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News November 1, 2025

Game Recap | Eastern Semi-Final | Wpg 33 Mtl 42

Brady Oliveira in action in Saturday's Eastern Semi-Final loss to Montreal; photos by Cameron Bartlett

@EdTaitWFC

MONTREAL — It was an afternoon which featured a flash of glory, but was ultimately filled with overwhelming frustration and stinging disappointment marked with a flood of tears.

And after all that — and a deep breath and heavy sigh — let it be said that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers quest for a home Grey Cup officially ended here Saturday in a 42-33 loss to the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League’s Eastern Semi-Final in an all-over-the-place performance which, it must be said, was also a snapshot of the team’s season.

Trailing 25-6 at halftime after being thoroughly out-played, Winnipeg rallied to take a 27-25 lead in the third quarter in an astonishing rally, only to be bested when it mattered most as the Alouettes brought the hammer down with a 17-6 run to the finish line.

Game. Set. Season over.

“We have a ton of fight in this locker room,” said running back Brady Oliveira inside the Blue Bombers locker room afterwards, the tears running down his face. “I’ve said it before: we’re a resilient group. We’ve been through a lot this year. A ton of adversity. Highs and lows. It looked out of reach and we just continued to have belief in each other and kept it close.

“But we didn’t start off good. I expected it to be a lot different, obviously. It just wasn’t. We’re a lot better than that. I know we didn’t have many offensive plays in the first half.”

Earlier, not long after the game had ended and the Alouettes celebrated all around him, Oliveira was in a crouch near the middle of the field, his head hanging in disappointment. That home Grey Cup dream meant as much to him, after all, as anyone in Blue Bombers colours.

“It’s hard to think about that right now; about this great run that this organization has had,” he said in the locker room later. “I just wish next year we could have lost. The Grey Cup this year at home… that’s all I wanted, man.”

More on the Blue Bombers loss in the Eastern Semi-Final from our view in the press box…

SUDDEN TURN OF EVENTS:

The Blue Bombers were absolutely dreadful and thoroughly outplayed in the opening 30 minutes, yet found some life and some magic almost instantly in the third quarter with three touchdowns in a span of three minutes and 37 seconds on two Terry Wilson QB sneaks and a 54-yard pass from Zach Collaros to Pokey Wilson.

That momentum was found courtesy two turnovers forced by the defence, including a Cam Allen interception and a Jamal Parker, Jr. forced fumble that was scooped up and returned into Montreal territory by Evan Holm.

“They all feel terrible. I know they all would have felt a lot worse if they didn’t come back in that third and work so hard,” said head coach Mike O’Shea of the loss. “I mean, they came out in the second half with a resolve, which is no consolation. I just know they would have felt a whole helluva lot worse if it would have continued the way it was in the first half.

“The leaders just led and they made a decision and they fixed some things, too. It was impressive. They just went out there and made some plays and were determined to get back into it. We made it a regular football game again and it ended up being plus-2 at a certain point. Then, from there, it just didn’t work out.”

AN UNFORTUNATE TURN OF EVENTS

It seemed as soon as the Blue Bombers had found some momentum, they lost it again as the Alouettes — led by the exceptional play of quarterback Davis Alexander — rallied from Winnipeg’s third quarter counter punch with some killer jabs of their own.

Alexander & Co. rallied right after the Blue Bombers took their first lead as Stevie Scott III scored two touchdowns while the Als pivot crushed the defence with some critical runs in critical moments.

Montreal finished with a whopping 556 yards of net offence, as Alexander went 24-of-34 for 384 yards with one TD to Tyson Philpot. The Als had 176 yards rushing and got ground scores by Alexander, the two by Scott III and a third by Philpot.

Wrapped in around the Als recovery were a fumble by Oliveira and a facemasking penalty by Willie Jefferson on a second-down sack which then led to a Montreal touchdown.

“We didn’t make enough plays to win the game. We had opportunities,” said Collaros, who was  There’s always plays you want to have back, whether it was scoring plays, plays that could have kept drives alive. All those things you reflect on and when we watch it I’m sure there will be things where we look back and say, ‘What if?’ Montreal did a very good job. I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I’m sure there will be things we feel we left out there.

“Too many mistakes. It was kind of a microcosm of the season for us offensively. We made too many mistakes, too many unforced errors — things that we’ll look at in the film and wish we had back.”

DEMSKI DOWN:

The news broke 30 minutes before kickoff — Winnipeg would be without leading receiver and West Division All-Star Nic Demski — for a third straight game and the biggest of the season. Demski  injured his hamstring in the loss to Edmonton back on October 11th and made the trip to Montreal.

And when he was out running around in the pre-game warmup an hour or so before kickoff hope was growing that the veteran receiver might be able to suit up and give the Blue Bombers offence a boost. But when the team came out in full gear, Demski was nowhere to be found before being officially ruled out.

He then spent the game watching from the sidelines.

KEY MOMENT:

The Blue Bombers opted to punt on third-and-four from their 51-yard line with 3:17 left and trailing by one score at 39-33. The Als then put together a seven-play drive that covered 88 yards and took 2:37 off the clock before a field goal with 34 ticks remaining.

Inside that final drive were critical runs by Alexander — an 18-yarder — and a 39-yard rumble by Scott III.

KEY STAT: 556

Winnipeg’s run to the postseason was built on the backs of the defence. But on Saturday they were torched for 556 yards net offence by Montreal. Alexander did his thing with 384 yards passing and 32 rushing, Philpot has 135 yards on 10 receptions, Austin Mack had 98 yards on three catches and Charleston Rambo 95 yards on five catches.

NEXT:

The Blue Bombers will do their exit meetings and post-mortems this week and then it’s 2026 mode.