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News July 26, 2025

Game Recap | WPG 17 TOR 31

Willie Jefferson chases down Janarion Grant in Saturday's loss to Toronto; photos by Cameron Bartlett

@EdTaitWFC

TORONTO — History suggests it’s too early to slam a fist down on the panic button — we saw some of this last year in the early summer before the Winnipeg Blue Bombers regrouped for an epic run to a fifth straight Grey Cup appearance — and as as much as there might be a temptation to have a finger hovering over the dang thing now, it isn’t.

Not yet, anyway.

Still, the Blue Bombers served up the latest in a series of sloppy and mistake-filled efforts Saturday night in Toronto in a 31-17 loss to the Argonauts in front of 13,266 at BMO Field which not only pushed the losing streak to three to drop the club to 3-3 after a 3-0 start but opened up more concerns about the many issues which have arisen over the skid.

The list of reasons for Saturday’s loss are many from seven turnovers to more explosion plays against on defence, to an offence that continues to struggle in the red zone. Yet, if anyone expects Mike O’Shea & Co. to respond with a bunch of knee-jerk reactions, well, they’ve missed the last 11 years of Blue Bombers football under this regime.

“People aren’t going to like to hear this but I’m fairly relaxed about this situation because you see what’s happening and the answers are easy,” said O’Shea. “If we were talking about fixing my car, I would probably be panicked because I would have no clue what you’re talking about.

“But if you’re talking football and why a play worked against us and why a play worked against us it’s pretty easy to understand from one play to the next. You’re talking big picture from last year… there’s a bunch of guys in that room who have seen it go down a pile of different ways, so I believe we have a bunch of guys who just understand, ‘Let’s make some corrections, let’s go to work and let’s be better.’

“That’s one of the reasons why it’s easy to stay even keeled. Last year is last year, there’s so many more examples of just staying the course and making sure you’re doing the right things coaching, coaching well, guys are learning and improving on a weekly basis.”

Asked about potential roster changes given the recent results, O’Shea won’t be rushing to judgement.

“We’re going to look at this game and figure out exactly why we lost Play 1, why we lost Play 2 — whatever those plays are,” he said. “We’re going to look at the exact reason why you lose plays and why you win or lose games. It’s the same process we’ve used since 2014.

“So, I don’t think there’s a reason to change it. We’re going to stick to that process, get some answers and then with information you make all sorts of decisions.”

More on the Blue Bombers third straight loss from our view in the press box at BMO Field…

COLLAROS DOWN X2

Quarterback Zach Collaros didn’t make it out of the intermission for the second straight week as he exited the game at halftime with an undisclosed injury — no update from O’Shea afterward — but was on the sideline for the second half.

He and the offence struggled in the opening 30 minutes before his exit as he finished his night completing just 5-of-10 passes for 79 yards — 46 of those 79 yards coming on one pass to Nic Demski — with zero TDs and two interceptions.

The first mistake on an excellent read by Argos linebacker Cameron Judge on an attempt to Jerreth Sterns with the second a high toss to Sterns that was blown up by Winton McManis before bouncing off a helmet and into the hands of Benjie Franklin.

Chris Streveler replaced Collaros for the second half and went 11 of 18 including for 148 yards with a TD to Sterns and zero picks.

A number which simply can’t be glossed over: Collaros has thrown six interceptions in the last three games and has a TD-to-interception differential of 7:8.

“We’re not playing good enough right now,” said Streveler. “We’ve got to find a way to get better and whatever this week as a team we’ve got to do that and as individuals we’ve got to look in the mirror and figure out why we’re not playing our best football and put in a little extra work to get better.

“We’re going to see these guys (Toronto) in six days.”

KA-BOOM!:

A point of discussion in Bomberland over the last couple of weeks was the number of explosion plays surrendered in the two losses to Calgary and how to stop that bleeding from continuing. Well, the wound is still open wide following another concerning performance that featured more big plays against a defence that compounded the busts with a sloppy tackling performance, particularly in the back end.

Toronto finished with 19 plays of 10 yards or more on offence, including completions of 41 and 33 yards on the Argos very first possession of the game and later connections that covered 27, 30 and 24 yards and a run of 30 yards. What’s worse is how many of those big chunks came on second down as Toronto finished 14-of-26 (54 percent) on second-down conversions, including a gaudy 8-of-15 (53 percent) on second-and-seven or more.

“It comes right down again to making sure we’re communicating well and seeing the same pictures; making sure the guys with their eyes are seeing the same pictures or at least talking about what they’re seeing as they go along,” said O’Shea. “I have no doubt in my mind we’ll get better.”

MORE TURNOVERS THAN A BAKERY:

A simply grotesque number that says everything about the three-game slide: Winnipeg committed seven turnovers Saturday — fumbles by Trey Vaval and Brady Oliveira, the two picks by Collaros and three on downs in the second half — and that comes after spitting up six turnovers last week and four the week before that in Calgary.

That’s 17 turnovers in three games with a turnover differential of -14.

“Not nearly good enough,” said O’Shea to open his scrum. “We’ve got to prepare our guys to play smarter right from the hop. We put ourselves in a hole early but it’s nothing that’s insurmountable. We fumble a ball in slick conditions; they fumble the ball and we score with it. They get one weird interception off a guy’s back — it was a great effort to try and make the catch — and it was a tough catch regardless no matter what the conditions. It ends up sitting on a guy’s back and going into a guy’s hands when we’re in scoring position.

“It was just one of those weird, tough games and we certainly didn’t play well enough to overcome any of the little, weird stuff that was going to happen in a game like this.”

Winnipeg forced one turnover and it was a big one, as defensive end James Vaughters scored on a 29-yard fumble return after a force by Kyrie Wilson.

NOTABLE:

-Toronto ran a whopping 44 plays in the first half to Winnipeg’s 20.

-Trey Vaval replaced Marquise Bridges at corner in the game, with Kody Case then handling the punt return chores. Unfortunately, Case was injured late in the game and taken from the field on a cart. He was seen on crutches and in a walking boot post-game.

-Argos QB Nick Arbuckle finished 22-of-31 for 316 yards with TD strikes to Damonte Coxie and DaVaris Daniels. Coxie put up huge numbers with six catches for 145 yards.

KEY MOMENT:

This one truly got away from the Blue Bombers in the first half but there was a moment late in the second quarter where the offence had come to life following the Demski completion to set up Winnipeg in the score zone.

On second-and-seven from the Argos 17 Collaros’s high pass to Sterns was then intercepted by Franklin in the play mentioned by O’Shea above. Instead of cutting into the 22-10 lead with a field goal or touchdown, the turnover was then answered by an Argo field goal just before halftime for a 25-10 deficit.

KEY STAT: 4+6+7=17

The turnover total in each of the last three games, all losses.

Go ahead and pile up all the other potential reasons for the defeats and they still won’t stack as high as that ugly number.

NEXT: The Blue Bombers are back home next Friday, August 1st in a rematch against the Argos with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m.