{"id":814267,"date":"2026-07-20T14:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/814267\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:09:33","slug":"brown-led-bombers-storm-back-after-trailing-26-9-to-beat-redblacks-in-o-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/814267\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown-led Bombers storm back after trailing 26-9 to beat Redblacks in O\/T"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Dru Brown couldn&#8217;t contain his big smile as he walked off the field at TD Place Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old quarterback engineered an impressive fourth quarter comeback before leading the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-2) to a 36-34 overtime victory over the winless Ottawa Redblacks (0-6).<\/p>\n<p>Brown, who spent the past two seasons in Ottawa, was traded to Winnipeg last month after he was relegated to backup duties behind Jake Maier.<\/p>\n<p>Brown downplayed the significance of the game all week, but admitted this particular victory felt a little sweeter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, definitely feels good, but I&#8217;m just happy to be where I&#8217;m at and appreciate it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I appreciate the people here, and I loved my time here, you know, but I&#8217;m looking forward to being in Winnipeg.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Brown started slowly on Sunday and with the Redblacks leading 26-9 heading into the fourth quarter things didn&#8217;t look great for Brown or his Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n<p>Winnipeg&#8217;s comeback started with a 39-yard Sergio Castillo field goal. Brown then cut the deficit to 26-19 with 7:15 remaining when he connected with Nic Demski for an eight-yard touchdown pass.<\/p>\n<p>With time winding down, Brown managed to get the Bombers down field and found Ontaria Wilson on the goal-line for a touchdown to tie the game at 32-32 with 63 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We just stay in the fight,&#8221; said Brown. &#8220;Our offence, our defence and our special teams competed all night, and the offence might have been asleep for the first half, but winning looks different every week, and I just appreciate those guys and how they competed all night and gave us a chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Brown finished the game with two touchdowns and 317 yards passing.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A football player in white and blue and gold jumps in the air in celebration while an opposing player in black and red looks on dejectedly.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784556572_269_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4836795252225519\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Nic Demski jumps in celebration after his touchdown as teammate Brady Oliveira reaches to catch him. (Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n<p>In overtime the teams exchanged field goals on each of their first two possessions forcing them into sudden death two-point conversions under the CFL&#8217;s new overtime rules.<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa&#8217;s Geno Lewis made an impressive catch under double coverage, but Winnipeg responded with Brown finding Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>Winnipeg took the lead when Brown found Gavin Cobb in nearly the exact same spot on the next series. Ottawa wasn&#8217;t able to respond.<\/p>\n<p>Maier had a solid outing for the Redblacks, throwing for 344 yards and one touchdown, but he still hasn&#8217;t been able to lead Ottawa to victory and knows many will judge him by his record.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s what you sign up for and you mostly ignore it,&#8221; admitted Maier. &#8220;I mean, that&#8217;s the truth. I think you mostly just don&#8217;t pay too much attention to it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Maier admitted the criticism bothered him more when he was younger but now understands it&#8217;s part of the game.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A football quarterback in black and red holds the ball as he looks on, ready to pass.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784556573_1_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7323809523809524\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Jake Maier looks to pass during the first half of Sunday&#8217;s game. (Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n<p>Strangely enough, Brown came to Maier&#8217;s defence. The two remain close and talk on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He fought his ass off,&#8221; Brown said about Maier. &#8220;He&#8217;s a really good player. He doesn&#8217;t get enough credit, in my opinion. I know how that can be tough when you play that well and then you don&#8217;t get the win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa heads into a bye week and while he will take some personal time, head coach Ryan Dinwiddie knows there&#8217;s plenty of work ahead before they face the East Division-leading Montreal Alouettes on July 31.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in a win-loss result business and we&#8217;re rebuilding it a bit,&#8221; said Dinwiddie. &#8220;I know we had high expectations in here and we built a roster we thought we could win with, and we still believe in those guys.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There were improvements in Ottawa&#8217;s game but once again they failed to put together a full 60-minute effort. Four dropped interceptions will be something they&#8217;ll be sure to think about. Failing to convert on three chances with the ball on the goal line was unacceptable, too.<\/p>\n<p>Dinwiddie knows things won&#8217;t get any easier and players are experiencing frustration, but he&#8217;s proud of how they haven&#8217;t allowed it to fracture the group.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve stuck together,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s tough man. We&#8217;re going to search for some answers. We looked at some things from last week and there&#8217;s some things we&#8217;ll do differently.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-814267","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\/814267","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=814267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}