BLUE REVIEW: Only way forward has to be up for Bombers

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Mike O’Shea said it himself after his team mustered just nine points in Regina on Friday night.

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The only way forward for his Winnipeg Blue Bombers is up.

Anything worse for the head coach’s 2-5 club could curtail their 2024 campaign just as it approaches its midway mark.

With the Saskatchewan Roughriders moving to 5-1 with the 19-9 win over the Blue and Gold, they kept pace with the B.C. Lions atop the West Division with the same record.

It’d take a hell of a turnaround from the Bombers and quite the implosion from either of their divisional foes to catch them.

So that leaves the 2-3 Calgary Stampeders, who the Bombers beat in Week 6 to take the season series, as their likely shot at a playoff berth this fall. (Toronto, who the Bombers face next week, is 3-2 and well ahead regarding the crossover).

Calgary currently has two games in hand but plays B.C. at home on Sunday to round out this week’s CFL action.

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So there’s hope still for these Bombers, but few figured they’d be relying on it seven weeks into the season.

Let’s dig into this one.

THE POSITIVES

This won’t be a long section. Fair warning.

Brady Oliveira had 18 touches for 129 yards in the game, including catching all nine of his targets for 80 yards to lead Winnipeg’s passing game.

Almost all of those yards — 67, to be exact — came after the catch. Vintage, physical stuff from Oliveira on the night.

Meanwhile, he rumbled for 49 yards on nine carries, including two scampers of 10 yards or more.

Offensive coordinator Buck Pierce went away from giving Oliveira the rock on the ground in the second half, but he was holding his own against Saskatchewan’s terrific run defence.

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It provided little solace for the 26-year-old, who was pretty dejected talking on the CJOB post-game show.

“It sucks, man,” Oliveira said. “We didn’t make enough plays. I thought we could have been in more control of that game.

“We gotta be better. I gotta be better. We’ve gotta win games.”

Sergio Castillo drilled another 57-yard boot and had all nine of Winnipeg’s points in the game.

He’s been nearly automatic outside his Week 1 issue with the micro-chipped balls.

Perhaps too good because, with 93 seconds left in the first half, O’Shea elected to send him out on a 61-yard attempt that fell short.

Castillo hit from 60 yards earlier this year, so one more yard wasn’t out of the question, and he had been hitting from a couple of yards further in practice this past week. He just didn’t connect the way he would have wanted to.

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A special mention here goes to the officiating crew on Friday.

It was far from a positive, but perhaps there was some silver lining to having it play out on national TV in the week’s marquee game.

They were atrocious. Full stop. Period. End of discussion.

It was so bad, in fact, that TSN’s broadcast crew pointed it out several times.

And both teams felt it.

Kyrie Wilson was called on a holding call, but no holding occurred. Tyrell Ford was flagged for defensive pass interference on a play where he never touched the receiver.

Saskatchewan’s Deontai Williams was dinged for an illegal contact call. There’s still no footage of that happening.

And was Nic Demski taken down by a horse-collar tackle on his fumble?

The Bombers lost the game unquestionably due to their play. They didn’t have their challenge after O’Shea burned it early, trying to overturn an incomplete pass into a fumbled football.

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But the CFL needs to wake up. Friday was embarrassing.

THE NEGATIVES

What happened to the 41-point offence from a week ago?

That team seemed fine airing the ball out. This week’s iteration was tentative at best and only opened the taps late when they had to.

The offence seemed to fight it all night long, with two-time MOP Zach Collaros struggling to find anyone downfield as he ran through his reads.

Ontaria Wilson and Demski, stars of Winnipeg’s Week 6 win, were nowhere to be found through the first three quarters, with just a single catch each.

Wilson had 13 catches last week for 201 yards and could have been well on his way to a repeat performance had Collaros not underthrew him on a 50-yard pass in the first quarter.

Collaros was often left checking the ball down to Oliveira, hoping his running back would break off something big downfield.

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“Frustrating, for sure,” Collaros told reporters in Regina.

“We weren’t good enough on first downs. Any time you put yourself in second and seven-to-10 (yard) situations, the way they play, they keep everything in front of them, and I thought Brady did a good job of running after the catch tonight and trying to get us close to the sticks.”

Winnipeg was just 6-for-18 on second-down conversions.

When they did find something big to chew on, Demski quickly spat it back out, fumbling a 50-yard catch and run that would have had the Bombers with a fresh set of downs, down by a touchdown, on Saskatchewan’s 15-yard line.

Woof.

“If you can’t play clean in tight games, they’re hard to win,” O’Shea said.

Demski’s error only compounded problems for the Bombers, with ample blame to spread around.

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Collaros tossed a ball into double coverage on first down with the Bombers on Saskatchewan’s 27-yard line in the third quarter.

The ball was easily picked off for Collaros’s seventh interception of the season.

“You can’t throw that interception in that situation, a one-score game,” Collaros said. “That’s on me. Can’t do it.”

Collaros was lucky not to pay the piper a couple more times in the game. The one that got picked off was egregious, but his decision-making behind centre was iffy for large portions of the night.

“We’ll ride with Zach any day,” O’Shea said, supporting the veteran pivot. “He doesn’t have to prove himself.”

Even when the team did some good, such as Terrell Bond’s interception in the second quarter, a penalty quickly took it away, as TyJuan Garbutt was dinged for holding.

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The Bombers made six infractions on the night, totalling 81 yards.

“Not clean enough. Too many mistakes,” O’Shea said. “We took the ball away, a young guy takes a holding penalty – I mean, they’re going to happen – but we got points at the end of the half, probably, and we lose those.”

On the other side of the ball, Winnipeg’s defence struggled when it mattered most.

Neither team produced a big play in the first half, but the Bombers surrendered a pair of 30-plus-yard passes and another 21-yard rush to Riders quarterback Shea Patterson in the second half.

A first-half injury to talented receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker should have made things easier on Winnipeg’s secondary.

Instead, rookie Ajou Ajou torched Winnipeg for 110 yards on four catches in the second half, including a 46-yard run off of a short crossing route in the fourth quarter to set Brett Lauther up for his fourth field goal.

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The game-winning touchdown was caught by running back Clint Ratkovich, who went unseen out of the backfield on a Saskatchewan play fake and had no one around him when he reeled in his first CFL major to put the Riders up 13-6.

Patterson started just his third CFL game on Friday. He improved to 2-1 and looked confident tossing the ball deep while outduelling Collaros.

The Bombers managed just one sack.

It was another missed opportunity for the team, given the Riders were starting two rookie tackles, including right tackle Jacob Brammer, who made his first CFL start after former Bomber Jermarcus Hardrick suffered a quad injury last week.

CONCLUSION

O’Shea said he needs his young players to grow up quicker and his vets to lead a little more if the Bombers are going to turn this around.

They’re prepared to do that, O’Shea said.

That’s good news because the road isn’t getting any easier. They need Collaros to spearhead that charge.

The 3-2 Toronto Argos, who play the 0-5 Hamilton Tiger-Cats later on Saturday, await in Week 8 next Saturday.

And before the Bombers head on their first bye week of the season, they’ll host the Lions on Aug. 1.

Win both, and it’s game on. Lose them and we may be penning an obituary.

sbilleck@postmedia.com

X: @scottbilleck

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