The Blue Bombers will try to end a two-game losing streak Friday against the Ottawa RedBlacks; photo by Sam Calvert
Let’s rewind to a happier and simpler time when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were on a winning streak, the defence had solved some early season woes against the run and the doom and gloom swirling around the local football side was at a low simmer.
Oh yes, that wonderful time and those glorious days… way back some 33 days ago.
Fast forward now to the present and the eve of the Blue Bombers reaching the midway point of the 2026 Canadian Football League season absolutely-positively needing a result against the Ottawa RedBlacks Friday night to put a tourniquet on the arterial bleeding from a two-game skid and turn down the criticism now boiling like a witch’s cauldron.
As Willie Jefferson told me earlier in the week in a chat about the dark clouds forming overhead:
“It’s on us to bring the sun out.”
Bingo.
And as much as so many in Bomber Nation wanted heads to roll following consecutive double-digit losses to the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions — the latter featuring a franchise-worst 377 yards rushing against — the Blue Bombers went into and came out of the bye week still believing they have the lineup to still make some noise in the West Division.
Depending on your disposition, that’s either admirable or naive but it is worth noting that after Friday’s date with the winless RedBlacks the Blue Bombers are on the road to face the Edmonton Elks, home to the Montreal Alouettes before facing the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Labour Day Classic/Banjo Bowl doubleheader — four games against the league’s elite before their third and final bye week.
BLUE BOMBERS (4-4) vs REDBLACKS (0-8)
Kickoff: Friday, 7:30 p.m. CDT; Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg
TV/Streaming: TSN; RDS2; CFL+
Radio: 680 CJOB; Play-by-play: Derek Taylor | Analyst: Doug Brown;
Streaks: Wpg.: 2L; Ott.: 8L
Game theme: Country Night
“This league is all about runs,” said veteran receiver Nic Demski. “Once we get over that hump, once we find that rhythm, I do believe we’re going to be a hard team to stop. There are great teams in this league, and this team is full of great talent, but I do think once we get our groove going, we’re going to be a hard team to stop. We really do shoot ourselves in the foot here and there and once we get rid of that and start playing consistently the potential is real.
“We have the personnel. I have all the trust in the world in this organization. We have to go out there and prove it. We can’t just keep saying we have the personnel, we have to go out there and play the way we’re capable of playing.”
Bingo x 2.
See, we’re at the point now with this edition of the Blue Bombers where the talking means nothing without the results. It is — as Jefferson so aptly put it — on the team now to bring the sun out.
“It’s all about the attention to detail,” he said. “Right now, you don’t want to give a lot of speeches. We know we’re a good team. We know we’re a good defence when we play together and communicate. We’ve got to get back to having fun on the field. We’ve got another home game against a team that is still trying to find out who they are, too.
“We’ve got a chance to get a second win at home. That’s hard to say with the team we’ve had over the years. A win at home, especially after those two tough back-to-back losses, would be big. It’ll be huge as a mental boost going into this run that we’re about to go on. We don’t want to look ahead to what we’ve got next week or the weeks after that. We’ve got Ottawa at home. We’ve got to handle our business.”
ZACH’S BACK
Numbers we sometimes forget given the run of success in Bomberland over the last few years: Zach Collaros is 91-56 in his career as a starter in this league with Toronto, Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. Even more impressive, he is 57-24 in the regular season in his career in Winnipeg, ranking him third in franchise wins all-time behind only Kenny Ploen (82-52-1) and Dieter Brock (71-48-1).
The Blue Bombers are 9-5 in games without Collaros since he became QB1 in October of 2019 with Dru Brown (4-3), Chris Streveler (5-1), and Sean McGuire (0-1) at the controls in his place.
Collaros, FYI, had completed 71.8 percent of his passes for 985 yards and five TDs against three interceptions before the injury.
