Unless the Winnipeg Blue Bombers can pull off a miracle and sneak into the playoffs over the next three weeks, they will be the producers of the biggest choke job in CFL history.

CFL statistician Steve Daniel reports no team that has started a season with a 5-1 record or better has ever missed the playoffs. The Bombers were 5-1 on July 31, but they have lost nine of their last 10 and seven straight. They cannot afford to lose another game, or they will miss the post-season for the fifth time in the last six years.

The difference this year, however, is they basically had it in the bag through one third of the campaign. Now they are 6-10, and they need to win their remaining two games, starting with Saturday night at home against B.C. They also need the Lions to lose their final three games, including Saturday’s, and then hope one more East Division team ends up with at least 11 losses.

Winnipeg quarterback Drew Willy, who will return to face the Lions after missing last week’s loss to Calgary, can’t believe the Bombers were 5-1 and now have to win their second-last game of the season just to stay alive in the race.

“I wasn’t really thinking ahead, but obviously I thought we were going to have more than six wins at this point, starting so hot like that,” Willy said. “We had a lot of momentum, a lot of confidence, and our confidence is still high. It just hasn’t played out like we wanted it.”

No kidding. The four other notable chokes in CFL history — two by Calgary and two by B.C. — all occurred more than 30 years ago. The Stampeders were 4-1 in 1958, the Lions were 5-2-1 in 1980 and 7-3 in 1982, and the Stampeders were 4-2 in 1983, but they all ended up missing the post-season party.

None will be as bad as Winnipeg’s unless it snaps its third-longest losing streak in franchise history and then gets a lot of help along the way.

If there’s good news for the Bombers and their fans, it’s that the Blue and Gold have played well recently when their backs are against the wall. The first times they faced elimination from playoff contention in their last three non-playoff years, they won. Then they went out and lost the next week, but at least they know how to win a must-win game.

“The mood and the emphasis is to play hard, get to the ball in numbers on the defensive side of the ball, and leave everything on the turf,” linebacker Johnny Sears Jr. said Friday. “Do what you can, if not more, to win.”

The Lions (8-7), who can clinch a playoff spot by beating the Bombers, come to town banged up but coming off a bye week and, before that, a 41-3 thumping of the Ottawa RedBlacks. They are missing regulars like running back Andrew Harris, defensive backs Dante Marsh and Ronnie Yell, receiver Courtney Taylor and, of course, No. 1 quarterback Travis Lulay.

“We’re just too banged up,” B.C. head coach Mike Benevides said. “We got a lot of guys injured and we needed the rest, but unfortunately the rest wasn’t long enough for some of us.”

The Bombers will also be without a couple of heavy hitters themselves, as slotback Nick Moore (knee) and defensive back Demond Washington (head) got hurt against Calgary and will miss Saturday’s clash.

Lions quarterback Kevin Glenn, who has started 14 of 15 games for the Lions this season, has an opportunity to end Winnipeg’s playoff hopes for the second time since the team cut him in 2009. He says he’s past that, but anyone who knows him knows he isn’t.

“For us it’s more so just trying to continue to play well, especially at the end of the season,” Glenn said, “because that’s what championships are built on — the team that goes into the playoffs playing well.”

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

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