It’s finally time to bring on the regular season as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers wrapped up their preseason schedule Friday night with a 31-10 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Princess Auto Stadium.
The game gave Bombers coaches and management one last look at their roster hopefuls before final cuts, as the team chose to sit all of their starters on offence and defence from last season and fielded a very young group.
Calgary played many of their regulars during Friday’s game.
The Bombers could only muster 121 yards of net offence and just seven first downs with four turnovers. The Stamps led by a wide margin in time of possession by almost 13 minutes, and the Bombers gave up a sack in the end zone for a safety.
“Everybody still hates losing no matter what,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “It just feels crappy, you know. Certainly liked some of the things in the first half. I liked the way our defence was swarming. I thought there was a bunch of tackles where we had a lot of guys in on it. The defence gets worn down a little bit, but they have to know that if we need them to play that many plays, they got to play that many plays.”
One of the few bright sports for the Bombers was on special teams, highlighted by a 109-yard punt return touchdown in the second quarter from Chris Smith.
“It’s as long as they get,” O’Shea said. “That’s fantastic.”
“It felt amazing,” said Smith. “I didn’t play football in over a year, and man, just to get back in the end zone, that’s my first punt return for a touchdown since high school.”
Smith also had 16 rushing yards on six carries and would seem to have a lock on the returners job as the Blue and Gold look to find a replacement returner for Janarion Grant, who signed in Toronto earlier this week.
“That’s the job I want to win,” Smith said. “I think if I can just keep doing that, I can win that job and just help this team to get to where we want to be at. Training camp is for opportunities, so you got to take full advantage of them.”
On offence, quarterback Terry Wilson threw for just 70 yards, and tossed two interceptions.
With Zach Collaros and Chris Streveler both sitting out, Wilson and QB Darren Grainger combined for just 83 yards passing.
Receiver Josh Johnson had 26 yards on a pair of catches.
One of the lone experienced Bombers in the lineup, kicker Sergio Castillo, made his lone 42-yard field goal attempt and tacked on an extra point.
The game was delayed for over 20 minutes due to a thunderstorm that rolled through the city.
Cuts will be made this weekend, and then preparations will begin for the Bombers season opener on Thursday at Princess Auto Stadium against the Montreal Alouettes, a rematch of last season’s Grey Cup game. The pregame show will begin on 5:30 p.m. on 680 CJOB, with kickoff set for just after 7:30 p.m.