For the first time since July, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have tasted defeat.
Zach Collaros was sacked seven times by a ferocious Toronto Argonauts defence as the Bombers fell 14-11 Friday night and their eight-game win streak came to an end.
Winnipeg fell to 10-7 on the season and was unable to clinch top spot in the West, but can still do so this week if Saskatchewan loses to B.C. Saturday.
After several encouraging efforts in recent games, the Bombers offence fell flat, getting held to under a hundred yards of net offence in the first half, while finding the endzone just once the entire night.
But despite the offensive struggles, they still had a chance to win the game in the dying moments. Collaros dove for the yard stick on a third down, last chance effort, but after a measurement, it was determined he came a few inches short to turn the ball over on downs.
“I don’t know what they’re looking at regarding the challenge if my foot was out or not,” said Collaros. “I was clearly past the line if my foot wasn’t out and I couldn’t tell on the screen if my foot was out.”
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The Bombers challenged the call, but it was held up upon review.
“I disagreed with the spot, obviously,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “But it’s very difficult at that point the way they mark it.”
The Bombers finished with 322 yards of net offence with Collaros passing for 249 yards with one interception on a Hail Mary on the final play of the game.
“We got to make plays earlier in the game,” Collaros said. “There’s opportunities to take a lead there in the first quarter. Defence and special teams did a great job. Offensively, we got to finish drives, score touchdowns, not turn the ball over in the score zone. All those things, right.”
It was the first time the Argos swept the season series with the Bombers since 2015.
It was also a rare off-night for Bombers kicker Sergio Castillo, who missed two field goals. And the Bombers left a lot of points on the field after also getting stopped on an Argos goal line stand.
“Better second half,” said O’Shea. “Not good enough in the first. We’ll look at it tomorrow and make some corrections and away we go.
“I thought we had opportunities to score points and we didn’t, but then again our defence took away some of their opportunities too. Both defences, I thought played pretty damn good.”
Bombers running back Brady Oliveira had a much quieter night than we’re used to seeing as the Argos, with the league’s top ranked run defence, held him to just 64 rushing yards on 12 carries.
“They’re a good defence, man,” Oliveira said. “They got a great defensive line.
“They got great linebackers. I said it during the week. They’re a great defence and we knew we had a big challenge in front of us. But we got to thrive in those situations. We understand the unit that we got and at the end of the day, we just didn’t play good enough I would say in the first half.”
With the win, Toronto moved to 9-7 on the season and clinched a playoff spot.
It was the fourth straight sellout at Princess Auto Stadium. The Bombers’ total home attendance this season will finish at 280,497 fans, an average of 31,166 per game. Both marks are single-season franchise records.
The Bombers now head into a bye week, before closing their regular season in Montreal against the Alouettes on October 26.
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