Bombers face long off-season after loss

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This article was published 21/11/2023 (721 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

By Jeff Hamilton and Taylor Allen

HAMILTON — Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to explain the scene in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker room.

There were grown men crying, while others sat in silence, shocked and angered at what had just unfolded, with a few already dressed and seated on the team bus waiting outside. Falling 28-24 to the Montreal Alouettes, a team that was viewed as a heavy underdog all week, in the 110th Grey Cup Sunday was an impossible pill to swallow.

The loss cost the Bombers the chance to seal themselves as a dynasty. Two Grey Cups in four consecutive trips to the championship game is undoubtedly impressive, but it doesn’t give you the same lasting legacy that three CFL titles in four years does.

What made it even more painful was the Bombers led for a majority of the game, only to lose the lead and regain it again before the Alouettes stunned the heavy favourites with a game-winning drive in the dying seconds.

While disappointing for Bomber fans, it was a truly incredible game, filled with big plays and suspense from start to finish. That it was the first time the Bombers and Alouettes were meeting in the Grey Cup just added an extra layer to a battle that wasn’t short on juicy storylines.

Players will have one more chance to have their say on the season when they clean out their lockers Tuesday morning. But before we look too far ahead, let’s take a glance back at Sunday’s loss in the latest and final edition of 5 Takeaways.

1.) Zach Collaros is going to lose a lot of sleep over this pass.

It was the third quarter when the Bombers had the ball at Montreal’s nine-yard line with a 17-14 lead. Nic Demski had some separation as he ran across the field, and Oliveira had space in the middle of the field, but Collaros forced a pass to the corner of the end zone to Kenny Lawler. The ball was underthrown and picked off by defensive back Kabion Ento.

Interception, punt, punt, touchdown, punt, punt is what Collaros and Co. managed with their seven second half possessions.

It’s a team game, but for someone who’s considered the best quarterback in the CFL, Collaros needs to be better under the bright lights.

In 12 career playoff games, Collaros has seven touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Collaros completed 19-of-23 passes for 236 yards, zero touchdowns and the lone pick on Sunday. The No. 1 offence in the league struggled to make any explosion plays.

Head coach Mike O’Shea was asked for his thoughts on how Collaros played.

He wouldn’t bite.

“’He’s the best quarterback in the league,” O’Shea responded.

Oliveira did his part with 119 rushing yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.

It’s a head scratcher as to why the Bombers didn’t give their star rusher the ball more.

Oliveira, who also fumbled in the red zone in the second quarter, was in tears after the game and needed some time to himself before speaking with reporters. Once he returned to his locker stall, he was asked if the team should’ve ran the ball more. A Bombers staff member quickly warned him to take it easy before answering the question.

Oliveira has played brilliantly in his two Grey Cups as a starter — he rushed 15 times for a game-high 82 yards last year — but hasn’t been rewarded for it.

2.) You got to give a ton of credit to the Alouettes. They were counted out all week long, forced to answer questions about the challenges of being an inferior team and the mountain they’d have to climb if they hoped to beat an experienced Bombers club.

The expectation was the Alouettes would have to lean heavily on their defence, a unit that had carried them in a dominating win over the 16-2 Toronto Argonauts in the Eastern Final, because the theory was that a Cody Fajardo-led offence didn’t stand a chance. But while the D made plenty of plays, including forcing two turnovers and sacking Collaros four times, it was a balanced attack that led to the underdogs winning.

It was an impressive effort by Fajardo, who had to have been asked over the week about his 0-9 record against Collaros at least 10 times by assembled media. Fajardo took the high road, noting over and over about wanting to prove the supporters right rather than the doubters wrong.

Fajardo finished the night 21-for-26 passing for 290 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, good enough for an eye-popping 141 QB efficiency rating. But it’s what he was able to do down the stretch, especially on the eventual game-winning drive, that cemented him as the winner of the game’s most outstanding player.

The touchdown pass to Tyson Philpot with 13 seconds remaining was the icing on the cake. That wouldn’t have been possible, though, without some heroics from Fajardo on a couple of earlier plays, including a 13-yard run following an eight-yard sack that set up a manageable third-and-five, which he converted with a beautiful 31-yard pass to Cole Spieker.

