VANCOUVER – It hurt like a roundhouse punch to the face in 2022, and last year felt like a thousand wasp stings.
And this one? It’s undoubtedly going to leave a really deep and permanent scar.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers fell 41-24 to the Toronto Argonauts Sunday night in the 111th Grey Cup in front of 52,349 fans at B.C. Place and now certainly know pain after their third straight championship loss in as many years.
Sadly, the harsh reality is now this: the dynasty so many were hoping would come had the club secured a third championship in five trips to the Grey Cup now becomes a different narrative, one about a team that couldn’t finish when it mattered most over the last three years.
“We didn’t give ourselves a chance to be able to play this game today,” said a fuming Brandon Alexander inside a morose Blue Bombers locker room afterward. “We deserved to get that ass-whupping today. We got our ass whupped and well deserved by them.
“We took penalties when we didn’t need to take penalties. We had a couple turnovers at poor times and when we got out there as a defence we didn’t stop them when we needed to. That’s the best way to put it without sounding much more harsh: we really deserved that ass-whupping today.
“To be real, this one is going to hurt for sure. But with how we played, I’m not surprised. I don’t know how to put how much it hurts into words.”
The Blue Bombers trailed by 17-13 heading into the fourth quarter, but with Zach Collaros needing stitches on the index finger on his throwing hand along with a numbing agent and then donning a glove, a potential comeback in the last 15 minutes was a tough ask. Collaros finished 15-of-30 for 202 yards and four interceptions – three of them as he gamely attempted to play through the pain.
“I don’t know if I took a helmet or if a hand hit it. It was a little bloody and I had to get some stitches in it and numb it,” he said. “But that’s not an excuse for our performance tonight and I appreciate Osh (head coach Mike O’Shea) and the guys for letting me trying to gut it out there.
“It feels pretty bad every time (after a Grey Cup loss). There’s just so many people in the locker room that you care for, that you develop deep bonds with. We put in a lot of time, a lot of work together so to not have it go your way in the ultimate game is obviously tough. We’re going to take a deep breath and let this digest a little bit.”
On Collaros’ injury, O’Shea said afterward, “If this was a regular season game he wouldn’t have gone back in. He really had a hard time gripping the ball. He put a glove on his hand and that’s not something he would normally do. He still couldn’t get a really good handle on the ball and pass the way he’s used to passing.
“We put him in a very tough spot, which he would demand to be put in. That’s not all of it, for sure.”
More on the 111th Grey Cup loss from our view in the press box…
MISTAKES, MISTAKES, MISTAKES:
The Blue Bombers dropped all three meetings against the Argos this year and Sunday’s Grey Cup was a carbon copy of the first two contests – too many errors, too many self-inflicted wounds that were simply too much to overcome.
Winnipeg turned the ball over five times, also including a Lucky Whitehead fumble on a punt return, as the Argos converted those mistakes into a whopping 27 points. The Blue Bombers led the game 10-3 at one point in the second quarter and were then out-scored 38-6 over a stretch before a late Brady Oliveira touchdown and two-point conversion that was scoreboard cosmetic surgery.
In essence, the club looked nothing like the squad that had won 1o of its last 11 after falling to 2-6 in July. Asked afterward if he felt this was a ‘wasted opportunity’ considering the way the team had played down the stretch, O’Shea offered this:
“It might be a little early to think that way. I mean, it’s still pretty raw. Every time you don’t win your last game there’s a tendency to view it as failure. I don’t know about that. It was a helluva ride this year, quite a different season, and we just didn’t play our best ball at the end.”
WILLIE BEING WILLIE:
If the game hadn’t unravelled the way it did in the fourth – and the Blue Bombers had rallied for a victory instead of imploding – a strong case could have been made for Willie Jefferson being an MVP. The veteran defensive end has six tackles, a tackle for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and in interception in an exceptional individual performance.
“He always shows up. He’s always available,” said O’Shea. “He’s an amazing leader for us, too. Loved his game tonight.”
“It hurts a lot,” said Jefferson. “To come to the final game of the season, the Grey Cup, the biggest stage in the CFL and then go out there and have a bad second half and not be able to capitalize… it feels like a missed opportunity.”
THIS AND THAT:
Tip of the hat to Argos QB Nick Arbuckle, who was named the game’s MVP after throwing for 252 yards and two TDs against two interceptions… Receiver Dejon Brissett was named the Most Valuable Canadian after he pulled in three passes for 45 yards and a TD… Oliveira’s finished the game with just 11 carries, but managed 84 yards for a 7.6-yards per carry average. Asked afterward why he didn’t get the ball more, O’Shea said: “We’re always of the mindset that whatever it’s going to take, and we pivot based on what the defence is choosing to do. I think that would be short-sighted to say… obviously we want Brady to have a great game and lead us to victory, but sometimes defences have a say in it, too.”… The Blue Bombers are now 0-8 in Grey Cup games against the Argos, losing this year along with 2022, 1950, 1947, 1946, 1945, 1938 and 1937.
KEY MOMENT
The Blue Bombers looked to get some magic on special teams on the last play of the third quarter when Michael Ayers burst through to block a John Haggerty punt with the ball recovered by Alexander at the Argos 27-yard line. However, Kyrie Wilson was penalized on the play for illegal interference as he blocked an Argo player attempting to scoop up the loose ball. By rule, that gave the Argos an automatic first down.
And while Jefferson would do his thing with an interception in the ensuing drive – that was turned into a Sergio Castillo field goal with Collaros replaced at that moment by Terry Wilson – it still felt like a momentum shift had gone in the Argos favour.
KEY STAT: 5/27
A team simply can’t turn over the ball five times in any game – let alone the Grey Cup – and expect to get the ‘W.’ Four of those five turnovers came in the second half and led to 27 Argos points.
The most glaring number from the two matchups this season between the clubs — both Argos wins — was 12. The Blue Bombers surrendered a dozen sacks in the two games, five in the first and a whopping seven in the second.
THE LAST WORD:
“They all have their space to be terrible. It’ll keep building and building to the point where it’s awful.” – O’Shea when asked if this loss stings worse than the previous two Grey Cup defeats.