It was heartbreak and disappointment for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers all over again.
The Blue Bombers lost in the Grey Cup for the third straight year with a 41-24 defeat to the Toronto Argonauts. It was the second time in the last three years the Argos beat the Bombers in the championship game as the Argos claimed their 19th Grey Cup championship, the most in CFL history.
The Bombers trailed by only four points to start the final quarter but were outscored 24-11 in the fourth as they came up short yet again.
“It’s still pretty raw,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “Anytime you don’t win your last game, there’s a tendency to view it as failure. I don’t know about that. It was a hell of a ride this year, quite a different season. We just didn’t play our best football at the end.”
And with the emotion written all over their face, it appeared their third straight loss in the championship game hurt a little more than the last two.
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“It feels pretty bad every time,” quarterback Zach Collaros said. “There’s just so many people in the locker room you care for, you develop deep bonds with. You put in a lot of time, a lot of work together, so to not have it go your way in the ultimate game is obviously tough.”
The Bombers had won 10 of their last 11 games to enter the Grey Cup, but committed five very costly turnovers when it mattered the most.
“Everybody wants to make more plays,” said O’Shea. “It was a tight game. I don’t know what time in the fourth but when Willie (Jefferson) gets that interception, we get a field goal off of that. I think we’re down four, right? And then just couldn’t make it work after that.”
Collaros had to leave the game briefly in the second half after injuring his hand. He went to the locker room for stitches and returned with a glove on his throwing hand. But Collaros threw interceptions on their next three straight series to sink their chances.
“I don’t know if I took a helmet or kind of a hand hit it,” said Collaros. “A little bloody, had to get some stitches in it. And numb it but it’s not an excuse for our performance tonight. And I appreciate Osh (O’Shea) and the guys for letting me trying to gut it out there.”
“If it was a regular season game, he wouldn’t have went back in,” O’Shea said. “It was a hand injury. He really had an extremely hard time gripping the ball as he put a glove on it on his hand. That’s not something he would normally do. He still couldn’t get a real good handle on the ball and pass the way he’s used to passing.”
Collaros finished the game with only 202 yards passing with four interceptions.
“I think it was very difficult for him to have the control on the ball that he would normally have,” said O’Shea.
Collaros has now thrown six interceptions with no touchdown passes in their three straight Grey Cup defeats.
“Obviously disappointed,” he said. “Things kinda snowballed there. It’s just tough. It was just a tough situation.”
The Bombers offence never really found it’s groove as the CFL’s most outstanding player Brady Oliveira had only 11 carries for 84 yards rushing.
“They made a lot of plays tonight,” said O’Shea. “And we didn’t make as many.
“When you lose, you’re always going to want some plays back.”
A team from Winnipeg has still never beaten a Toronto team in the Grey Cup game with Toronto coming out victorious in all nine times they’ve met for the championship.
The Argos have also won in their last eight straight trips to the Grey Cup.
The Bombers are the first team in almost 70 years to lose in three consecutive Grey Cups with Montreal being the last from 1954-1956.
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