There are a couple ways to do a deeper dive on the latest win by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the foundation to build each case came from the very voices inside the team’s clubhouse late Friday night.
Option #1 revolves around this position: the 33-21 victory over the still-winless Ottawa RedBlacks had enough warts and flaws to be concerned now heading into a four-game stretch that features a trip to Edmonton to face the Elks, a home date with the powerhouse Montreal Alouettes and then the annual back-to-back Labour Day Classic/Banjo Bowl showdown with the defending Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders.
To that end, here’s QB1 Zach Collaros:
“We want to play better and better as the season goes on and in every single game. We scored 33… there’s times I felt we should’ve finished drives but you’ve got to score points in this league. Montreal’s obviously explosive and we have Edmonton next week and they’ve done a great job this season. They have a great defence.
“So, we’ll enjoy this one tonight and get back to work.”
There’s also this comment from Brady Oliveira when asked how much better his team will have to be against Edmonton, Montreal and Saskatchewan:
“Yeah, I don’t really care about that. We won. It’s still pro football. And speaking offensively, going against their defence, like they got good guys on that defence… They’ve got great players on that defence and they’re trying to turn their season around. Especially with Ottawa right now, they should be playing even harder because they’re trying to fight, scratch, and claw for that first win.
“Do we have to be better? Absolutely. Never get complacent. Always try to find a way to get better, and hopefully you’re on an uphill trajectory as the season goes on.”
Both fair and honest comments.
David Reese celebrates his first career interception Friday night
That builds into Option #2 on how to approach the latest Blue Bombers performance in our weekly post-game postmortem: a win is a win is a win.
And yours truly is going to really lean into this one because, well, sometimes it feels around these parts that with all the success this franchise has had over the last decade we forget to savour the little morsels and flavourful sips along the way.
Was Friday’s win pockmarked by some mistakes?
Yup.
And is everything suddenly right in Bomberland again after just one victory against a franchise that has now lost 15 straight?
Heck, no.
Still, the Blue Bombers are 5-4 at the turn of the 2026 Canadian Football League season — one more win than the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders and still within sight of the Roughriders and Elks. That counts for something.
Would Friday’s performance yield a result against the Elks, Als or Riders? Maybe not. But it sure as bleep beats the alternative.
Let’s also remember that while the RedBlacks have lost their last three games by 21, 22 and 12 points, they also fell to Edmonton by eight, to Montreal by two, to the Riders by five and previously lost to the Blue Bombers by two in overtime.
Asked afterward if he thought Friday’s performance was a ‘flawed victory’, head coach Mike O’Shea shrugged and said:
“I don’t think it was that bad. We did a lot of the things we were supposed to do. Overall, it was pleasing. There’s always going to be things to correct. Individually and team-wise I thought we were pretty good.”
Jake Ceresna and Michael Fletcher bringing the heat
And this answer from my chat with defensive back Evan Holm about this team backing up the corrections it made following a two-game losing skid — while admitting there were still mistakes — was especially insightful:
“Talk is talk. You have to do it out there. The good thing about having bad experiences, bad games, is that you learn from that. The worst of the worst happened, and you learn from that; you get coached in ways you maybe wouldn’t have been coached. You identify your weaknesses and you’re building resilience and momentum.
“Anybody can get hot at any time in this league. The last couple of games before this didn’t go the way we wanted. Now you build off these little moments of winning. It’s huge to gain momentum. ”
Perfect.
ICYMI, here is our Game Recap from Friday night:
And what follows is this week’s edition of UPON FURTHER REVIEW…
THREE NUMBERS WHICH JUMPED OUT AFTER A SECOND GLANCE… at the stats package, which can be found here:
1 Brady Oliveira’s totals really popped off the page as he rushed 11 times for 74 yards and a score and finished with eight receptions for 80 yards — that’s an average of 8.1 yards per touch. Hidden within that is 68 of his 80 receiving yards came after the catch, including this play on a second-and-17 following the brutal sack on Collaros that temporarily took him out of the game:
Oliveira powers through 💪
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— CFL (@CFL) August 15, 2026
Oliveira’s eight catches was a season high — he had just one in each of the last five games — and was part of an overall effort that showcased how he can put this team on his back at times.
“I don’t think any of those (pass) plays tonight he was the first option. He was probably the fourth option,” explained Collaros afterward. “But (Ottawa) played a lot of four-man rush and dropped eight and with lots of depth. So, when they do that, you try to buzz through the reads as fast as you can. Brady does a great job of understanding that.
“At times he needs to stay in there (for pass protection) when he’s told to and help and chip, but there’s a lot of times where I’m just kinda yelling, ‘Get out, get out, get out’ because a lot of times based on coverage you can speed through your read and he does a great job of understanding that, catching the football and I’m sure he had a lot of yards after catch tonight.”
Worth noting: for all the consternation about Oliveira’s workload recently — and it had been justified in the moment — he’s now on pace for 1,464 yards rushing and 56 catches.
2 Let’s not undersell how important it was for the Blue Bombers to have Collaros return after the hellacious hit he took from linebacker Lucas Cormier in the second quarter. Collaros’ numbers are decent — 21-of-31 for 222 yards with no TDs or interceptions — but he does have a presence in the huddle that oozes confidence.
“He was locked in,” said Nic Demski. “Even the fact he came back in and finished the game the way that he did. As receivers we made the plays for him. But it’s just how I am — I know we can be a little bit better. I still don’t think we reached our full potential but at the end of the day there were some good things out there.”
Zach Collaros helped guide the Blue Bombers to another W, the 58th regular-season victory with him behind centre since 2019
Added Oliveira:
“The guy’s a warrior. Again, we have specialists and the staff to make sure. They’re thinking of our best interests. But if there’s a chance, they’re going to allow us to go out there and play. Obviously, Zach got the green light and if you give him the green light, he’s going to play. It doesn’t matter where it is – that guy is the ultimate competitor. It was really pleasing to see that it wasn’t anything serious and that he was able to come back in and just lead us.
“I’ve talked about how composed he is in the huddle when things are going good and when things are going bad. He’s the ultimate leader, a guy you need in the huddle at the quarterback position. He’s such a valuable piece to this offence, so, to have him back in there, it was great.”
3 A few notable notes from the stats sheet:
Sergio Castillo’s 56-yard field goal was the 41st 50-yard-plus field goal of his career, now the most in CFL history after passing former Blue Bomber Troy Westwood, the club’s all-time leading scorer.
Tim White finished with eight catches for 85 yards and in the process went over the 6,000-yard mark as a receiver. He’s now at 6,034 and has 45 catches for 546 yards and four TDs so far this year as a Blue Bomber.
And a tip of the chapeau to Bryce Perkins, who continues to run the short-yardage package effectively. He rushed four times for 11 yards on Friday, scoring two touchdowns and completing his first pass on a nifty little wrinkle in short yardage to Nic Demski.
AND FINALLY… for those of you who have read this far, thank you. And for those who missed the game or want to relive all the highs and lows of Friday’s win, check out the condensed game here: