{"id":60646,"date":"2025-08-11T04:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/60646\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T04:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T04:32:08","slug":"upon-further-review-cal-28-wpg-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/60646\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon Further Review | Cal 28 Wpg 27"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was late Saturday night in the visitors\u2019 locker room at McMahon Stadium in Calgary and one by one the Winnipeg Blue Bombers kept spitting out the same mantra, the only variation being the selection of curse words wrapped around that message.<\/p>\n

The little things \u2014 basic execution stuff, mixed with the fundamentals and an attention to detail \u2014 ate them alive in a 28-27 loss to the Stampeders that was the club\u2019s fourth setback in the last five games and makes the 3-0 start to the season seem like a lifetime ago.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an offence that roared out to a 17-0 start but then couldn\u2019t convert on a third-and-one from the Stampeder five-yard line in the second quarter and then got completely bogged down in the second half. Even with that, one more first down late in the game would have taken valuable seconds off the clock and possibly sealed a victory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a special teams unit that took two penalties in the second half, including a marginal block-in-the-back infraction by Tony Jones that wiped out a 39-yard punt return by Trey Vaval which would have set the Blue Bombers up on their 51 but instead back them up to their own six.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a defence that gave up a handful of dreaded explosion plays again, took a 40-yard interference penalty that led to another TD and then had Dedrick Mills run for 105 yards, including 65 in the second half.<\/p>\n

One more positive play in amongst all that and the Blue Bombers could have exited southern Alberta with a critical win which would have tied them with Calgary with five wins and kept the Saskatchewan Roughriders in sight. Instead, this club looks every bit a .500 bunch at 4-4.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHard-fought game. Everybody showed up \u2014 offence, defence and special teams \u2014 and tried to make some plays,\u201d said defensive end Willie Jefferson inside a quiet room afterward. \u201cLike Coach O\u2019Shea said in the breakdown, we just needed one or two more plays from the offence, defence, special teams. And then a couple penalties near the end of the game put us in bad starting position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the small things at the end of the game. Papi \u2014 Serge (Castillo) \u2014 made a wonderful kick near the end of the game and then we\u2019ve just got to go out there and stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICYMI, here\u2019s our Game Recap story from Saturday\u2019s loss to the Stamps:<\/p>\n

Game Recap | Wpg 27 Cal 28<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

And what follows is the rest of this week\u2019s\u00a0UPON FURTHER REVIEW\u2026<\/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 The Blue Bombers led 23-16 at halftime and there were positives to think they could lock down a critical road win. Zach Collaros had gone 13-of-15 for 169 yards with a TD strike to Jerreth Sterns in the first half while Brady Oliveira had rushed for 56 yards on eight carries and already had 90 receiving yards on seven receptions.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg had seven possessions in the first half ending with three field goals, two touchdowns \u2014 including a Chris Streveler sneak \u2014 a critical turnover on downs and one punt.<\/p>\n

The second half, unfortunately, was the exact opposite. The Blue Bombers had six possessions in the final 30 minutes with five straight punts before Castillo\u2019s 63-yard bomb of a field goal with 1:01 remaining. Four of those six possessions ended with Collaros being sacked and three were two-and-outs. But here\u2019s the truly ugly number: by our math the Blue Bombers managed just 62 yards of net offence in the final 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Another telling number: Winnipeg\u2019s longest play from scrimmage in the second half was an 18-yard run by Collaros on the final possession.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just sucked on offence in the second half,\u201d said veteran guard Pat Neufeld. \u201cWe didn\u2019t live up to the standard we talk about and for whatever reason we just couldn\u2019t put together drives and get the ball into the end zone. They did a great job of stifling us but we\u2019re still making mistakes at different spots all over the field on different series and it\u2019s really hurting us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to spend a lot of time on this because we\u2019ve got a short week coming up, but everyone has got to really start focussing on the minute details as to why things aren\u2019t working and that\u2019s usually the case with execution \u2014 if we\u2019re not sharp in those details then it\u2019s not going to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not even halfway through the year yet. There\u2019s no worries or anything, it\u2019s just we\u2019ve got to really start digging in and making sure we\u2019ve got the details covered.\u201d<\/p>\n

2 Vernon Adams, Jr. completed 17-of-24 passes for 300 yards and two more TDs on Saturday and in the three Stampeder wins this year against Winnipeg \u2014 the first three-game sweep since 2016 \u2014 completed 71.8 percent of his passes and had seven passing TDs against just one interception. He now has 19 career TDs against the the Blue Bombers, more than any other opponent.<\/p>\n

The yardage of those seven TDs says everything, too, as they covered 43, 11, 37, 42, three, 78 and eight yards.<\/p>\n

What was a marked improvement on Saturday for Winnipeg\u2019s defence compared to the first two meetings was they limited Calgary to just 24 percent (4-of-17) on second-down conversions. Unfortunately, those conversions averaged 10.8 yards per play, and the Stamps averaged a gaudy 8.0 yards on first down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got four shots on us,\u201d said head coach Mike O\u2019Shea. \u201cWe were in really good coverage, and the ball is perfectly placed. It\u2019s just a battle and they came down with it a few times, but our guys were in really good position it\u2019s just a matter that Vernon got a good ball off and the receivers made good plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many explosion plays again,\u201d added halfback Evan Holm. \u201cAnd we still had a chance to seal the game. We didn\u2019t. There was some good stuff in there, too, from us but it\u2019s just those explosion plays. We held them to field goals on certain drives, but it was three or four plays that really hurt us. Throughout the course of the game they see what you do \u2014 looking for things, looking for weaknesses \u2014 and it\u2019s the little things like the communication before a snap. And maybe it\u2019s two steps as a DB it\u2019s two steps and (the receiver) gets the leverage on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge becomes steeper now with Terrell Bonds having left the game via a cart at halftime and on crutches afterward. The Blue Bombers finished the game with Trey Vaval at corner \u2014 he also replaced Jamal Parker, Jr. last week before he was injured \u2014 and have just Cam Allen, to this point primarily a safety, on the practice roster.<\/p>\n

3 There was some confusion from fans after we tweeted out Saturday night that Castillo\u2019s 63-yarder had tied the record for the longest in CFL history. For the record, Paul McCallum\u2019s 63-yarder in 2001 was first recorded as a 62-yard make before it was confirmed to be a yard longer. See the chart below from the CFL Guide and Record Book.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting is Castillo now has three of the five longest field goals in CFL history, and his bomb Saturday broke his own club record of 60, which he first set in Calgary a year ago and then tied a month later at Princess Auto Stadium.<\/p>\n

FYI\u2026 Here\u2019s O\u2019Shea on his decision to challenge the block-in-the-back penalty on Jones, which was not upheld by the replay centre: \u201cIt\u2019s at the line of scrimmage and it\u2019s a double-team. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s egregious. Is it a block in the back\u2026 it\u2019s hard to tell. But when the players say they think it was clean you\u2019ve got to challenge. It was a big play. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s going to make a difference in the end. I would have burned my timeout at another time anyway and there\u2019s nothing there to challenge after it. I\u2019m not going to save it. When a player says they believe it was clean then you believe him.\u201d\u2026 And O\u2019Shea also said the decision to concede to kickoff singles in the first half was simply made to trade the point for 40 yards or so of field position rather than have Vaval field a kick at his own five-yard line. Ultimately, the Stamps did the same inside the final minute when a Castillo kickoff went into the end zone.<\/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 loss, we have it here with the condensed game:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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