# 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.
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.

## Offseason
### CFL draft

The 2011 CFL Draft took place on Sunday, May 8, 2011. 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. Winnipeg also selected Kito Poblah in the 2011 supplemental draft, and must forfeit a first-round 2012 draft pick.
| 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

| 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
### Season standings

East Divisionviewtalkedit :
| 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

| 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 | Bye | Bye | Bye | 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 |

### Coaching staff
## Player stats
### Passing

| 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 |

### Rushing

| 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 |

### Receiving

| 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 |

## Awards and records

* CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award – Jovon Johnson, CB

### 2011 CFL All-Stars

* OG – Brendon LaBatte, CFL All-Star
* DE – Odell Willis, CFL All-Star
* CB – Jovon Johnson, CFL All-Star
* DB – Jonathan Hefney, CFL All-Star
* S – Ian Logan, CFL All-Star

### Eastern All-Stars

* WR – Terrence Edwards, Eastern All-Star
* OT – Glenn January, Eastern All-Star
* OG – Brendon LaBatte, Eastern All-Star
* DT – Doug Brown, Eastern All-Star
* DE – Odell Willis, Eastern All-Star
* CB – Jovon Johnson, Eastern All-Star
* DB – Jonathan Hefney, Eastern All-Star
* S – Ian Logan, Eastern All-Star

## Playoffs
### Schedule

| Week | Game | Date | Time | Opponent | Score | Result | Attendance |
| 20 | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye | Bye | 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

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

### East Final

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Tiger-Cats | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| • Blue Bombers | 0 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 19 |

### Grey Cup

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Blue Bombers | 0 | 6 | 3 | 14 | 23 |
| • Lions | 11 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 34 |