{"id":853589,"date":"2026-08-11T01:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853589\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T01:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:20:18","slug":"things-just-snowballed-on-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853589\/","title":{"rendered":"Things just snowballed on us."},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the downsides of losing two straight \u2014 the second coming just before a bye week \u2014 is the autopsy is painfully thorough and exhaustive, and the growing angry mob lingers longer with their proverbial torches and pitchforks.<\/p>\n

Yes, welcome to life in Bomberland this week, where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are continuing to both revisit and move on from consecutive home losses to the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions that have left some open and still festering wounds through a bye week and the first couple days of practice in advance of Friday\u2019s home date against the Ottawa RedBlacks.<\/p>\n

And the last loss \u2014 a 35-19 decision to the Lions in which the Blue Bombers gave up a franchise record 377 yards rushing and yet still led with six minutes left and trailed by just one with over three minutes remaining \u2014 is going to sting for a bit.<\/p>\n

As defensive coordinator Jordan Younger put it following practice on Monday, it\u2019s a \u2018learning experience but it is a painful experience. But pain teaches. Pain teaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tommy Condell<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers have so much to fix after the last two results which saw the club surrender 87 points, make some mistakes on special teams and, while riding the back of Brady Oliveira for consecutive 100-yard rushing games, still struggling to find the end zone. Or as offensive coordinator Tommy Condell put it, the attack is \u2018consistently inconsistent\u2019 adding, \u201cI could have done a better job, and it hurts me to my core that we weren\u2019t able to win that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good bye week but a bye week I wish we could have been able to smile a little bit more. But I\u2019m excited to be out here again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers look to be buoyed by the return of QB1 Zach Collaros, who has been out since early July, with the club going 3-2 under Dru Brown in relief. Right tackle Jarell Broxton and defensive tackle Cam Lawson are both back at their posts, while second-year Canadian Jaylen Smith has been working in the dime back spot usually held by Michael Griffin, who is now in a walking boot.<\/p>\n

Injury Report: August 10, 2026#ForTheW<\/a> | @DoctorsManitoba<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ipvQHqni3D<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) August 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Still, that 377 yards against is an obvious concern not just because it is an inglorious record, but because the run defence has been an issue for the club through much of the first eight games. Asked what he was feeling after giving up that many rushing yards, Younger said:<\/p>\n

\u201cSickness. Sickness and hurt for the players. I look at that situation, and you spend the whole bye week replaying it, going through it and with 3:15 left in the fourth and it\u2019s 20-19. You don\u2019t really care about the yards given up at that point, you just know you have a chance to win the game \u2014 it\u2019s a tight game, you\u2019ve got a chance and you need a stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings just snowballed on us. We make a mistake, give up a big one and after that we lost our composure. You\u2019ve got to be able to keep your composure and you\u2019ve got to be able to understand in the CFL anything is possible and you can\u2019t let that one mistake compound because that\u2019s what can happen in that situation \u2014 you go from 20-19 to to 36 or whatever it is in three minutes time. We\u2019ve just got to keep playing football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play defence; the scoreboard shouldn\u2019t matter in that situation, and we just didn\u2019t do a good job of keeping our composure.\u201d<\/p>\n

AGE-OLD QUESTION: Blue Bombers head coach Mike O\u2019Shea was asked again Monday about the suggestion the club is \u2018over the hill.\u2019 Just for context, based on the season-opening rosters the Blue Bombers\u2019 average age is 28.7 years, slightly older than the B.C. Lions (28.7) and Saskatchewan Roughriders (28.1) and just a year older than the youngest team in the league in the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (27.5 years).<\/p>\n

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Major Williams<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also forgetting that the roster against the Lions featured eight CFL rookies, four of them starters in cornerback Major Williams, defensive linemen David Reese and Michael Fletcher and centre Tyler Elsbury. That lineup also featured nine other second-year players.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome players are older than they were last year by a few months and we\u2019ve got some new guys,\u201d said O\u2019Shea. \u201cOld and too old are two very different things. We\u2019ve got a lot of experience. We have to draw upon that and play better football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by Paul Friesen of The Sun how to determine where the line is between old and too old, O\u2019Shea added:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe type of guys we have, I think it\u2019s pretty easy to tell they have that character, they have the intangibles that allow them to work harder and longer than most people on earth. There\u2019s a difference between \u2018can\u2019t\u2019 and \u2018didn\u2019t.\u2019 Some plays we didn\u2019t execute, but we\u2019re not seeing can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEXT MAN UP: The Blue Bombers have seen Jaylen Smith morph from a solid special teams player to a semi-regular on defence from his rookie campaign a year ago through this season. Now the second-year pro \u2014 another linebacker-defensive back hybrid \u2014 could see his workload increase significantly if he moves into Griffin\u2019s spot in the defence.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s O\u2019Shea on what he would expect from him in that role:<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowth. Any time you have a young guy who is getting more snaps there\u2019s a whole bunch of things that come into play for them that they need to figure out. And every snap probably gets a little better with every film session, whether it\u2019s game or practice, they learn more and it\u2019s accelerated \u2014 once they\u2019re playing more snaps on defence it\u2019s an accelerated growth period. We really liked him in the draft. We really liked him last year and he keeps on earning more time.\u201d<\/p>\n