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July 28, 2024

Upon Further Review | TOR 16 WPG 14 (OT)

Sure sign #651 things have gone sideways for any Canadian Football League squad:

The calendar has yet to flip to August and already some folks are looking at remaining games, potential tiebreakers and tossing around for discussion the idea of the fight for a potential crossover playoff spot.

And, yes, let it be known this is a neighbourhood the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have not ventured into for some time now. But here they are after Saturday night’s excruciatingly frustrating 16-14 overtime loss to the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field left them with even more questions and, most alarmingly, a 2-6 record.

The Blue Bombers were guilty of five turnovers in the loss — three of them in the fourth quarter — and yet the game was still tied heading into overtime when Sergio Castillo missed a field goal attempt and Toronto’s Lirim Hajrullahu crushed his for the win.

That’s two losses in overtime for the Blue Bombers along with a four-point loss to the Ottawa RedBlacks, a two-point loss to the B.C. Lions and a 10-point loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders that was essentially a one-score game before a late field goal was conceded.

Those are the games Winnipeg consistently closed out over the last two seasons in piling up a record of 29-7. And this year…

“We’ve got to be one play better. That’s it. That’s the bottom line,” said Blue Bombers dime back Redha Kramdi, who was sensational with eight tackles, two sacks and a tackle for a loss. “They were one play better than us. I know it sounds like we’re saying the same thing every week, but we’ve got to go back to work and make sure we’re one play better next time. We’ve got to figure this thing out. It was right there. They found a way to win and we didn’t.

“It’s not about not keeping the faith. We’re going to wake up tomorrow, the sun is going to rise and it’s back to work. Nobody is going to feel bad for us. If you don’t have faith, you shouldn’t be in this business. It’s football, you’ve got to win games.

“It’s suck it up, go to work and start winning some football games.”

Next on the horizon: the B.C. Lions visit Winnipeg on Thursday, followed by a bye week and then a trip to Vancouver to face the Leos again.

We’ve often said in this space that ‘must wins’ don’t fit the description unless it’s an elimination game. So call what the Blue Bombers have coming up on Thursday as a ‘really need this freakin’ victory’ scenario.

“The frustration is there, but you can’t be hard on your teammates,” said defensive end Willie Jefferson. “You’ve got to hold them accountable, most definitely, but you don’t want to be pointing fingers and doing this or that. That mentality is not in our locker room. We’re always going to be together. Offence, defence, special teams — we’re always going to be together. Always.

“At the end of the day, we’re all we’ve got. From the outside looking in it might seem like somebody might do or say something, but from the inside we know what we need to do.

“We’ll watch the film. Everybody is going to see the mistakes we made and we’re going to grow from it.”

ICYMI, our Game Recap is here:

Game Recap | WPG 14 TOR 16

And what follows is a deeper dive into the Blue Bombers sixth loss of the season in this week’s edition of UPON FURTHER REVIEW:

THREE NUMBERS THAT STOOD OUT… after another look at the game’s statistical package, which can be found here:

1 The biggest one is the most obvious in the turnovers. Teams simply can’t turn over the ball five times — including a Pick-6 — and expect to win games. Over the last two losses the Blue Bombers have turned the ball over eight times with four fumbles, two interceptions and two more on downs while generating one turnover of their own on downs.

That’s a -7 differential and, even with that, both games were there for the taking thanks to some solid work by the defence.

But further to the turnover issues: the Blue Bombers are 71-8 since 2016 in games in which they have won the turnover battle and now 6-31 over that same span when they lose it.

Clearly this is on the offence to take care of the ball better instead of handling it like a wet bar of soap. And the defence needs to create more, too.

“We’ve just got to find a way to win these games. We’ve got to get turnovers on defence, give the ball back to our offence more,” said defensive back Evan Holm.

“We’re doing some things (on defence over the last two games) and there have been less mistakes but we’ve just got to find ways to take the ball away more. That’s two games in a row we haven’t taken the ball away and the other team has.

“We’ve got to stay together. We’re going to stick to our process and not turn on anybody but find what you can do better personally and bring a teammate along with you.”

2 We touched on this in the Game Recap, but Saturday’s loss truly wasted another solid defensive performance. Toronto had just 205 yards of net offence and 124 passing yards and it was the offence that gave up the Pick-6.

In the last two losses the defence has yielded one TD and just 583 net yards combined. Those totals should translate into two victories.

3 Castillo entered Saturday night having connected on 19 of his last 21 field-goal attempts, with the two misses coming from 55 and 61 yards away. Translation: he was in arguably the best groove of his career.

Against the Argos he was 2-for-4 with misses from 43 in regulation and then the 41 yarder in OT.

NO UPDATE FROM THE CLUB… on the possibility of adding Rasheed Bailey, who was released by the Argos on Thursday. As much as so many want to see him return, it’s worth noting the team does have Kenny Lawler likely returning in two-three weeks — Keric Wheatfall might not be too far behind in coming off the injured list — and has Lucky Whitehead, Myron Mitchell, Ravi Alston and Canadian Jeremy Murphy on the practice squad.

That said, something to consider for those criticizing Zach Collaros:

In his last three games he has completed 72 of 99 passes for 927 yards with three TDs and four interceptions. Saturday night, it’s worth noting, an injury to Drew Wolitarsky meant as the game closed Collaros was working with a receiving corps that featured Nic Demski, Pokey Wilson, Josh Johnson, Kevens Clercius and Kody Case. At one point — with Johnson pulled from the game by the injury spotter — Chris Streveler was running routes.

Aside from Demski and Wolitarsky, the combined games played total for Wilson, Johnson, Clercius and Case is 23 and they’ve got a total of 54 career receptions between them.

The Blue Bombers also finished the game with veteran right guard Pat Neufeld on the sidelines due to injury.

THE BLUE BOMBERS WERE NAILED FOR… just one penalty for 15 yards — an inadvertent facemask infraction by Stanley Bryant — while the Argos were hit for five penalties for 50 yards. Looking at that number it would be simple to suggest the officiating wasn’t a talking point after the game.

Yet, it was.

On the Pick-6 thrown by Collaros, he attempted to hit Demski with the ball being twice deflected before Tarvarus McFadden took it the distance for a critical score at a critical moment. Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea challenge for pass interference on DaShaun Amos, but the CFL command centre upheld the non-call on the field.

“I’m not given any explanation,” said O’Shea afterwards. “They don’t spend a lot of time explaining it, they just tell you what the outcome is. I’ll wait to hear this week from the league what they saw.”

That hasn’t stopped some high-profile CFL media members from weighing in:

FINALLY, EVEN THOUGH THE GAME ENDED… with another frustrating loss, one item of note in the milestone department:

-Jake Thomas moved into a seventh-place tie with Ernie Pitts in Blue Bombers history for games played at 194. Ahead of the pair are Bob Cameron (394), Troy Westwood (293), Chris Walby (249), Stan Mikawos (220), Milt Stegall (199) and John Bonk (195).