{"id":853156,"date":"2026-08-10T16:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853156\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T16:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:44:13","slug":"winnipeg-blue-bombers-looking-to-get-back-to-dominant-ways-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853156\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Blue Bombers looking to get back to dominant ways at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Samantha Keen\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Princess Auto Stadium was virtually impossible.<\/p>\n

From 2019 to 2025, the team went a remarkable 48-8 at home, playoffs included. It\u2019s not only one of the best runs in CFL history but the history of professional football.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a coincidence that attendance spiked during this time. Winnipeg led the CFL in attendance for the first time ever in 2022, a trend that\u2019s continued since. The team enjoyed its first-ever sold-out season in 2025<\/a> and crowds have remained strong this year at over 99 percent capacity.<\/p>\n

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The problem is that the team is 1-4 at home this season. The Blue Bombers are on pace to lose as many home games in 2026 as the previous six seasons combined.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Our home record is)\u00a0unfortunate. I think\u00a0all my teammates would say the same thing, too. We want to go out there and entertain, put on a show for\u00a0the greatest fan base in the league. Honestly, they\u00a0support us, they pack Princess Auto Stadium every single home game,\u00a0they\u2019re loud, and we just haven\u2019t been good enough for them this year, so I think we all realize that,\u201d said star running back Brady Oliveira.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u00a0is it going to take? I mean, we\u2019ve been so dominant at home over the last number of years. We\u00a0play a certain style of football, and I think we\u2019ve definitely shown glimpses of it this year. We\u2019ve\u00a0just gotta\u00a0be consistent. We\u2019ve gotta\u00a0find ways to finish, especially on offence, and\u00a0score points. Halfway through the season, there\u2019s\u00a0still a lot of opportunities ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franchise quarterback Zach Collaros appears set to return to the starting lineup this week<\/a>, which could help the team\u2019s fortunes. The 37-year-old sat out Winnipeg\u2019s last four games due to a neck injury and the club went 2-2 in his absence, with both losses occurring at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have\u00a0the greatest fans there is. One of the\u00a0nice things about being out (of the lineup) is you get to be a part of that,\u00a0and feel that adrenaline from a different vantage point, so that was really cool. There\u2019s moments that I could think of during\u00a0that stretch where, like, \u2018Man, I understand why people love coming to these\u00a0games.\u2019 It\u2019s\u00a0amazing, our fans are the best,\u201d said Collaros.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s just executing. It\u2019s\u00a0living in the moment, play\u00a0to play. Finding joy in what you do in each and every play, and if you do\u00a0make a mistake, if\u00a0you\u00a0don\u2019t execute at your highest level, leave it right there and continue on the next play. I think that we have the right guys. I think that we\u2019re a very talented group. On any given day when we go out there to execute, I\u2019m very confident that we can win the game.\u00a0I\u2019ve felt that way since I got here, and I still feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winnipeg hasn\u2019t had a losing record at home since 2016 but appear destined for one this year barring a striking turnaround. The team has yet to host the Montreal Alouettes or Saskatchewan Roughriders this season, which are the consensus top-two teams in the CFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For head coach Mike O\u2019Shea, he\u2019s not focused on where his team is playing, but how his team is playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not looking at home or away, we\u2019re looking at how do we play our best football,\u201d he said. \u201cWherever it is:\u00a0this parking lot, a foreign country, it doesn\u2019t matter. We\u2019ve gotta\u00a0play our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Redblacks are scheduled to visit Winnipeg on Friday night as they remain in search of their first win this season at 0-8.<\/p>\n

The two teams met in the nation\u2019s capital in mid-July, where the Blue Bombers erased a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win 36-34 in overtime<\/a>. The Redblacks dropped five would-be interceptions in the game, letting Winnipeg off the hook in what was ultimately a sloppy effort.<\/p>\n

With Ottawa still in search of its first victory, the Blue and Gold aren\u2019t taking them likely.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We\u2019re expecting) their best,\u201d said O\u2019Shea. \u201cAgainst every team, you have to expect their best, and if you expect anything less, that\u2019s the recipe for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t look at their record,\u201d said Oliveira. \u201cAt the end of the day, they\u2019re professional football players, they\u2019re getting coached, they\u2019ve got family to feed, and they\u2019ve gotta earn their paycheque.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve gotta expect everyone\u2019s best, it\u2019s professional football \u2014 I don\u2019t care what your record is, they\u2019re gonna come line up across you, they\u2019re gonna try to beat you, they\u2019re gonna try to hit you in the mouth, so you\u2019ve gotta be prepared. It doesn\u2019t matter what their record says.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Blue Bombers, a win would get them back over .500 at the midway point of the season, while a loss would send fans home disappointed for a fifth time this year.<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-4) will host the Ottawa Redblacks (0-8) at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday, August 14 with kickoff scheduled for 8:30 p.m. EDT. The Redblacks suffered a 42-20 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week, while the Blue Bombers were on bye.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast in Winnipeg calls for 23 degrees with a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS2 in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa or 680 CJOB in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

John Hodge is a longtime Canadian football reporter, insider, and podcaster for 3DownNation. Based in Winnipeg, Hodge is also a freelance television and radio broadcaster and curling reporter for Rock Channel.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Samantha Keen\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. Not long ago, beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Princess Auto Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[166835,166836,22070,22936,110975,49,48,7028,520,527,296713,170990,123198,22073,7504,52049],"class_list":["post-853156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-blue-bombers","tag-bombers","tag-brady-oliveira","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-football","tag-home-field","tag-mike-oshea","tag-princess-auto-stadium","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-blue-bombers","tag-zach-collaros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853156","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=853156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}