For an organization that was dead in the water in March, with the CFL having to take over temporary ownership, it’s among the most incredible single-season turnarounds every seen in this league.

3.) For the second Grey Cup in a row, the Bombers defence blew the save.

In 2022, it was Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly with the late-game heroics to down Winnipeg 24-23.

This time, it was Fajardo and Philpot that the Bombers couldn’t stop at the end to save the day.

The game-winning score came against cornerback Demerio Houston who had an incredibly tough night at the office. The Als picked on Houston for a large chunk of the game, and the CFL’s leader in interceptions also missed a tackle on William Stanback’s 32-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

The pass rush wasn’t at its best, either. The Bombers sacked Fajardo twice — one week after recording nine sacks against the B.C. Lions. The Als O-line surrendered nine sacks in the Eastern Final but rebounded nicely Sunday and gave Fajardo a fair amount of time to work with.

With that said, the loss doesn’t fall on the shoulders of the defence.

They came up clutch before the half with Gauthier stuffing short-yardage quarterback Caleb Evans on a third and one at the goal line to keep the Bombers lead at 17-7 heading into the break.

Halfback Evan Holm also made a huge play in the fourth when he intercepted Fajardo on a deep shot to Austin Mack.

Unfortunately for them, it’ll be the final drive that gets remembered.

4.) Adam Bighill was so confident that he wasn’t going to play Sunday that he didn’t pack his bag at the beginning of the week.

The 35-year-old linebacker tore his right calf in the Western Final on a non-contact play that had many assuming he had zero shot at suiting up for the Grey Cup.

Then there was Dalton Schoen, the team’s leading receiver who went down Oct. 6 in a game in Vancouver with an ankle injury and hadn’t practised since.

Neither one took the field for pre-game warmup, but one hour before kickoff, the Bombers announced they were both active.

It made for a great story, but was it the right call?

No one can argue Bighill’s toughness and determination, but he looked nothing like himself out there. He reaggravated his calf in the first half before returning in the third quarter. Fajardo went right after him and threw a 23-yard touchdown to Cole Spieker to cut Winnipeg’s lead down to 17-14.

Bighill finished with one tackle.

Schoen, who’s made a name for himself by stretching the field, was limited to three catches for 36 yards.

If there’s a knock on O’Shea, it’s that he can be loyal to a fault, and this was one of those instances.

Bighill shouldn’t have played. The Bombers had options at linebacker with Shayne Gauthier, Malik Clements, and Brian Cole II all being fine players. Schoen was more effective, but he even admitted postgame that he was surprised O’Shea allowed him to start considering he was out for six weeks.

They weren’t the only two playing hurt as receiver Rasheed Bailey has been battling through a grade-two hamstring tear.

O’Shea has some questions to answer on Tuesday before everyone returns home.

5.) This is going to be the most interesting off-season for the Blue and Gold in some time. I don’t foresee another winter of players texting one another looking to run it back, as has been the case the last couple of years, though I suppose that’s still a possibility.

The fact is there are going to be players headed for retirement. No one was naming names, of course, but there were several comments this past week seriously hinting at some guys not being back next year and wanting them to go out on a high with another Grey Cup. As with every team, there will be dozens of pending free agents to re-sign.

Oliveira is on an expiring contract and while I can only assume Bombers president and CEO Wade Miller will do everything in his power to get the homegrown star to re-sign, it might not be up to him. Oliveira told the Free Press this week that he plans to explore the NFL.

Some might debate the likelihood of him cracking an NFL roster at 26, but that’s his plan and I imagine, given his breakout season, there will be at least some team workouts in his future. If Oliveira does return to the CFL, it’s not going to be cheap to keep him, not after winning the league’s most outstanding Canadian and finishing runner up for most outstanding player.

That doesn’t even take into consideration the management and coaching staff. Bombers offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce is ready to become a head coach but does he want it now and would the Saskatchewan Roughriders be interested in taking a chance on someone who’s never done the gig?

General manager Kyle Walters, along with assistant GMs Ted Goveia and Danny McManus, are all in need of new deals next season. Miller, who said those talks would begin as early as this week, will have to try and fit all these extensions under a tight non-football operations cap.

Add it all up and there’s a ton of work to get done over the winter. The road to redemption continues.

» Winnipeg Free Press