Bombers losing skid hits three

Winnipeg Free Press

4 days ago

TORONTO — Where do you go from here?
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in a battle with themselves currently, and on Saturday, Mother Nature joined the fight.
With a steady shower raining down for much of the night, the Bombers slipped and stumbled to a 31-17 defeat against the Toronto Argonauts before 13,266 in attendance at BMO Field.
For the second week in a row, the Blue and Gold left the game with questions surrounding their star quarterback, Zach Collaros, who did not return to the contest after halftime. Collaros finished with five completions on 10 attempts for 79 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception.
After the game, head coach Mike O'Shea said he did not have an update on Collaros' status.
The Bombers arrived with designs on reclaiming their mojo after suffering back-to-back three-touchdown losses, but left with many of the same questions that have been swirling around this team since the calendar flipped to July.
'People aren't going to like to hear this, but I'm very relaxed about the situation, because you see what's happening, and the answers are easy,' O'Shea said.
'There's a bunch of guys in that room that have seen it go down a pile of different ways, so I believe we have a bunch of guys that just understand, 'Let's make some corrections, let's go to work and let's be better,' So that's one of the reasons why it's easy to just stay even keeled.'
The Bombers' losing streak extends to three games as they drop to 3-3, while the Argos snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 2-5.
Winnipeg has also lost three in a row against Toronto for the first time in a decade, while its misfortune in The Six stretched to four of the last five contests.
Let's look at this one further.
The Bombers will leave July without eclipsing 20 points in a contest.
The final numbers — 319 net yards of offence — again made the box score look prettier than it actually was for the club.
Brady Oliveira, who finished with 82 yards on 13 carries, continues to make do with the underwhelming number of opportunities he gets while the score is still close, but that is where this offence maxes out.
Winnipeg had six first downs and 104 yards of net offence in the first half — 46 of which came on a Collaros throw to receiver Nic Demski, his only catch of the night.
Desperately searching for a spark in the second half, the visitors attempted a punt fake on their opening drive of the second half but punter Jameison Shehan was pushed out a yard short of the marker.
Chris Streveler was better than his last performance in relief, completing 11 of his 18 passes for 148 yards while connecting with Jerreth Sterns on a touchdown in the fourth quarter. The touchdown capped the best drive of the night for the Bombers — 11 plays, 82 yards.
Sterns led all Bombers receivers with four catches for 72 yards.
'We've lost games here before, and we know how long of a season is, but ultimately, the bottom line right now is we're just not playing good enough, and we have to get better,' said Streveler. 'And that doesn't just happen because you just trust that it's a long season, you got to put in extra and you got to do a little bit more, and you got to look in the mirror and have tough conversations with yourself and as a team and figure out why we're not winning and correct those mistakes so we can get better.
'We do understand it's a long season and there's still time to get better and put this thing right.'
There was an adjustment period for the conditions.
Dropped balls, shaky handling and blown tires were a theme in a busy opening quarter as players tried to find their footing.
While both teams fell victim to the wet conditions, the Bombers had a tougher time adjusting.
Special teams had been the one phase that hadn't let Winnipeg down during their losing streak, but that changed as rookie returner Trey Vaval fielded a punt cleanly but began to lose possession of the slick ball when he clutched it in anticipation of a hit. Brandon Calver completely dislodged the pill, which was touched by the Argos before it went out of bounds.
The mishap from Vaval only cost the Bombers three points, as the defence stood strong to force a 32-yard field goal by Hajrullahu, who also connected from 22, 40, 16, 21 and 36 on this night.
On the next Winnipeg drive, with Streveler in shotgun for a short second-down, the snap from center Chris Kolankowski never got off the ground, as the ball skidded right past the QB to set up another Winnipeg punt.
It was one thing after another for the visitors, who also struggled to tackle throughout the game.
'I mean, we talked about it before the game, potentially wet conditions. We brought extra pairs of cleats and things. I think it's worse than we thought it was going to be for some of us, I guess, but I don't know, at the same time, they're playing in the same conditions too. We were just slipping.'
The Bombers' biggest play of the game came on the Argos' ensuing drive, as Kyrie Wilson knocked the ball free from running back Kahlan Laborn, and James Vaughters scooped and scored from 29 yards out to give the visitors their only lead of the game.
The kryptonite of the Bombers' defence has been big-bodied receivers.
Last week, it was Calgary Stampeders rookie Damien Alford. It was Damonte Coxie on this night.
The Argos' fourth-year receiver had no issues catching the wet pigskin, amassing 145 receiving yards and one touchdown on six catches.
The 6-3 receiver did most of his damage in the early portions of the contest to help the Argos jump out to a 25-10 lead at halftime, as he caught five passes for 127 yards before the game was 20 minutes old.
Toronto's offence opened with a trick play as Nick Arbuckle lateraled to former Bombers returner Janarion Grant, who found a wide-open Coxie for a 41-yard gain. Winnipeg was fortunate the ball was underthrown, because Coxie would've scored.
It didn't matter. Two plays later, Arbuckle found Coxie on a 33-yard touchdown to cap a quick strike from the Argos on a four-play, 81-yard drive that took 79 seconds off the clock.
'He's a professional,' said Deatrick Nichols. 'Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and he's just pretty good at his strengths. He knows exactly how to win. He's not a fast or a twitchy athlete, but he wins how he wins — body position and everything like that. He's just a professional.'
Coxie also accounted for gains of 27, 17 and nine in the first half, as he repeatedly found space in the Winnipeg defence to the point defensive co-ordinator Jordan Younger benched field corner Marquise Bridges.
Bridges finished the game; however, after his replacement, Trey Vaval, exited the game in the fourth quarter with an injury.
Credit to Arbuckle, who delivered an admirable performance despite taking a beating in the pocket. The Argos' pivot completed 22 of 31 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns despite being sacked five times.
Turnovers. Penalties. Explosive plays.
Collectively, they've been the story of the Bombers' losing streak, and this one was no different.
Winnipeg left the field with seven turnovers to the Argos' one, and the club's turnover margin has plummeted to a dreadful minus-14 in its last three games. Collaros' first interception led to a field goal for the Boatmen, and his second came inside the red zone, effectively wiping away at least three points for the Blue and Gold.
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Meanwhile, Winnipeg finished with six penalties for 55 yards. Some continued to be inexcusable, such as a roughing-the-passer called on Jay Person that extended the Argos' first-quarter drive, which ended with an 18-yard strike from Arbuckle to DaVaris Daniels.
The Bombers' defence conceded four big plays, which all came in the first half. That continues to be an area of concern for this club.
'Definitely saw some improvement, but in a game where there's already some conditions that are interesting, you fundamentally have to be really, really sound, and we weren't necessarily fundamentally sound,' said O'Shea. 'You needed to add that on top of it this game, and I don't know that we were ready to add that back on top of some of the other things we were trying to fix.'
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Joshua Frey-SamReporter
Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.
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