It may not have been a true battle of two of the CFL’s top teams, but the Winnipeg Blue Bombers left with a key victory.
Brady Oliveira rushed for 169 yards and Sergio Castillo kicked six field goals as the Bombers defeated the Toronto Argonauts 31-21 in front of a sellout crowd at IG Field Friday night.
The Argos, who lost just their second game of the season, chose to rest starting QB Chad Kelly and multiple starting defensive players, while starting running back AJ Ouellette carried the ball just once.
“It doesn’t matter who they line up in front of us,” said Oliveira. “We knew it was going to be a battle from start to finish.
“We didn’t finish in the first half, in the score zone didn’t finish with points. I think in the second half we did a better job coming out there and just play physical and outworked them in the second half to get that win.”
Oliveira’s rushing total was his career best on the ground and he also added a touchdown catch in the first quarter.
The Bombers certainly weren’t at their best, and trailed for most of the game, but took the lead for good with just over three minutes left.
“We won, which is the outcome we desired,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “I’m not sure it looked the way we wanted to look, especially parts of the first quarter, but we all know, everybody understands that Toronto is a very good football team.
“When you end up winning a football game against them, you got to be happy about that.”
The Bombers finished the game with 443 yards of net offence, but struggled to finish drives, instead making seven field goal attempts.
“I thought we did a good enough job of accumulating a lot of yards there, especially in the first half,” said quarterback Zach Collaros. “When we get into the score zone, we’ve always been great at finishing and scoring touchdowns. We didn’t do that well enough tonight. Take a look at the film and see why. And it’s probably something I could have done better for us.”
Collaros completed 22 of his 33 passes for 258 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Another interception was called back due to a penalty flag.
In making his first career CFL start, Argos QB Cameron Dukes passed for 231 yards and had both a touchdown pass and a touchdown run. Argos third stringer Bryan Scott also saw some action in the fourth quarter.
The Bombers defence surrendered 17 points in the first half but clamped down in the last two quarters, only allowing four more points the rest of the way.
Toronto (12-2) has already locked up first place in the East Division.
Winnipeg moves to 11-4, which puts them ahead of the B.C. Lions for first place in the West Division at the moment. The 10-4 Lions were hosting the Saskatchewan Roughriders Friday night.
Despite those roster moves, the Argonauts held an 18-16 lead through three quarters before the Bombers scored 15 points in the final frame to pull ahead.
Trailing 21-16 with under 10 minutes to play, Winnipeg drove 79 yards down the field with Dakota Prukop punching it in the endzone from two yards out to give the Bombers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Dalton Schoen caught six passes for 101 yards, which moved him into the league lead with 1136 yards.
Oliveira now has 1359 yards rushing on the season and leads all running backs in the CFL by more than 300 yards.
Bombers DB Demerio Houston left the game with an injury and did not return. The coach didn’t have an injury update following the game.
Winnipeg will head to Vancouver next week for a massive game against the B.C. Lions on Friday, October 6 with the winner moving into first place in the West Division and taking the season series.
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