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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers came into the inaugural Stampede Bowl unbeaten and riding high in the saddle after being pegged — once again — as Canadian Football League contenders.
They are now exiting Cowtown after being thrown from their steed and then lassoed, hogtied and branded by the Calgary Stampeders in sloppy, mistake-filled 37-16 loss in front of 22,485 at McMahon Stadium, a result which drops them to 3-1 — ditto for the Stamps — and takes a whole pile of shine off what had been an impressive unbeaten start to the season.
“We got our asses beat. I mean, it’s pretty straightforward,” said head coach Mike O’Shea afterward. “They played pretty well. We didn’t play well and they deserve full credit. They came out and put it on us pretty good.
“… We just didn’t play clean enough. We took some untimely penalties. I’m not sure we were clean enough in our execution and there’s going to be enough mistakes on there that you couple that with some penalties, some decision making and some ball security issues and it all adds up to that many points.
“Calgary is a different team. They’re a good football team and we knew that coming in. We just didn’t muster up enough juice to make a difference today.
“… When you lose this badly all three phases are putting their hands up to try and mess things up at some point.”
The Stamps were the far superior team on the debut of the Stampede Bowl, and took home a specially-designed trophy. As well, with Winnipeg President and CEO Wade Miller and Jay McNeil, his counterpart with the Stamps, having made a friendly wager on the game — the Blue Bombers will make a $25,000 donation to Purolator Tackle Hunger to Calgary.
Of course, that’s just a small side story to the bigger picture — a disturbing performance by the Blue Bombers.
“It feels like a bad dream almost,” said Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira. “This isn’t who we are and I think everyone can see that. We take pride in being the most physical unit and we played some physical football but there’s room for improvement on that end.
“We also take pride in playing clean football and we didn’t play clean football in all three phases. It’s hard to win games when you’re not playing clean football. It’s fine. We’ve got a really good group in this locker room. We’ll be fine.”
More on the Blue Bombers first loss of the season from our press box view at McMahon Stadium…
WHAT… THE… HECK… WAS… THAT?:
Winnipeg trailed 29-6 at halftime as Calgary’s Vernon Adams, Jr. effectively picked apart the Blue Bombers defence, beginning with a 43-yard touchdown to Clark Barnes on the game’s first possession.
Adams, Jr., named the inaugural MVP of the Stampede Bowl, finished the night 13 of 18 for 222 yards and two TDs — the second to Damien Alford — while Calgary also cranked out 114 yards on the ground, including 93 hard-earned yards by Dedrick Mills.
But the Blue Bombers mistakes were across the board, including two Pick-6s by Zach Collaros, the first by Damon Webb and the second courtesy Derrick Moncrief. The veteran pivot finished 34 of 48 for 288 yards and did connect with Jerreth Sterns for a late score, but the two picks were costly.
“They out played us,” said Collaros. “I’ll speak for the offence and myself. Obviously when you turn the football over — especially when it goes for touchdowns the other way — that’s not a winning recipe.
“We talked about playing a clean game. That’s one of our core tenants week in, week out and when you don’t do that, those kind of things happen.”
BRADY RETURNS:
The CFL’s reigning Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian, was back in the offensive huddle after missing the last two games with a shoulder injury. And if there was any doubt about his readiness it was answered early as his number was called six times on the club’s first offensive possession — a 12-play, 70-yard drive that stalled in the score zone and led to an 18-yard field goal.
He finished the night with 61 yards rushing on 13 carries and added another 51 yards on six receptions.
“When it gets taken away from you, even for a short moment like that, you really miss it and you realize how special this game is,” said Oliveira. “Win or loss I’m with the guys again competing and battling and playing the game I love. I don’t even consider it a job.
“It’s good to be back out there. Obviously, it’s not the result that we wanted but there’s a lot to improve on. This was really my first game of the season and I’m only going to get better. That’s exciting.”
KEY MOMENT:
The Blue Bombers were down 22-3 in the second quarter when Adams, Jr. connected with Jalen Philpot for a 66-yard explosion play that was emblematic of the opening 30 minutes for Winnipeg’s defence.
Three plays later the Stamps were in the end zone again on a Dedrick Mills two-yard run and had wrapped both hands around the Blue Bombers throats and were squeezing hard.
KEY STAT: 37
The Blue Bombers were nailed for 37 points — 14 coming on the two interception returns — but it was the most points surrendered by the club in a regular season game since a 41-37 win over these same Stamps last July 12th in Winnipeg.
NEXT: The Blue Bombers now head into their second bye of the season next week and return to action on Friday, July 18th against these same Stampeders at Princess Auto Stadium.
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This story originally appeared at bluebombers.com and is republished here with permission.