The second half of the 2025 season is here, which means the party is just getting started in Winnipeg.

It's been another up-and-down start to a season for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, starting the year 3-0 before running into the Calgary Stampeders, losing in back-to-back weeks by a combined score of 78-36.

Since then, the team has gone .500, and their 5-4 record at the halfway point this year is much improved from their 3-6 sputter to begin 2024.

Thursday's 2023 Grey Cup rematch against the Montreal Alouettes signals the beginning of the home stretch for the Bombers, where Winnipeg has done some damage to their opposition. Over the past three years, the Blue Bombers have gone 21-6 in contests throughout the back half of a season, including rattling off a seven-game win streak in 2024, while closing 2023 with four consecutive wins.

“You’d like to hope that we go on a nice little run here,” running back Brady Oliveira told the Winnipeg Sun. “Let’s try and win out. It’s obviously tough. But we’ve done it before… we’ve gone on nice little runs where we’ve won a ton of games in a row. Our focus, which I think is great, is not worrying about the second half of the season. It’s worrying about now, about beating Montreal this week and forgetting about who we play after that."

Over the past two weeks, however, Winnipeg has had some rocky finishes to say the least.

In Week 10, the Blue Bombers coughed up a 17-point lead to the Stampeders before kicker Rene Paredes hit a 40-yard field goal for the Calgary win. Then, Winnipeg squandered another 17-point lead to the Ottawa Redblacks last week, but were on the right side of walk-off field goal, with Sergio Castillo nailing a 47-yarder for the win.

The offence was nearly non-existent in the second half of those games, managing only one touchdown and 14 points in total. Across 2025 thus far, Winnipeg sits in the bottom third of the league in most offensive categories, including touchdowns (20), first downs (181), average yards per play (6.24) while committing the most turnovers (28).

“We have a ways to go,” Zach Collaros, with a league-worst 9-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio, said to The Sun regarding the offence. “We just need to continue to believe in what our core tenets are, and that starts with physicality and executing and paying attention to the details. All those things that sound cliche but really what makes a great football team and a great offence. The rest will come with that.”

While the run game has surely been better than the passing attack, with Winnipeg sitting second in rushing yards per game (112.8), it hasn't been by Oliveira dominating as we have been accustomed to seeing. 

The reigning Most Outstanding Player has led the league in rushing yards the last two seasons, putting up nearly 2,900 yards and 12 touchdowns over that span.

This year, however, things have been different.

The 28-year-old has had to battle through a shoulder injury that cost him two games, while his 5.0 yards per carry sits tied for eighth this season (minimum 30 carries) which is nearly a yard less per carry than he has averaged over the past two campaigns.

“If we just finish this thing off right and make sure we’re winning games, the numbers are irrelevant to me,” Oliveira told The Sun.

That doesn't mean he doesn't want to get back up to top form, however.

“I think I could do that every single year. And yeah, I want to win football games. But I still don’t see that out of the picture. I’m going to get going and it’s just a matter of time.”

The Bombers are now set to square off with the injury-riddled  Alouettes to kick off Week 12. Montreal's season has completely gone downhill over the past three weeks, losing three quarterbacks to injury while dropping three straight games.

Quarterback James Morgan is now in line to make his first career CFL start, tasked with turning around a Montreal team that has gone 2-5 since starting the year 3-0, being outscored 93-46 during this three-game skid.

If the Blue Bombers were to get another run going like they have in years past, this could be the moment, with the Alouettes missing other key contributors like receivers Austin Mack and Tyson Philpot. Winnipeg might not be coming into this one firing on all cylinders, but all of Montreal’s cylinders are in the shop for repair.

"This team has been in some tight games this year,” said Oliviera. “We’ve faced a lot of adversity. Down the stretch we’re going to start playing some really good football teams, teams that are going to be up at the right time, championship-calibre teams. We can use what we’ve learned in the past to benefit us down the road.”

The team boasts the best home record in 2025 at 4-1, and hosting a playoff game at Princess Auto Stadium is by no means ruled out. A win on Thursday, however, would get things back on track for the Bombers to potentially host a postseason contest for the fifth straight season.