WINNIPEG – In more than three seasons in their new facility, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have a grand total of seven wins at Investors Group Field. The Calgary Stampeders picked up their fifth win at IGF on Thursday as they defeated the Bombers 33-18. Calgary is now 5-0 at the football stadium on the University of Manitoba campus since it opened in 2013.
It was the same old story for the Bombers with another slow start. They trailed 20-3 at halftime and battled back to cut the lead to eight points, but in the end the deficit was just too much to overcome. The loss dropped the Bombers record to 1-4 on the season.
“Losing stinks, you know, but we’ll get back at it and regroup a little bit and get going on Edmonton.” said head coach Mike O’Shea.
Once again quarterback Drew Willy struggled to move the offence. Willy was pulled from the game after throwing an interception for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“We get down 20-3 against a good team, it’s tough.” said Willy. “I’m gonna watch the film and try to get better, always be a professional and do the right things. I’ll be ready to go.”
Willy was 23 of 33 on the night for 234 yards with one costly interception.
WATCH: RAW – Quarterback Drew Willy
His replacement, Matt Nichols needed just four plays to march the Bombers into the endzone. He found Weston Dressler on a three yard pass for the Bombers only touchdown of the game. It was also Dressler’s first touchdown with the Bombers. Nichols finished the game by completing nine of his 15 passes for 88 yards.
“I’d like to be out there in better circumstances.” Nichols said. “And I thought we had some good chances during the game to swing it our way. We just need to find a way to make those plays on all phases and do a better job.”
As for who will start at quarterback next week when they travel to Edmonton, O’Shea said that is a decision they’ll make as a group.
“That’s a decision we’ll make later on in the week.” said O’Shea. “I’ll sit down and talk to the offensive coaching staff and we’ll watch the film together and we’ll figure things out.”
But the play of their quarterback was far from the only issue in their loss to the Stampeders. Stamps QB Bo Levi Mitchell picked apart the Bombers secondary in the first half and finished the game with 310 yards passing with three touchdowns. The Bombers defense came back to life in the second half after a lackluster start to the game.
The Bombers running game never really got in sync. Running back Andrew Harris had just five net yards rushing in the first half. He finished with 10 carries for 28 yards for just a 2.8 yards per carry average.
The Bombers also had four turnovers.
“These guys, they believe we’ve got talent.” said O’Shea. “We’ve got to get going. Obviously we got to put something together and get some wins. But what are we, 1 and 4. Recent history shows that there’s teams that have started off a little bit worse and done very well.”
Dressler was the Bombers leading receiver with 12 catches for 118 yards with one touchdown. Darvin Adams also cracked the century mark with 109 yards receiving.
No less than five starters left the game with injuries. The secondary was hit the hardest as only two of their five starters finished the game. Macho Harris, Chris Randle, and Julian Posey were all forced from the game. Offensive linemen Patrick Neufeld and Jermarcus Hardrick also had to leave the game and O’Shea could not provide an update on any of the injured players. Defensive tackle Jake Thomas was forced to play on the offensive line for much of the second half.
WATCH: RAW – Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea
Comments