–1
8 Bye 6–1
9 Fri, Aug 26 vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats 30–27 Win 30,338 7–1
10 Sun, Sept 4 at Saskatchewan Roughriders 27–7 Loss 30,048 7–2
11 Sun, Sept 11 vs. Saskatchewan Roughriders 45–23 Loss 30,518 7–3
12 Sun, Sept 18 at Montreal Alouettes 25–23 Win 24,642 8–3
13 Sat, Sept 24 at Toronto Argonauts 25–24 Loss 19,108 8–4
14 Fri, Sept 30 vs. Montreal Alouettes 32–26 Loss 30,447 8–5
15 Fri, Oct 7 at Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33–17 Win 23,268 9–5
16 Sat, Oct 15 at Edmonton Eskimos 24–10 Loss 30,734 9–6
17 Sat, Oct 22 vs. Montreal Alouettes 26–25 Win 30,360 10–6
18 Fri, Oct 28 vs. Toronto Argonauts 27–22 Loss 29,751 10–7
19 Sat, Nov 5 at Calgary Stampeders 30–24 Loss 29,076 10–8

Roster

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2011 Winnipeg Blue Bombers roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Slotbacks

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

Injured List

Practice Roster


Italics indicate Import player
Roster updated 2011-06-26
Depth ChartTransactions
46 Active

More rosters

Coaching staff

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2011 Winnipeg Blue Bombers staff
Front office
  • Owner – Community owned (non-profit corporation owned by members)
  • Chairperson of the board of governors – Bill Watchorn
  • President/CEO – Jim Bell
  • Vice president and general manager of football operations – Joe Mack
  • Director of football operations – Ross Hodgkinson
  • Director of player personnel – Ken Moll

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

 

Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches

Coaching Staff
More CFL staffs

Player stats

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Passing

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Player Att Comp % Yards TD INT Rating
Buck Pierce 411 261 63.5 3,348 14 18 82.0
Alex Brink 140 89 63.6 1,023 5 4 85.5
Joey Elliott 18 10 55.6 87 0 0 68.5
Justin Goltz 6 3 50.0 36 1 0 124.3

[5]

Rushing

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Player Att Yards Avg. TD Fumble
Fred Reid 181 759 4.2 4 1
Chris Garrett 92 576 6.3 4 0
Buck Pierce 51 324 6.4 2 1
Alex Brink 43 148 3.4 6 4
Clarence Denmark 7 81 11.6 0 1
Carl Volny 9 71 7.9 0 2

[6]

Receiving

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Player No. Yards Avg. Long TD
Terrence Edwards 66 1,124 17.0 63 8
Clarence Denmark 65 818 12.6 82 5
Cory Watson 69 793 11.5 92 1
Greg Carr 46 648 14.1 59 4
Terence Jeffers-Harris 29 347 12.0 84 2
Aaron Hargreaves 30 292 9.7 21 0

[7]

Awards and records

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2011 CFL All-Stars

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Eastern All-Stars

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Playoffs

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Schedule

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Week Game Date Time Opponent Score Result Attendance
20 Bye
21 East Final Nov 20 12:00 PM CST vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats 19–3 Win 30,051
22 Grey Cup Nov 27 5:30 PM CST at BC Lions 34–23 Loss 54,313

Bracket

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November 13:
Division Semi-Finals
November 20:
Division Finals
November 27: 99th Grey Cup
BC Place Stadium – Vancouver
         
E3 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 3
East
E1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 19
E3 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 52*
E2 Montreal Alouettes 44
E1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23
W1 BC Lions 34
W2 Edmonton Eskimos 23
West
W1 BC Lions 40
W3 Calgary Stampeders 19
W2 Edmonton Eskimos 33

*-Team won in Overtime.


East Final

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Hamilton at Winnipeg
1 234Total
Tiger-Cats 3 000 3
• Blue Bombers 0 1036 19

Grey Cup

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Winnipeg vs. BC
1 234Total
Blue Bombers 0 6314 23
• Lions 11 31010 34

References

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  1. ^ "Blue Bombers set franchise record number of season tickets sold; general sale for season tickets commences monday". Archived from the original on 2012-05-28. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  2. ^ http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188882771141305 [user-generated source]
  3. ^ "Muamba taken first overall by Bombers". CFL. May 8, 2011. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  4. ^ "Bombers select Poblah in Supplemental Draft". CFL. May 30, 2011. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  5. ^ "Passing 2011 | Statistics | CFL.ca | Official Site of the Canadian Football League". Archived from the original on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  6. ^ "Rushing 2011 | Statistics | CFL.ca | Official Site of the Canadian Football League". Archived from the original on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
  7. ^ "Receiving 2011 | Statistics | CFL.ca | Official Site of the Canadian Football League". Archived from the original on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2017-08-23.