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News July 4, 2025

Upon Further Review | Cal 37 Wpg 16

Calgary Stampeders running back Dedrick Mills during first half CFL football action in Calgary, Thursday, July 3, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

@EdTaitWFC

There’s plenty of time for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to do a deep dive on their Stampede Bowl loss to the Calgary Stampeders through the bye week and beyond.

And undoubtedly the film will be dissected by everyone in Bomberland with the thoroughness and diligence of a coroner.

All that said, it was head coach Mike O’Shea who provided the most complete and succinct answer and delivered it in the most blunt of terms after Thursday’s 37-16 beatdown at McMahon Stadium.

“We got our asses beat,” said the Blue Bombers head coach. “I mean, it’s pretty straightforward.”

The Blue Bombers head into their second bye week now to get answers on the how and why Thursday’s ass-kicking happened, but that summation from the boss is an important starting point.

There can be no sugar-coating after a loss like that, after all, nor a desperate attempt to seek out silver linings.

Instead, rebounding from this must come from simply dealing with the reality of it all. After all, we saw this movie play out a year ago when the Blue Bombers fell into an 0-4 hole to start the season before coming back to finish first in the West Division and advance to a fifth straight Grey Cup.

“I’m pretty sure we can look back in recent history and see that we’ve been in tougher spots before, so…” said O’Shea. “One win doesn’t crown us and one loss doesn’t do anything to put us out of the race, either. It’s so early.”

ICYMI, here’s our Game Recap story from Thursday’s loss:

Game Recap | Wpg 16 Cal 37

And what follows is the rest of this week’s UPON FURTHER REVIEW…

THREE NUMBERS WHICH STOOD OUT… after a second glance at the stats package, which can be found here:

1 The Blue Bombers offensive numbers are a bit upside down given the result. Winnipeg had 29 first downs — that’s more than in any game a year ago and the most since a road win in B.C. on October 6, 2023 in which the club had 31 first downs.

The team also had 408 yards of net offence with 316 yards passing and 92 yards along the ground while having the ball for almost five minutes more than the Stamps.

Yet, the two Pick-6s thrown by Zach Collaros were critical in combination with the explosion plays surrendered by the defence. Countering that were these numbers: the 48 attempts Collaros had were a single-game high for the veteran pivot as a Blue Bomber, second only to the 53 attempts he had in a game in 2016 as a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. His 34 completions also tied a career high, including that 2016 game he had as a member of the Ticats.

Yet those two interceptions came with the club trailing 8-3 and then while attempting an against-all-odds comeback while down 30-9.

“We have to do a better job of protecting the football and that starts on me,” said Collaros. “The first (interception), they weren’t really doing anything that we didn’t expect. (Damon) Webb made a great play on the concept we ran. I’d like to have that one back and I lost (Derrick) Moncrief on the other concept we ran.

“It’s on me.”

2 Winnipeg’s defence limited Calgary to 334 yards of net offence — 114 rushing and 222 passing — but were burned for some big explosion plays in the first half as the Stamps built a 29-6 lead.

Vernon Adams, Jr. hit Clark Barnes for a 43-yard TD on the first drive and also connected with Tevin Jones for 29 and Jalen Philpot for 66 while Dedrick Mills also rumbled for 21 yards on one play.

“Last week we talked about miscommunication on a play. That can’t happen any more,” said Blue Bombers dime back Redha Kramdi. “It can’t happen every week and we had a couple.

“(Calgary head coach Dave) Dickenson is a great offensive coordinator with great concepts. But today we just didn’t do our job. They didn’t run anything we weren’t expecting. It’s all about assignments and being sound and we weren’t today.

“That’s why I’m frustrated about this loss. They’ve still got to throw, they’ve still got to run their good routes and still got to recognize the coverage. They did it — hat’s off to VA, hats off to Dickenson and that receiving corps is good. But this loss is on us. It’s on us for playing bad more than on them for playing great, in my opinion.

“Our defensive staff did a good job of prepping us for the game. If you ask anyone they’ll all say the same thing: we have to do a better job as players in executing the call. That’s what’s so frustrating.”

3 There were some big numbers posted by Blue Bombers receivers Thursday — and some concern for Dalton Schoen, who left the game in the second half and was hobbling as he headed to the sidelines. Don’t expect an official update on him until the club returns to practice following the bye.

Second-year Canadian Kevens Clercius was exceptional with career-best number of 10 catches for 78 yards; Nic Demski was busy with nine catches for 74 yards and extended his reception streak to 75 games, while newcomer Jerreth Sterns had seven catches for 49 yards and his first TD as a Blue Bomber in what was a sensational catch.

“We just really needed to play a cleaner game,” said Sterns afterward. “We put a good drive together on the first drive of the game and then just stalled out in the middle. It comes down to the executing and the little details.

“I’m confident we’ll respond now because of the leaders we have, the guys we have in this locker room will rally together. We have each other’s back and I know we’ll bounce back from this one.

“We’ve got another chance to get at them and it’s a West opponent so that will be a big one.”

A LITTLE R&R&R — REST, RECOVER, REBOUND... is now on the horizon for the Blue Bombers as their strange schedule to open the season continues.

Winnipeg will now enter its second bye week — Montreal, Toronto, B.C. and Ottawa have yet to have one — and then will play 11 consecutive games before its final bye in early October.

“We’ve got 11 games in a row after this so we’ve got no choice but to flush this and understand the grind we have ahead, make sure we come together as a team and learn from the mistakes in this game and improve,” said Demski.

“There’s nothing else to do but to learn and build upon this. We just stick together and make sure we play clean football.”

That will be critical now in how this team responds.

“Clearly that wasn’t our best game. We’re a lot better than that but we sure didn’t show that today,” said safety Jamal Parker, Jr. “We’ve got the bye week now and so we go back to the drawing board and come back the following week ready to work.

“It’s going to leave a sour taste. You’ve got to let that harp for a good 24 (hours) but at the end of the day that game’s over. That was game four for us and we’ve got 10+ more games. We’ll correct what we need to correct and be better after the bye.

“You never want to play bad. You never want a game like this. But it happened now and the only thing you can do now is move forward.”

“The key now? Learn,” added Kramdi. “It’s all about learning. We can’t leave any stones unturned. We’ve got to get our questions answered and we have to be honest about those questions.

AND FINALLY… thanks for reading this far and for those who have made it to the bottom and want to see the gruesome video evidence, we have it here with the condensed game: