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Published Aug 07, 2025 • 4 minute read
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers kick returner Trey Vaval. Photo by Cameron Bartlett /Winnipeg Blue BombersArticle content
We like to say football is the No. 1 team game of them all, that it takes 12-man units in all three phases of the game to produce a CFL winner.
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Occasionally, though, one or two individuals rise like cream to the top, the difference between the sour taste of defeat and the sweetness of victory.
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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are coming off a game like that.
Without Trey Vaval and Willie Jefferson, the Bombers would be on a four-game slide and lugging a losing record, along with a plane full of self doubt, into Calgary this weekend.
The slight kick returner and towering defensive end were the long and the short of Friday’s 40-31 win over Toronto, Vaval with two return touchdowns of 90-plus yards, Jefferson with a performance that left fans, the Argos O-line and statisticians alike buzzing.
Jefferson’s eye-popping outing produced the highest player rating of the season, 99.3 out of 100, from those who grade individual performance, earning him player-of-the-week honours and a touch of self-satisfaction, too.
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“It’s No. 1, as of this year,” the quarterback’s worst nightmare was telling me the other day. “I had the opportunity to get some knockdowns, get my hands up. It was a good game.”
Good is a word.
Jefferson’s night included eight plays in which he hurried or hit Toronto’s Nick Arbuckle, including a sack that forced a fumble, which was scooped up and taken for a touchdown by teammate Jay Person.
He also swatted four Arbuckle passes out of the air before they could get downfield and do who knows what kind of damage, making for an Uncle Willie’s buffet of big plays.
The stats geeks called it “one of the most dominant defensive performances in CFL history.”
Jefferson knows he’s had better. A three-sack game or an outing with an interception and a sack or two come to mind.
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Given the circumstance his team was in – three straight losses by two touchdowns or more – it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The 34-year-old says he hadn’t heard the outside noise about his lack of big plays this season, but he had noticed his own teammates calling on him to do his thing to help end the skid.
“We need one of those big plays,” is what he recalled hearing. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, if it comes it comes.’ It’s not something that you can force. I can try to impose my will on a player, but I try to do my thing within the defence.”
Vaval’s contribution last week tipped the scales just as dramatically, even if he weighs in at 80 pounds less than Jefferson and stands eight inches shorter.
The 24-year-old rookie says he found himself reliving the two returns in the first day or two of practice this week.
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“I can re-imagine the game – I feel like I’m still kind of there,” Vaval said. “But now we’ve passed all that. We’ve got a game in a couple of days. We don’t worry about last week.”
It’s hard to forget when you’ve been flooded with love from back home.
The kid from Blue Springs, Mo., made some history here, too, becoming the first player in Blue Bomber history to return a punt and kickoff for a touchdown in the same game.
Vaval had been putting some pressure on himself to make a big play. So he made two, taking a huge weight off his slender shoulders just seven games into his pro career.
“That made feel a lot happier,” he said. “So this week I’ll be a lot more relaxed, tracking the ball down.”
Which brings us to Calgary.
What, pray tell, do these two do for an encore?
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Jefferson knows he’ll be facing more experienced blockers than Toronto lined up. Communication breakdowns left him untouched on some plays last week.
He also knows Vernon Adams is no Arbuckle.
“It’s going to be totally different,” Jefferson said. “VA is a little bit more elusive. They both have had times when they’re hot and times when they can be better. VA coming off his injury… he’s confident, excited to be back in the lineup. We’ve just got to get to him early. And often. We’ve got to get in his face, get some hands up in his face, knock some balls down, get him on the ground…. and get him frustrated.”
Let him get come confidence and rhythm and it’s another story, as the Bombers found out in two games last month.
“He can be really good,” is how Jefferson put it.
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As for Vaval, he’ll just try to read his blockers, evade tacklers and get as much as he can out of every return, without the weight of expectation he’d been carrying.
His perfect encore?
“Another two this week,” he said. “That’d be pretty cool. Whatever happens, happens.”
Nobody can expect that kind of lightning to strike twice, just like nobody should count on Jefferson for a repeat performance.
“We’ve just got to keep winning,” Jefferson said.
The Bombers will most likely have to get back to doing it the old-fashioned way on Saturday.
We’ll find out if they still can.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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