And we can certainly add another talent to his repertoire:

Hype man.

There was Oliviera late Thursday afternoon at the team hotel here in Edmonton meeting with the media in advance of tonight's showdown with the Elks when the Winnipegger was asked by Taylor Allen of The Free Press what he would expect from his opponent.

The Blue Bombers can lock up a playoff spot with a victory, but the Elks can also nail down first place in the West Division with a result.

Winnipeg's offensive workhorse grinned and then offered up this:

"It's perfect. There's no meaningless football right now down this stretch. It's great for the players and for the league. For fans watching these are games that are going to come down to the wire, and both teams are fighting for something.

"Edmonton has a chance to go clinch first in the West, which is huge. And we have an opportunity to make sure that we extend our season. It will be a battle out there (tonight). I can't wait."

That encapsulates tonight's matchup perfectly.

What it also does is provide a bit of a window on the collective vibe in the Blue Bombers clubhouse, with the room alive again following last week's win over the Calgary Stampeders.

That result changed the narrative in Bomberland as the team, now 8-8, moved back into the West Division playoff discussion and gave them the season series with the Stamps, now 8-9 heading into their finale on Saturday against the B.C. Lions.

Winnipeg also holds the tiebreaker with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, also 8-8, and should the three teams all finish 9-9, also holds the advantage there with a 3-2 record in meetings between the three clubs.

So, while Winnipeg dropped both earlier matchups with the Elks this season, there is also some momentum and the knowledge that the two losses were both winnable games.

"You look back at that first game... we were right in it until the end and probably played one of our worst games of football with the amount of turnovers that we had," Oliveira said.

"That second game, I thought we played extremely well, especially in that first half and then just didn't play consistent enough that entire game. We're getting better at that. We're trying to peak at the right time and find that level of consistency throughout an entire game.

"Last week was good. A full three-phase win. Good challenge (today) and now we've got to put it all together again. We've had some good games against these guys and have come up short but it's time to go get ours."

ICYMI, here is our Game Preview:

And what follows is this week's collection of notes and quotes in another edition of Game Day HQ...

WHATEVER IT TAKES

One more from Oliveira's media session...

The CFL's leading rusher -- he's at 1,307 yards through 16 games -- had just eight carries for 40 yards and three catches for 29 yards last week as the Stamps piled up bodies closer to the line of scrimmage to take away the run.

Oliveira said yesterday his hands were sore the next morning as he was often kept in for pass protection.

"I'm glad my teammates and coaches trust me to be important for this team when I have the ball in my hands but also when I don't have the ball in my hands," he said. "I felt like I was on the same page with the offensive line the whole game against Calgary. I wanted to make sure that no one touched #8 (Zach Collaros). Let's keep him clean. Let's make sure at the end of this game his jersey's clean and no one touched him. I thought we did a great job with that.

"If people want to take away one dimension of us, well, we've got a pretty nasty receiving corps and a great quarterback and a great offensive line. Again, whatever it takes, by any means to go get the job done. Find a way."

DYNAMIC DORIAN

We touched on this in this week's 48 Hour Primer, but the Blue Bombers are thrilled with the added dimension Dorian Singer has brought to the passing attack in the first five games of his CFL career.

"It's huge. It adds a downfield threat for us," said Collaros Thursday. "The results are what they are. We've seen it."

Singer has 20 catches for 380 yards and two TDs in just five games and posted ridiculous numbers last week, with 166 yards on five catches. His emergence also means opposing defences have one more dynamic target to track in addition to Tim White, Nic Demski, Pokey Wilson and Tommy Nield.

"It does a lot," said Collaros of Singer's presence. "You don't have to move as many guys around to kind of create that type of person at those positions. It just adds another element of explosiveness.

" He deserves it. He's worked hard since he's been here for training camp; he understands our playbook inside and out and he's competitive as heck.

"It's great to be out there with him."

QUOTABLE

"I don't want to worry about anyone else's path or games or look ahead. I want to just focus on the now and what we have to do. We control our own destiny. Let's go out there and play our style of football, go win this game tomorrow." -- Brady Oliveira

NOTABLE

• Tim White needs just 19 yards to reach the 1,000 mark for fifth straight season -- four with Hamilton and now in his first year with the Blue Bombers. That's the longest active streak among CFL players

• Oliveira needs 76 yards from scrimmage -- rushing and receiving -- to become the 11^th Canadian to reach 9,000. With 6,787 rushing yards, he needs 98 to pass Jon Cornish for 16^th all-time.

• Evan Holm had three pass knockdowns last week and leads the team with 15 on the season.

• Some telling Collaros numbers from the CFL stats dept.: Collaros posted his 41st career 300-yard passing game last week and improved his career record to 95-58, including a gaudy 61-26 as a Blue Bomber. Notable in last week's game: Collaros threw nine of his 27 passes deeper than 20+ yds downfield and was 6-of-9 for two TDs.

ICYMI

Sam Calvert and yours truly always chop it up to preview each game during the season. Here's our chat about tonight's important matchup with the Elks in this week's Game Day -1: