Game Recap | Cal 52 Wpg 30

The key lessons learned repeatedly by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on home soil Friday night:

It’s one thing to make mistakes in the ring against a welterweight or a flyweight.

It’s quite another to be caught with your guard down while dancing with a heavyweight because the punches can drop a team to its collective knees.

Or — as was the case in a 52-30 loss to the Calgary Stampeders in front of another sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium — they can send a crew face first to the canvas.

Now, while the Stamps delivered a series devastating blows in earning the result they also capitalized on a litany of errors across all three phases by a Blue Bombers squad that will absolutely dread what they’ll see upon further examination in the film room as their three-game win streak came to a sudden and abrupt end.

Winnipeg is now 4-3, while the Stamps improve to 3-4.

Simply put, the busts in the secondary, the poor tackling, the four interceptions and six turnovers in total, the missed field goal against for a touchdown, the punt block, the seven penalties and so on and so on and so on are going to cause some serious indigestion in the days ahead.

“It didn’t go the way we wanted it to, that’s for damn sure,” said veteran receiver Nic Demski inside a comatose Blue Bombers locker room after the game. “The only people we can look at is ourselves. We’ve got to take accountability and figure out how to move on from this but get better from it as well.

“I mean, any time a team puts 50 points on you it’s not just on the defence; it’s on all three phases. Offence, we have to do better. Special teams, I’m sure, have to do better.

“That’s what everybody is probably disappointed at — it wasn’t just one phase taking a turn, it was all three phases taking turns. That’s why it’s unfortunate — 50 points isn’t just on one unit, it’s on the whole team.”

More thoughts on the Blue Bombers ugly third loss of the season from our view in the press box…

5 INSTANT TAKEAWAYS

1 Stampeders running back/returner Tyreik McAllister delivered a dagger against the Blue Bombers in the first half by scoring three times — via a 17-yard TD along the ground, a 56-yard reception and a 118-yard missed field goal return.

In the process, McAllister first player in CFL history to score three TDs by a reception, a rush and missed field goal return IN THE FIRST HALF. McAllister racked up a combined 318 yards on rushing, receiving and kick returns.

2 Not only did the Blue Bombers cough and sputter against the Stamps, to add injury to insult they lost right tackle Jarell Broxton — one of the prized free agent additions over the winter — just before halftime. His loss caused some major shifting up front, with Gabe Wallace moving from left guard to Broxton’s spot, with Tyler Elsbury then shifting over from centre to guard and Tui Eli then moving into the middle.

Calgary finished the night with three sacks.

3 Dru Brown finished 24-of-40 for 249 yards with a TD strike to Demski but four interceptions — including one in the end zone in the first half and three in the fourth quarter as the Blue Bombers attempted to rally.

“It’s tough. I’m disappointed with how I took care of the ball tonight, so I’ll wear that,” Brown said. “I didn’t feel like I gave us a chance there.

“They’ve got good players. They did some things differently, some good schemes but ultimately we just didn’t execute and that starts with me.”

4 Brady Oliveira had his most productive night of the season, rushing 14 times for 128 yards and two TDs, the second coming on a 45-yard gallop that was the longest of his career.

Yet, it came in a loss.

“Not good enough. All three phases we just didn’t play good enough tonight,” Oliveira said. “We didn’t score enough points, we made too many mistakes. Overall, we’ve just got to be better.”

Oddly, Oliveira’s second TD — which cut the lead to 39-27 — came with 46 seconds left in the third quarter. He didn’t touch the ball again until there were just 56 second left in the game.

“If something is working well you obviously want to stick with it again,” he said. “It’s going to look different every single week. I do understand that when we do get down it’s going to be hard and challenging to run the football.

“… But, I would say the offensive line did an amazing job today. We were moving them in the run game and I do really believe this gets our team going. They feel the juices, they feel the energy and usually good things happen when we stick with it.”

Lost in the loss is this: Oliveira moved past Willard Reaves into third place on the Blue Bombers all-time rushing list. He’s now at 6,031 and behind only Charles Roberts (9,987) and Leo Lewis (8,861)

Oliveira also became just the fifth Canadian to hit the 6,000-yard mark, joining Andrew Harris (10,380), Norm Kwong (9,022), Jon Cornish (6,844) and Sean Millington (6,086).

5 The Blue Bombers gave up 50 points at home for the first time since their 2015 home opener in a 52-26 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“Not nearly good enough,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “You don’t want to turn that into a track meet against a good offence like that. You’ve just got just play much cleaner football and try and keep that score down until the offence drives and the defence gets stops.

“We need to really manage the game better and we had too many penalties, too many mistakes.”

Even with all the mistakes the Blue Bombers were still in this thing into the fourth quarter. A Sergio Castillo FG had cut Calgary’s lead to 39-30 with 14 minutes remaining but even after forcing a Stampeder turnover on downs, Brown threw two picks in the fourth quarter — the first was then stolen away after Pokey Wilson latched onto an attempted lateral.

The second came on the very next possession.

6 — There were a zillion mistakes Friday night, but the Blue Bombers inability to protect the football continues to be a problem.

Winnipeg had the four picks and two late turnovers on downs to add up to the six and, even after forcing three Stampeder turnovers of their own, finished -3 in the takeaway/giveaway differential.

The Blue Bombers are home again next week, with the B.C. Lions paying a visit on Thursday, July 30th with a 7:30 p.m. scheduled start.