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Published Aug 08, 2025 • 4 minute read
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Calgary Stampeders quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. speaks to reporters during practice at McMahon Stadium on August 8, 2025. Photo by Brent Calver /Postmedia NetworkArticle content
Two quarterbacks coming off head/neck injuries, two of the most successful head coaches in recent CFL history, and two teams that feel an urgency to get back on track.
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That’s a good place to start setting up the 4-3 Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ tilt with the 5-3 Stampeders in Calgary on Saturday.
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After being sidelined with “not-fun” symptoms for parts of two games – while acknowledging he rushed himself back for the second one – Zach Collaros sat out last week’s Bombers win over Toronto, still dealing with the whiplash injury he suffered against these same Stampeders on July 18.
Collaros will be back at the controls against a Calgary team that was minus Vernon Adams (head injury) for last week’s 31-11 loss in Ottawa, a second straight defeat that further soiled the Stamps’ sparkling 5-1 start.
Adams is back, too, giving his team a much-needed boost from the inexperience of backup P. J. Walker, last week’s starter.
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Calgary head coach Dave Dickenson says Adams has to get right back to doing his thing, which is evading the rush and making something of plays that appear broken.
“I’m sure the first time he gets hit, that’s always a little bit of trepidation, a little bit of uneasiness,” Dickenson told reporters in Calgary, Friday. “Hopefully he feels just fine and usually from there it’s off you go. I’m not too worried about it. If you can’t scramble you won’t win in the CFL.”
A week ago, the Bombers were scrambling.
Their three-game skid ended against the Argonauts last week, but the 40-31 win was more of a rabbit-out-of-the-hat job than anything: Two touchdowns came from kick returns, another from the defence.
This turnover-pocked squad hasn’t looked anything like a Mike O’Shea-coached football team for a month now.
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Getting back to their identity has been the theme of the week in the Winnipeg locker-room.
If we’ve learned anything about O’Shea’s teams over the last decade it’s that it’s not wise to count them out.
Players who went through last year’s 0-4 and 2-6 starts, and there are many still around, are no doubt digging into that well of experience right now.
“It should (help),” O’Shea was saying earlier this week. “First-year guys don’t necessarily maybe take it all in … but for the guys that were here there’s obviously some resiliency that was built, some grit that was built the year before. Are you able to draw upon all those experiences … or will you miss the boat on that opportunity?”
The Bombers first ran aground with back-to-back 21-point losses to the Stamps last month in which they combined to give the ball away a whopping 10 times, three of them interceptions returned for Calgary touchdowns.
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The first two of those came off the arm of Collaros, in Calgary.
He returns to the scene of the crime with a receiving corps bolstered, his team hopes, by the addition of Dillon Mitchell.
You may recall Mitchell as one of Winnipeg’s touted off-season signings. His three seasons in Edmonton were capped by a 58-catch, 727-yard, four-touchdown performance last year.
That earned him a contract worth nearly $150,000 in Winnipeg, including a healthy signing bonus.
But he’s languished on the non-active roster – until now.
“I was happy when we signed him in the off-season,” Collaros said as Mitchell began practising with the starters this week. “He’s played at a high level for a long time in our league. Experience definitely matters, and not having that deer-in-the-headlights look is an important thing.”
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So is having a balanced attack.
The production of running back Brady Oliveira has been spotty through the five games he’s played. The two-time defending rushing champ has carried the ball just 60 times and is itching for his team to reestablish its reliable ground game.
The Winnipegger believes having Collaros back, over the run-friendly Chris Streveler, might actually help with that. That’s because the Stamps defence might not be quite as stacked against the run as Toronto’s often was.
“When Strev’s in the game, there might be an extra hat there,” is how Oliveira put it. “Because you do have to account for Strev and you do have to account for me. And when we have Zach in there … that’s not his strong suit, obviously. We know he’s going to push the ball downfield.
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“So defences have to respect that even more and maybe take a step back a little bit.”
No matter how it shakes down, whether he’s pounding the ball or his quarterback is airing it out, Oliveira just wants to hit paydirt more often.
“We want to be an explosive offence. We want to score touchdowns. Right now we’re just not doing that. There’s been flashes of it, but we need to finish.”
As for the matchup on the sidelines, it doesn’t get much better.
With 111 career wins, O’Shea is already in the all-time top-10 for coaching victories and Dickenson is well on the way, with 89.
Both have winning percentages of better than .600.
Both have aspirations of getting their teams to the Grey Cup game in Winnipeg, too, the Bombers trying to stay on top of the West mountain, the Stamps trying to get back to those heights.
It all comes to a head in the Foothills on Saturday.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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