“He certainly has a leadership style. He’s got ‘It’ — it sort of oozes off him,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “It’s not always words and it’s not always actions. There’s always a combination of things where you can feel the leadership. Even in the meeting room, you can sense that experience as a leader. He’s been doing this for a long time, and he just has a command and a presence — that’s probably the word I’m looking for — that is unique to him and his style. It’s authentic.”
“So far it’s been amazing — it’s always good having Zach back,” added Tim White. “He has great leadership. It’s displayed when he’s out there on the field just in his energy. He’s such a competitor.
“Not having Zach in the offence the last few games did impact us, but it’s really about our execution. We’ve got to execute better. We have to understand the gameplan to where we feel comfortable and can dominate in it. Then it’s about the mentality of how great can we be and how much can we push ourselves to be great, because I still think we can be great.”
REMEMBER 377
Brace yourselves, Bomber faithful, as we violently and viciously open up an old wound… the 377 yards rushing allowed by Winnipeg’s defence in the loss to the Lions established a new club record for ineptitude in that department.
As we pointed out in this piece, the 377 rushing yards against included 206 in the fourth quarter alone — more than any single GAME allowed by the defence since July 1, 2016.
The old record for most rushing yards allowed in a game, by the way, had stood for seven decades, having first been established in 1956. Just to put that into context, Louis St. Laurent was Canada’s Prime Minister, The Ten Commandments starring Charleston Heston was the top movie, Jean Beliveau of the Canadiens was the leading scorer in the NHL, it was a year before Bud Grant became the Blue Bombers head coach, and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees won the Triple Crown.
So, yeah, that’s a long-ass time ago.
“A number like that, it really ticks you off, especially because they only had 10 points going into the last four-five minutes of the game,” defensive lineman Jake Ceresna told bluebombers.com earlier this week. “We’ve got to be better. It was like we were trying to do too much; we weren’t on the same page and when you get into those situations as a football player and you’re trying to make a play, sometimes you’re not in your gap and it hurts your team more. We’ve just got to be more assignment sound; make sure we do our job and our 1 1/12th and trust the other guy is going to do the same.
“It’s just really frustrating. But the positive out of that, if there can be one, is that when we watched the film it’s not the other team necessarily beating us, it’s us beating ourselves. It’s fixable. We just have to be on the same page. Trust the defence more, trust in each other more.”
REKINDLE THE HOME TURF MAGIC
Let’s be blunt here: Blue Bomber faithful have done their thing — as per usual — through the first five home games this year with five straight crowds of 30,000-plus.
The football team itself, meanwhile, hasn’t been the consistent home powerhouse it has been over the previous eight seasons. The Blue Bombers owned the best home record in the CFL last year at 7-2 and were 56-14 in their own back yard since the start of 2017.
And this year? Try 1-4 overall with losses by 22 and 16 in their last two home appearances and three of the four losses by double-digit margins.
“We’ve had great crowds. We’ve had great weather conditions for our home games,” said Willie Jefferson. “There’s no reason why we can’t keep teams out of the end zone, us put the ball in the end zone and get our special teams do their thing — especially at home.
“We’ve got to get back to playing Winnipeg football and bring our ‘A’ game, not ‘OK’ football. We’ve got to hold each other accountable, communicate, execute. It’s not complicated.”
THE LINEUP: The Blue Bombers have made five changes to the roster for Friday’s game with QB Zach Collaros, right tackle Jarell Broxton and defensive tackle Cam Lawson all returning from injury and with LBs Dylan Hazen and Brody Clark back on the roster.
Of note: Brady Oliveira is listed as ‘GTD’ — game time decision — and if he can’t go expect Matthew Peterson to be activated as the RB while QB Taylor Elgersma and OL Micah Vanterpool have been put on the reserve roster. Jaylen Smith will also start at the dime spot for Michael Griffin II, who was hurt in the loss to B.C. and has been moved to the six-game injured list.
Also on the six-game list are safety Cam Allen, DT De’Shaan Dixon, defensive back Redha Kramdi and linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox.
