REGINA - Andrew Harris ran in a fourth quarter touchdown as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 23-18 in the West Division semifinal.
Winnipeg will travel to Calgary next week to face the Stampeders in the West final with the winner earning a Grey Cup berth.
Harris finished the game with 19 carries for 153 yards and Matt Nichols threw a touchdown to Drew Wolitarsky.
Brandon Bridge completed 12-of-22 passes for 100 yards in the loss. He also carried the ball five times for 86 yards.
Bridge started in place of Zach Collaros, who was scratched pre-game despite passing concussion protocol and practising all week.
The Bombers hadn't won a playoff game since the 2011 East Division final against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Winnipeg last faced the Stampeders in the post-season during the 2001 Grey Cup, which they lost. The Bombers also hadn't beat Saskatchewan in the playoffs was the 1965 West Division semifinal.
Harris's touchdown run came a few plays after he rushed for 37 yards to give Winnipeg good field position.
Nick Marshall scored Saskatchewan's first touchdown of the game by running in from one yard out with under three minutes left. A two-point conversion was unsuccessful.
The Roughriders struggled to get much going on offence with Collaros out of the lineup. He was hit in Saskatchewan's regular season finale on Oct. 27 against B.C. after taking a hit late in the first quarter.
Justin Medlock put the Blue Bombers up 16-12 with a 30-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. He finished the game with three field goals.
Bridge used his legs for a pair of first-down runs late in the third quarter but it ended in a 27-yard field goal from Lauther. Bridge, a Toronto native, was the first Canadian quarterback to start a CFL playoff game since Gerry Dattilio in 1984.
Brett Lauther cut the deficit to 13-9 before the half with a field goal from 34 yards. He converted on all four field-goal attempts.
Kevin Fogg intercepted Bridge midway through the second quarter to kill a solid drive for the Riders.
The Bombers used the turnover to score their first touchdown of the game as Nichols connected with Wolitarsky for a 20-yard score. Nichols completed 16-of-22 passes for 169 yards.
Bridge ran for 31 yards on the third play of the game which set up a 33-yard field goal from Brett Lauther. Lauther booted a 16-yard field goal on Saskatchewan's second possession.
Justin Medlock responded with a 36-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 6-3. He then tied the game at 6-6 with a 36-yard field goal early in the second quarter.
POSTGAME COMMENTS FROM CHRIS JONES
- I coulda coached em better, number one. And we gotta get a stop there at the end to give us more time. There are a lot of things we could've done better. We can't take anything away from Winnipeg. They've got a great team and will be tough down the stretch here.
- We didn't tackle well. We had Harris close to the line of scrimmage but didn't tackle well in the second half.
- We knew early in the week that Zach wasn't ... he came back from the break and didn't have any problems, and he was cleared, and on paper he could go, but it was a revisit from the Ottawa week and I just wasn't going to risk it.
- I told them I love them. I appreciate all of them. I want to wring their neck one minute and hug them the next. We had 12 rookies out there at one point. We're not perfect and do a lot of things wrong, but they show up to work everyday. It makes it easy to work 18-19 hours a day with these guys.
- Zach said he didn't feel quite right. He didn't say it was a concussion but he didn't feel 100%. I didn't want to risk another situation like Ottawa. He said it was similar to that.
- They're still evaluating Brandon right now.
- We had our opportunities. We kicked some field goals. If we could've got just one in, it might've been different. At the end of the day it was a team effort, and it always will be.
- They got the turnover there and turned that into points. That really was the turning point in the game.
- We played hard. We played extremely aggressively defensively. We didn't tackle well and that's one thing we'll look at, and wish we did better. It was our left hand tonight. It didn't really work for us.
- Brandon did a nice job standing in there. They pressured a lot. Who's to say either guy could've done any better.
- I hate more challenges. I'm not an advocate of challenging everything. It'll never be perfect but when it's right at the point of attack, you'd think, with as many people looking at it, that they'd get a few of those right. That's how I look at it. Hindsight's 20/20.
- Eguavoen's a good football player and played good football all year long. He's come in and done everything we've asked him to do. He was nicked up all year long, and played well on special teams too.
- Streveler's tough to tackle. There's no doubt about it. You got him tackled and he adds 3 or 4 more. He adds another dimension to their football team.
- Moncrief's injury forced us to move people around, but tackling was what hurt us tonight.
- Winnipeg's much better than what Ottawa was at this point last year. You can't compare one year to the other. If you don't win the Grey Cup, it doesn't make any difference when you lose. If you don't win the Grey Cup, it's all for not.
- Winnipeg's what we thought. They're a good team. We won the turnover battle and won, and they won it today. You turn it over between two evenly-matched teams, that'll be the difference and that's what happened.
(RodPedersen.com Wire Services/Ryan McKenna)
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