After a start where it looks like they wouldn’t be stopped, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers fell flat on both sides of the ball, and it cost them in the end.
The Bombers blew a 14-point first-half lead and fell 30-28 to the Toronto Argonauts in front of another sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium.
It was a tale of two halves as the Bombers were able to put up 21 points in the first two quarters but settled for just seven in the final 30 minutes.
“I think you can imagine everyone is pretty upset,” said quarterback Dru Brown. “We just didn’t come out in the second half and execute well in moments we needed to stay on the field.”
The Bombers had 270 yards of net offence in the first half, but just 115 yards in the second half and 76 of those all came on one play.
After passing for 178 yards in the first half, Brown threw for just 15 yards in the second half and had a pair of interceptions in the final two quarters.
“I hate throwing it to the other team,” Brown said. “And one of them is a bad decision and one of them is a bad throw.”
But it doesn’t all fall on the offence as the Bombers were sloppy at times in all three phases and took several costly penalties that extended Argos’ drives.
“That one doesn’t feel very good,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “There was four plays in a row that included all three phases that weren’t very good.
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“We had a couple bad (penalties), off the field killers we call them, where we’re gonna put them in a bad spot or get the ball back and yeah, we just take very untimely penalties.”
The loss ended the Bombers three-game home win streak as they fell to 7-7 on the season with just four games left.
“We just didn’t play good enough tonight to win,” said running back Brady Oliveira. “We didn’t make enough plays. Probably some key plays we didn’t capitalize on and some errors. This time of year, man you got to try and play as clean as possible.
“Yeah, we kinda let it slip away. I feel like it’s been way too many games like that this year, so, I think all of us, we got to look at ourselves and see how we can get better man.”
The Argos actually struck first when Sergio Castillo missed a 45-yard field goal and former Bomber Janarion Grant took the ball from one endzone to the other, returning the missed kick 128 yards for the touchdown. The missed field goal ended Castillo’s streak of field goals after making his previous 26 in a row.
But after that hiccup, the Bombers took over the game in the first quarter, as their offence moved the ball with ease finding the endzone twice on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Dru Brown to Tim White, and then a six-yard run from Brown on the next drive.
That dominance continued early into the second quarter as Brown found rookie receiver Dorian Singer for a 17-yard touchdown and the Bombers led 21-7. Singer continues to prove he could be a mainstay on this roster, picking up 113 yards on six catches in just his third start.
The Argonauts high-octane offence had trouble moving the ball to begin, but when you have the CFL’s leader in passing yards and touchdowns in Chad Kelly, that’s bound to change.
Midway through the second quarter, Kelly aired one out to a wide-open Tyler Kahmann for a 56-yard touchdown to cut the lead in half.
And then early in the third quarter, Kelly and the offence connected on an even bigger play as he hit Damonte Coxie for an 84-yard major to tie the game.
In typical Kelly fashion, he also threw two interceptions, giving him 24 on the season which leads the league, but his 290 passing yards helped him become the first quarterback to surpass 5,000 yards this year.
The Bombers offence was shut out in the third quarter, and the Argos would move back into the lead early in the fourth on a 19-yard Lirim Hajrullahu field goal.
However, the Bombers jumped back in front thanks to a third-down sneak that turned into a 76-yard touchdown from short-yardage quarterback Bryce Perkins.
But that was the only big play the Winnipeg offence could muster all half. The Argos cut the lead to one on another field-goal and after a Bombers two-and-out on offence, Toronto once again stormed down the field and set up Hajrullahu for a go-ahead 36-yard kick with 29 seconds left.
Brown would toss his second interception of the game on the next drive, sealing the game for Toronto, who picked up their fourth straight win and moved to 9-6.
The Bombers had another tough time protecting the passer as Brown was sacked four times, but the offensive line did a much better job blocking for the league’s leading rusher Brady Oliveira, who had 139 yards on 18 carries, the most yards he’s picked up in one game this season.
Bombers defensive end Jake Ceresna left the game in the first half with what appeared to be a foot injury and did not return.
Winnipeg will hit the road for their next game when they take on the East Division-leading Montreal Alouettes on Saturday October 3, with kickoff set for just after 6 p.m.
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