The Winnipeg Blue Bombers had plans to heartily feast in a pre-Thanksgiving banquet yet instead, were left at the table cursing their own sloppiness and with their bellies still grumbling.
Playing in front of another capacity crowd of 32,343 at Princess Auto Stadium Friday night in what was the fourth consecutive sell-out, the Blue Bombers whiffed on an opportunity to lock up first place in the Canadian Football League’s West Division in a mistake-filled 14-11 loss to the Toronto Argonauts.
The result brings to an abrupt halt an eight-game win streak, drops the club to 10-7, and means the club will be glued to the tube when the Saskatchewan Roughriders host the B.C. Lions Saturday night as a loss or tie by the home side would still secure top spot.
Asked if he’d rather earn it than have first place ‘handed’ to them with a Riders loss or tie, head coach Mike O’Shea said: “The season plays out the way it plays out. We’re in this spot because we worked our asses off to be here.”
FYI, the Riders have 16 points on an 8-7-1 record, the Lions are 8-8, with the Blue Bombers having already won the season series against both teams.
“Games like these are tough because we know we could have come out with a win,” said linebacker Tony Jones. “At the end of the day, we’re still sitting in a good position.
“We wanted to win this game. Now we focus on Montreal and get ahead on them in this bye week and however the cards come out with the (Roughriders-Lions) game tomorrow we’ll come in ready to work and use it as fire to revamp.”
More on the Blue Bombers sixth loss of the season from our view in the press box…
MISTAKES GALORE:
The Blue Bombers trailed 13-4 at the intermission after a solid first half by the defence and kick-cover unit – which set the attack up at the Argos’ nine-yard line following a forced fumble and recovery by Brian Cole – but were stuffed on a third-and-one from the one.
Winnipeg had just four first downs and 98 yards of net offence in the first half while Zach Collaros was sacked a jaw-dropping five times. Any by game’s end the litany of missed opportunities in a game decided by three included two missed field goals by Sergio Castillo, the offence stalling in the score zone a second time in the first half and a fumble by Collaros early in the third quarter.
“We’ve got to make plays earlier in the game,” said Collaros. “There were opportunities to take a lead in the first quarter. The defence and special teams did a great job and offensively we’ve got to finish drives, score touchdowns and not turn the ball over in the score zone – all those things.”
TRENCH WARFARE TELLING:
The Blue Bombers surrendered seven sacks on the night – and 12 in the two games against the Argos – as Toronto loaded their lineup with nine defensive linemen.
Winnipeg would rush for 112 yards – 64 by Brady Oliveira and 44 by Collaros – but struggled to control Toronto’s front seven. The Blue Bombers defence was steady again – they also stopped the Argos with a goal-line stand and forced three turnovers, but did not register a sack of their own.
“They’re good up front. They’ve got a lot of great players,” said Collaros. “That being said, I’m sure you’ll ask about the sacks in the first half – I would say at least half of those are on me. I’ve got to watch the tape, but it was just trying to do too much and extend plays.
“… I feel bad because I know that number (sacks against) is an important number to the offensive line and they take pride in that and when you give up one it sucks.”
CHINS UP:
As icky as the Blue Bombers were in the first half, they came back to life in the final 30 but, again, left too much on the field and made too many mistakes against a good Argos squad to escape with what would have been an ugly win.
“At the end of the day we just didn’t play good enough in the first half,” said Oliveira. “I’m proud of the guys for the way we responded coming out of the half, the way we fought. Unfortunately we just made too many mistakes and at that point we’ve just got to play perfect football and we didn’t.
“… We didn’t play the cleanest. We couldn’t get into a rhythm. But we’re going to come back to work. We were on such a good run, maybe we needed this to take a step back, refocus and come back ready to work.
“We all know what type of football team we’ve got in this locker room,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of talent. Like I said, I’m just proud of how we fought coming back in the second half. We looked like a different team in the second half. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time left on the clock.”
TAKE A BOW:
Take a bow, Bomber Nation. Go ahead and tap yourselves on the back, high-five and fist-bump each other because Friday’s sell-out sealed what was already a given: Winnipeg will lead the Canadian Football League in attendance for the third time in franchise history and the third consecutive season.
The Blue Bombers finished the regular season with four consecutive sell-outs and have had six crowds in excess of 30,000. Just to reinforce how significant that is, a number we featured in our Game Preview: Since 2022 and including Friday’s game, the Blue Bombers have had 17 crowds of 30,000 or more. That total is more than all the other teams combined — B.C. (5), Saskatchewan and Edmonton (3) and Calgary (1) — and means that 17 of the 29 crowds of 30,000-plus across the CFL have been right here.
Winnipeg finished the regular season with an average attendance of 31,196 – up from the 28,652 total that led the league in ’22 and the 30,449 average a year ago.
KEY MOMENT
Even with all their errors, the Blue Bombers still had a chance for some more late-game magic. The offence got the ball back on their own 20 with 2:40 left and were marching for a potential late score when Collaros came up inches short on a third-and-17 run in which he dove near the Winnipeg bench but came up inches short with just 52 seconds remaining.
The officiating crew measured the run, the Blue Bombers challenged the spot and the call on the field was upheld.
“If my foot was out of bounds then I didn’t get it,” said Collaros. “But if my foot was in bounds then I clearly got it.”
KEY STAT: 12
Collaros took some of the blame for the seven sacks against Friday, but a dozen in two games against the Argos is telling. Folarin Orimolade led the Boatmen with two sacks with five others each picking up one.
NEXT
The Blue Bombers now head into a bye week and wrap up the regular season in Montreal on Saturday, October 26th against the Alouettes with a 2 p.m. CDT. They’ll be back at Princess Auto Stadium for either the Western Semifinal on November 2nd or the Western Final on November 9th.