{"id":179774,"date":"2025-09-30T09:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179774\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:41:12","slug":"upon-further-review-wpg-40-ham-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179774\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon Further Review | Wpg 40 Ham 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach Collaros stood outside a raucous Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker room early Saturday night, a celebratory beer in one hand, and in a few words perfectly captured the mood of everyone in Bomberland after the club\u2019s most-impressive \u2018W\u2019 of 2025:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a lot of fun,\u201d said the Blue Bombers QB1 with a grin. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while. It was a fun one today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yup, that just about sums things up wonderfully.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg\u2019s 40-3 evisceration of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday \u2014 the East Division-leading Ticats, let\u2019s remember \u2014 was a welcome reminder of what this bunch can do when it is playing complementary football, when Collaros starts and finishes a game, when the defence is at its stifling best and when Trey Vaval & Co. on special teams are adding some extra magic.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s just as important in all this is the team\u2019s timing, what with the club heading into a bye week, with just three games remaining on the regular-season schedule and just 48 days until the 112th Grey Cup is held a few steps from their locker room at Princess Auto Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we work hard, to have results like that,\u201d said veteran centre Chris Kolankowski. \u201cTrey got us started off the right way. Zach didn\u2019t miss a beat coming back. We threw a ball a lot early and then in the fourth quarter and with the lead we were in position to leave it up to the O-line to run out the clock. Communication was a big part of that for us on the O-line against a good defensive front.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s about finding a way to do it again in the next game. It\u2019s not going to be easy and this doesn\u2019t mean we can do it again the next time. We\u2019ve really got to grind every single week. I hope everyone appreciates that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one win,\u201d added head coach Mike O\u2019Shea. \u201cWe\u2019re not sweating when we lose one and we\u2019re not crowning ourselves when we win one. Let\u2019s just understand the work that went into it and try and not just repeat that work but try to a little bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 That was a pretty neat three-phase game in terms of how clean they were. I know they took a few penalties, but the execution\u2026 when we watch that back as coaches, we\u2019ll be very pleased with the execution and the players should be, too. And when you get all three phases humming, that\u2019s what\u2019s possible. Do I think they\u2019re all going to look like that? Yeah, I sure as hell hope so. And it\u2019s a great indicator of what you can do if you play really clean, high-level execution, physical, if you do all the things that we know over time equates to winning it can look like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very pleased for the guys, especially going into a bye week, having something like that they can enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then a follow-up question to O\u2019Shea asking how he was going to \u2018nitpick that one, as coaches are always looking for something wrong\u2019 served as a reminder that this bunch, especially given all its been through this year, certainly won\u2019t get fat and sassy after the win over the Ticats.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s the problem \u2014 if you choose to say \u2018nitpick\u2019 then that mindset shuts you down from learning,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re in a growth mindset you take the corrections knowing that there\u2019s never been a game of pro football that has been played perfectly, there\u2019s things we can clean up. If you like the way this feels \u2014 and we all do \u2014 then let\u2019s bury our heads in the corrections again.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s enjoy it for the week and then let\u2019s get back to work and try and be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICYMI, here is our Game Recap from Saturday afternoon:<\/p>\n

Game Recap | Ham 3 Wpg 40<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

And what follows is the rest of this week\u2019s Upon Further Review\u2026<\/p>\n

STANDINGS\/SCHEDULE WATCH\u2026<\/p>\n

The CFL\u2019s West Division playoff race always serves up some drama and the sprint to the regular-season finish line has become interesting all of a sudden with both teams atop the division \u2014 the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calgary Stampeders \u2014 having each tumbled in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The Stamps have dropped three straight to fall to 8-6, while the Roughriders are now 10-4 after losing two in a row.<\/p>\n

To that point, here are the remaining games for teams in the West, knowing that the fourth-place team is all but assured a crossover spot through the East Division with the third-place Toronto Argonauts at 5-10.<\/p>\n

Stampeders (8-6)
Road (3):\u00a0B.C., Oct. 4th; Hamilton, Oct. 11th; Edmonton, Oct. 24th
Home (1): Toronto, Oct. 18th<\/p>\n

Blue Bombers (8-7)
Road (1): Edmonton, Oct. 11th
Home (2): Saskatchewan, Oct. 17th; Montreal, Oct. 25th<\/p>\n

Lions (8-7)
Road (1):\u00a0Saskatchewan, Oct. 25th
Home (2): Calgary, Oct. 4th; Edmonton, Oct. 17th<\/p>\n

Elks (6-9)
Road (1): B.C., Oct. 17th
Home (2): Winnipeg, Oct. 11th; Calgary, Oct. 24th<\/p>\n

THREE NUMBERS WHICH STOOD OUT\u2026 after a second glance at the stats package, which can be found\u00a0here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1\u00a0The offence and new offensive coordinator Jason Hogan have been under the microscope for large swaths of the \u201925 season \u2014 and, especially, after the 54 yards passing a week ago \u2014 so fist bumps all around for their handiwork in Saturday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers attack cranked out 514 yards net offence, the highest total since 526 in a win over Edmonton exactly one year earlier. Collaros was sensational in going 20-of-25 for 376 yards and a TD strike to Dillon Mitchell, with no interceptions, and the club rushed for 124 yards, including 98 from Brady Oliveira and 26 and three touchdowns from Chris Streveler.<\/p>\n

Worth noting: that\u2019s the fourth time since 2023 the offence has amassed 500 yards-plus of net offence.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the three scores for Streveler were important given the criticism he faced after the win over Ottawa. No one wants a \u2018W\u2019 more than #17, and he was emotional after his third score and in the locker room afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of emotions the past couple of weeks and a lot happened this week\u2026 it was an emotional week for me,\u201d said Streveler. \u201cSo, to get to go out there with those guys and finish the game that way felt great. And to be able to let that emotion out with those guys\u2026 it makes me emotional right now because it means that much to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I love to do and to be able to end the game that way with the big boys after every that happened the last couple of weeks just felt so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a side note, how cool is this photo from Cameron Bartlett, which we used as our feature image in the Game Recap\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2\u00a0We tweeted this out during the game Saturday, but Vaval is making a serious case for himself as the CFL\u2019s Most Outstanding Rookie, and Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, too. His 98-yard return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown was his fourth score this season \u2014 one off the club record of five, set by Keith Stokes in 2004. The CFL record, FYI, is six and was set by Hamilton\u2019s Chris Williams in 2012 and so he\u2019s in rarefied air already.<\/p>\n

Vaval leads the CFL in punt return yardage with 831 and in missed field goal return yardage at 271, and now has 805 yards in kickoff return yards, which ranks fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been terrific. He really has,\u201d said O\u2019Shea of Vaval. \u201cI go back after training camp when we started talking about him \u2014 his desire to do it right and keep learning \u2014 and not just in the return game but in all facets of football defensively and if we need him as a cover guy \u2014 is very high for a young guy in his first real good go at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, when you\u2019ve got a guy that\u2019s coachable it makes coaching easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

3 The Blue Bombers were a +1 in the turnover differential \u2014 not turning the ball over at all and forcing a turnover on downs by Hamilton \u2014 and that\u2019s significant. In Winnipeg\u2019s eight wins this season the team has a +11 turnover differential and in the seven losses that number is a grotesque -19.<\/p>\n

AND FINALLY\u2026 thanks for reading this far and for those who have made it to the bottom and want to see the video evidence of the win against the Ticats, we have it here with the condensed game:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zach Collaros stood outside a raucous Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker room early Saturday night, a celebratory beer in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-179774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}