They’ve given us some masterpieces this season and served up other efforts that, while lacking in artistic merit, would still be eye-catching enough to find a place on a refrigerator beside a kid’s finger-painting.

And so, by comparison, the best description of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 17-16 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in front of another capacity crowd Friday night at Princess Auto Stadium — and this is being exceptionally kind — would be to peg it as a dog’s breakfast.

Yes, the Blue Bombers exited with a critical ‘W’ in the fight for a Canadian Football League playoff spot, but this one looked like it fell out of the ugly tree and bounced off every branch on the way to the ground.

“Ugly win, man. Ugly win,” said running back Brady Oliveira inside the Blue Bombers clubhouse afterward. “If we want to get to where we want to go, we’ve got to play a lot better than that. Our defence played outstanding. Special teams did what they did — Trey (Vaval) put us in some good field position. But as an offence, we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better.”

Indeed, while the victory improved the Blue Bombers to 9-8, it had some considerable warts that are going to leave this bunch seething when it goes over the game film.

The Blue Bombers turned the ball over three times — including a Vaval fumble on the opening kickoff — was 0-for-3 in the red zone, took some ill-timed penalties and really struggled to move the ball until late in the game. Let’s remember that, because when it mattered most Oliveira, Zach Collaros & Co. were able to move the ball deep into Roughrider territory before a 22-yard field goal by Sergio Castillo on the last play gave them the ‘W.’

That said, the offence scored on its first possession on a 28-yard Collaros to Pokey Wilson score and followed that up with a Castillo 12-yard field goal but then bogged down completely after that. And it wasn’t pretty, as the next 12 possessions featured eight punts, an interception, a turnover on downs, and a pair of field goals.

Asked what he liked or didn’t like about the offence after the game, Collaros was blunt:

“I didn’t like anything. We didn’t do anything well.

“… What did our defence give up, four points? So, they did a great job. And Trey did a great job of bouncing back, especially after that first one. That shows tremendous character in him. They were great, our specials, all night in giving us great field position, especially in the fourth quarter. There’s a lot of things we can do better.

“Winning is great, winning is hard. But we need to be better.”

More on the Blue Bombers ninth win of the season from our view in the press box…

WHAT IT MEANS…

Here’s what is most important at the end of the night: the Blue Bombers win, coupled with the B.C. Lions 37-24 win over the Edmonton Elks later in the evening meant the club has now qualified for the playoffs for a ninth straight season.

anything can happen in november. #ForTheW pic.twitter.com/pBQmmUA0H5

— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) October 18, 2025

So, yup, no such thing as an ugly win, given what unfolded in Vancouver after the Blue Bombers win.

“Not in the six or seven hours post win,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “It gets ugly at whatever time in the morning we show up to break it down. You try to move on and enjoy it. That’s one of the hard things in pro sport.

“You talk to coaches, players, everybody — Olympians — and I don’t think we give ourselves enough of an opportunity to enjoy the fact that we accomplished the one goal we set out to accomplish — whatever it looks like.

“There’s always something to fix. We’ve just got to give ourselves a bit of grace, enjoy each other’s company, celebrate a little bit and then get back to work. That’s what we do every single week.”

DEFENCE COVERS THE SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS

It started with Vaval’s fumble on the opening kickoff, which was followed by a pass interference call against Demerio Houston in the end zone on the Roughriders first offensive snap.

And so the game was just over a minute old before the Blue Bombers were in a 7-zip hole. They did rally to tie the game at 10-10, but some questionable decisions — including a third-and-two gamble late in the first half which was stuffed — saw Winnipeg trail 11-10 at the intermission despite hold a Roughrider squad missing a ton of regulars to just five first downs and 48 yards of net offence.

Saskatchewan finished the night with 169 yards of net offence, including just 29 yards on 12 rushing.

“I’m proud of the whole team tonight, not just the defence,” said defensive end Willie Jefferson. “It was a resilient game by the offence, Papi (Sergio Castillo) made his kicks, special teams locked in and our defence locked in and handled its business.

“We needed a win. In this game, you can’t criticize how you get it. That’s a win against a great team. Yeah, they were resting some guys. But as long as we continue to keep moving forward, we’ll be fine.

MORE ‘O’ CHATTER

The word ‘ugly’ was tossed around a ton post-game. But when it mattered most the Blue Bombers were able to piece together a 10 play 42-yard drive that chewed up the final two minutes and 54 seconds and ended with Castillo’s game winner.

So… there is that.

“I know the guys we have in this locker room,” said Oliveira. “We’ve played a lot of football and won a lot of games — especially meaningful games. But, obviously this needs to start clicking. Unfortunately, right now it wasn’t clicking tonight. So we need to find a way. How does this thing go?

“We’ve got to get back to the drawing board. Everyone has to look in the mirror, clean up their play so when the play is called we have to go out there and execute it. Simple as that.

“… I’m proud of the guys for the way we fought all game, but obviously that was an ugly win. We stayed with it through the highs and lows.

“We have an extremely high standard in here. Extremely high. We know the level of football we can play at. Yeah, a win’s a win and we got the playoffs, which is great. Hopefully we can extend our football into the postseason but, not good enough.”

ONE SPECIAL MOMENT

Missing both Nic Demski and Dalton Schoen, the passing attack managed just 182 yards. But for the second straight game, Pokey Wilson found the end zone.

THAT IS HOW WE DREW IT UP.

TIE GAME.#ForTheW pic.twitter.com/Nzaq1KxlZn

— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) October 18, 2025

13… AND COUNTING

An amazing number that doesn’t get talked about enough across the CFL: Friday’s capacity crowd makes 13 straight sell-outs for the Blue Bombers, including all eight this season. With one more home game remaining next weekend the team has an opportunity to do something never before done in the franchise’s modern history — sell out every game in the season.

So, take a bow — a couple of them — Bomber fans. And merci beaucoup.

tonight’s game is OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT!

LET’S MAKE IT FOURTEEN STRAIGHT. NEXT WEEK’S GAME HAS LESS THAN 1400 TICKETS LEFT ‼️

tickets » https://t.co/CzaPcltnrn#ForTheW | @GMCcanada pic.twitter.com/I5qx4AF9hI

— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) October 17, 2025

NOTABLE

Blue Bombers linebacker Tony Jones finished with six tackles, giving him an even 100 on the season.
Trey Vaval added another 62 yards on a missed field goal return in the fourth quarter, boosting the franchise record he has already established this year. Vaval is now up to 391 yards on missed field goal returns this year, smashing the old mark of 277 set by Albert Johnson III in 2000.
Oliveira now has 1,1163 rushing yards on the season.
Collaros’ record in home games is now 37-7.

KEY MOMENT:

Nothing complicated here: the Castillo kick on the last play was the decisive winner. But in that final drive the Blue Bombers also got 12 yards from Oliveira on a screen pass from Collaros. That play, coming on a second and 12, was inches short of the first-down marker and was then converted by Chris Streveler on a sneak.

KEY STAT: 11/161

Yes, yes, yes… the Riders were without QB Trevor Harris, receivers KeeSean Johnson, Dohnte Meyers and Samuel Emilus, running back AJ Ouellette and right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick, but Winnipeg’s ‘D’ limited Saskatchewan to just 11 first downs and 161 yards net offence.

NEXT:

The Blue Bombers are back home at Princess Auto Stadium for their regular-season finale on Saturday, Oct. 17th, against the Montreal with a 2 p.m. start time.