TORONTO — Watching it once was more than enough for every citizen in Blue Bombers Nation. Twice? That is the true definition of cruel and usual punishment.
So, with that painful intro serving as a reminder of what is still visible in the rear-view mirror for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, we can report the team is here in the centre of the universe attempting to right their wrongs in tonight’s matchup with the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field. It will be the squad’s first opportunity to bury the memories of a pair of three-touchdown losses to the Calgary Stampeders which opened eyes for all the wrong reasons across the Canadian Football League.
Those two defeats spoiled what had been a promising 3-0 start and brought to the surface a ton of concerns about the 2025 Blue Bombers as it marked the first time since 2014 the team had dropped consecutive games by 2o or more points.
Still, there’s an expression in football that a short-term memory leads to long-term success and this bunch is putting its shoulder into the belief those losses are part of early season growing pains.
There is good news, although it’s hardly ‘new’ news — Zach Collaros will officially be behind centre as the club works to get back into the race for top spot in the West Division.
“I’ve felt so much better as the week went on,” said Collaros upon arrival at the team’s hotel on Friday. “I took a good shot there and had some lingering effects. But from that day to now I feel the same as I did going into the last game.”
ICYMI, here is our Game Preview from Friday:
And follow along here as we present a collection of notes/quotes/anecdotes to help get Blue Bombers fans up to speed for tonight’s showdown against Toronto tonight in this week’s GAME DAY HQ…
RESET, RELOAD ON ‘D’
Willie Jefferson during practice this week
The Blue Bombers defence has spent the last week saying their mea culpas after the Stampeder losses and, in particular, all the explosion plays against. In the last two games the defenders have surrendered five plays of 30 yards or more while the Calgary offence converted 63.2 percent (12 of 19) second-down opportunities and were a whopping 67 percent (9 of 13) on second-and-seven or more.
“It’s concerning in the sense that it’s always the focus of any good defence, to limit the big plays,” said defensive coordinator Jordan Younger earlier this week. “So, it’s attention to detail, understanding of opponent tendencies, understanding of our tendencies — what we’re showing them. We’ll keep working at it. There’s a couple new bodies out there in new places trying to work through things, trying to see things the same way. Again, some of it is just attention to detail and bringing the gameplan to the game.”
Younger had an excellent explanation as to what happens after the offence breaks the huddle and then how the defence reacts to it in the seconds before the ball is snapped.
“There’s two main philosophies,” he said. “You go out there, you call a defence, and you just run it no matter what the offence does. My philosophy is that puts you at a disadvantage play calling-wise — you’re not in position to defend what they’re doing. The next one is to read and react to the formation you get and then make the best call based on that formation. Our breakdowns are not necessarily a matter of that. We’re seeing the formations the right way; we’ve got to see the route concepts the right way.”
Younger said from the time the offensive huddle breaks the defence has about seven seconds to get their information and communication done before getting lined up. They also have to react on the fly if the formation changes through motion.
“We’re good at that,” he said. “We’re going through a little bit of a rough patch these last few games. I’m not concerned about it in the sense that the system has rules to take care of that — we’ve just got to be sharper in understanding those rules.”
“The guys on the defence want to play better,” added head coach Mike O’Shea on Friday. “They’re not happy with the explosions they’ve given up and the mistakes they’ve made and the lack of communication on certain plays. They want to be the reason why the team wins — every phase does. The overall idea is just work to play better and they have a little more urgency that’s probably a positive thing.”
RESET, RELOAD ON ‘O’
Wide receiver Keric Wheatfall doing his thing during practice this week
The offence hardly gets a free pass for their work in discussing what went wrong over the last two weeks. Some of the numbers are just as frightening with Collaros and Chris Streveler combining to throw six interceptions. Winnipeg QBs have thrown nine TDs this season, six in the last two games as the team was a grotesque -8 in the turnover differential.
“It’s the same message week to week,” said offensive coordinator Jason Hogan. “We’ve got to be clean and that means taking better care of the football, substitutions in and out of the huddle — we didn’t have any issues there — but I thought we just could have been cleaner overall, assignment wise, Day 1 stuff like that in just coming back to the ball. If we do that, we’ve proved with both quarterbacks we can drive efficiently down the football field. We’ve just got to figure out how to put the nail in the coffin and score points — six are better than three.
“(The offence) is where we want it to be, we’ve just got to find a way to execute and finish. We’ve driven the ball. You look statistically the last two games we’ve got 400 offensive yards we’ve just got to get it in the end zone for points. Any football game, 400-plus yards is pretty darn good in my opinion. Again, we’ve just got to find a way to finish, clear the mental mistakes and keep moving forward.”
SLICK NIC POSTING BIG NUMBERS
Nic Demski leads the Blue Bombers in receiving
Nic Demski leads the Blue Bombers with 26 catches for 371 yards and five TDs — just one off tying his TD total in each of the last two seasons.
“I’ve been doing well but there’s a lot of things I’ve still got to fix,” Demski said. “It has nothing to do with the stats. Bigger picture and being a part of this offence there’s still things we all want to fix and do better. That’s what I’m focussed on. I know the production is going come. I know Zach and I and Strev and I all have good connections and so it’s just about making sure everybody’s in sync and that’s part of my job with this offence.”
INTRODUCING… ETHAN BALL
Ethan Ball
Rookie defensive back Ethan Ball will make his CFL debut tonight as the club’s sixth-round pick, 54th overall, from this year’s draft comes aboard for the injured Lane Novak. A Regina product, Ball played his college ball at North Dakota before joining Calgary last year.
“It’s a dream come true,” Ball told bluebombers.com. “You have your job, and I’m locked in right now for that but this is probably something I’ll reflect on after the game when we get the win and come home. I’m pretty excited. You want to be assignment sharp and do your job. Other than that, you want to fly around and stick your neck in there and just play fast.”
Asked about managing soaking up the experience of playing in his first game with not being overwhelmed by it all, Ball added:
“I’ve had experiences like this before being at North Dakota and playing in my first Division 1 game and then transferring to University of Calgary and getting the bugs out there in my first game back in Canadian football. So, I do have some previous experiences that I can draw on. Obviously, it’s not professional football. But I will try to soak it in and then once you get on the field it’s just football and another game.
“This is something I’ve been working toward since I was probably six-seven years old. It’s special, 100 percent, and it’s going to be amazing to see my name on a CFL jersey and it’s awesome to be with a prestigious organization like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.”
Added O’Shea on Ball: “He was having a good training camp and got nicked up and basically has to now wait his turn. He’s got high football IQ and he always seems to be in the right spot or real close. Good eyes, good feet and a good competitive spirit. He’ll get a good taste of it now and see where he’s at.”
NOTABLE
Demski needs two catches to move past Rick House into sixth spot on the Blue Bombers all-time receptions list. He’s at 384 with House at 385. The Top five are Milt Stegall (854), James Murphy (573), Joe Poplawski (549), Terrence Edwards (469) and Clarence Denmark (417).
Brady Oliveira needs 11 yards along the ground to move past Fred Reid into seventh place on the Blue Bombers all-time list. Charles Roberts leads (9,387) followed by Leo Lewis (8,861), Willard Reaves (5,923), Jim Washington (5.736), Gerry James (5,541), Andrew Harris (5.402), Reid (4,505) and Oliveira (4,495).