{"id":720323,"date":"2026-06-07T04:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T04:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720323\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T04:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T04:21:13","slug":"upon-further-review-blue-bombers-30-stampeders-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/720323\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon Further Review | Blue Bombers 30 Stampeders 28"},"content":{"rendered":"

A working title for the now complete first chapter of the story of the 2026 Winnipeg Blue Bombers:<\/p>\n

\u2018Tasty Debuts, Late Game Heroics and A Kicker Who Desperately Had to Pee\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, so it\u2019s a bit wordy and strange, but as we said off the top, it\u2019s a working title and not yet set in stone.<\/p>\n

In any case, Friday night\u2019s 30-28 season-opening win by the Blue Bombers over the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium provided a ton of entertainment and fascinating subplots including Zach Collaros operating Tommy Condell\u2019s new offence for the first time, a defence that showed resiliency, stellar play from the special teams units, outstanding debuts by the likes of Tim White and Jake Ceresna \u2014 among others \u2014 with it all capped by Sergio Castillo\u2019s 38-yard game winning field goal with zeroes on the clock.<\/p>\n

So, Sergio\u2026 tell us about handling the swirling wind and playing the hero\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, my biggest thing was that I really needed to pee,\u201d began the Blue Bombers affable placekicker with his trademark wide, wide grin. \u201cSo, when Vernon (Adams, Jr., Calgary\u2019s quarterback) was driving late in the game, I went up to (Brad) Fotty (ace equipment man) and he told me to go talk to Al (Couture, head athletic therapist) because he had a pee bag. But Al was busy because we had a couple late injuries back-to-back on defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I went back to Fotty and I\u2019m like, \u2018Look, I\u2019ve got a feeling I might kick. Can you block things so I can release?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Castillo went No. 1 and then kicked the game-winning three.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cJams (punter and holder Jamieson Sheahan), Ian (Leroux, long snapper) and I were communicating. We were the whole game because other than the Grey Cup in \u201921 this was the rowdiest wind we\u2019ve ever been in \u2014 it was very hard,\u201d said Castillo. \u201cGoing that way where we kicked the winner sometimes I was aiming right-center, sometimes I was aiming left-center. It was a hard wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cFull credit to Jams. It\u2019s like when you\u2019re golfing and you have a great caddy. It\u2019s all about the communicating. I wasn\u2019t sure because of the wind but having him there is so amazing to help me calm down. A lot of props to him, to Ian for the snap and for the offence for getting us there.\u201d<\/p>\n

One more from Castillo, who as we mentioned in our Game Recap Friday played the hero with his wife and two kids in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve mentioned this to you before, but I didn\u2019t grow up with my dad,\u201d he said. \u201cMy dream was kicking, but my biggest dream was to have a family and so for me to do this and have my wife and my two kids with me here? I don\u2019t know how to explain it right now, but I\u2019m living my dream as a family man. And having my boy with me here in the locker room now \u2014 he\u2019s five \u2014 that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully years down the road he\u2019ll remember this but right now I\u2019m living the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICYMI, here is our Game Recap from on the scene in Calgary:<\/p>\n

Game Recap | Wpg 30 Cal 28<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

And what follows is this week\u2019s edition of UPON FURTHER REVIEW\u2026<\/p>\n

TIM WHITE SAT IN HIS LOCKER LATE FRIDAY NIGHT\u2026 and as he surveyed the room the smile on his face had enough wattage to illuminate all of McMahon Stadium.<\/p>\n

Little wonder, as the veteran receiver \u2014 brought aboard in late January following his release from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats \u2014 had led the team with five catches for 60 yards and scored his first touchdown as a Blue Bomber.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a great experience,\u201d White said. \u201cLooking to the left and the right, you see Pokey (Wilson) making plays, you see (Nic) Demski making plays, Tommy (Nield) making plays, Gavin (Cobb) making plays and then you see Brady (Oliveira) toting the rock\u2026 that\u2019s team football right there. It felt so great.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe checked a lot of boxes tonight. It\u2019s funny, during my time (in Hamilton) it felt like we were always opening against Calgary in Calgary (they did in 2024, 2025) and we never got a win. It shows the difference here in Winnipeg and how we operate. Again, great team football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great to be a Bomber \u2014 I can say that right now. It feels great to be around these teammates and how they\u2019re embracing me. This was really our first time to experience real battle together because in our first preseason game together a lot of guys weren\u2019t out there so we\u2019re still trying to figure things out. So to come out here and see how everything operates, what a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHITE WASN\u2019T THE ONLY NEW BLUE BOMBER\u2026 to have a solid debut. Defensive lineman Jake Ceresna brought down Adams, Jr. three times in his first game in Winnipeg colours. That\u2019s the first three-sack game by a Blue Bomber since Willie Jefferson had three since August 23rd, in a 34-28 Winnipeg win in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

My chat with Jake, post-game is here:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Said Collaros, when asked about not having to face the likes of Cerena and Jefferson as an opposition quarterback:<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to Jake before the game, I\u2019ve been waiting for this for a long time, my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

1 Both teams had gaudy second-and-long conversion numbers, which will have offensive coordinators gushing and defensive coordinators cranky. Winnipeg was 50 percent on all-second down conversions (8-of-19) while Calgary was at 60 percent (14-of-24). But on second and long (seven-plus yards), the Blue Bombers were at 67 percent (six-of-nine) while Calgary was at 53 percent (8-of-17).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an interesting game to watch and play,\u201d said Deatrick Nichols. \u201cA great CFL game. In the second half, we just bought in and everybody played their game. That\u2019s a good team over there and we just had to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

2 The special teams were solid for the Blue Bombers, not just in the numbers \u2014 Castillo connecting on both field goal attempts, Sheahan\u2019s punting, Trey Vaval\u2019s outstanding returns and decision making. Vaval had 105 yards on four punt returns, including a 53-yarder; added 69 yards on three kickoff returns and had 22 yards on a missed field goal return.<\/p>\n

3 Brady Oliveira\u2019s 113-yard rushing game propelled him into the Top 5 on the franchise\u2019s all-time rushing list, ahead of Gerry James. Oliveira is now at 5.593 rushing yards as a Blue Bomber \u2014 good for fifth place all time behind Charles Roberts (9,987), Leo Lewis (8,861), Willard Reaves (5,923) and Jim Washington (5,736).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they kicked the ball off and the ball went through the end zone after their last touchdown, Brady came to see me and said, \u2018We\u2019re winning this game,’\u201d said safety Redha Kramdi. \u201cIt was high emotion. We believed it. We believed in each other, and we had no doubt we were going to come out as winners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got grit in this room. We\u2019re going to put up a fight every time we step on the field. Nothing is going to be given and we\u2019re going to go and get it.\u201d \u2014 Redha Kramdi<\/p>\n

AND FINALLY\u2026 \u00a0for those of you who have made it to the bottom of this piece, thanks for reading. The condensed game is here for those who want to rewatch it or maybe missed it and want more than just a quick highlight package:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A working title for the now complete first chapter of the story of the 2026 Winnipeg Blue Bombers:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-720323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720323","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=720323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}