Bombers eager to bounce back against Stampeders

A bye week can allow a tough loss to linger like a bad hangover.

For some Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the club’s 37-16 road loss to the Calgary Stampeders in Week 5 was just that, as players got away from the facility to spend time with loved ones.

One remedy is to strap on the work boots and prepare for another game, but that wasn’t possible with a week off. Instead, they were forced to retake their medicine through the painful process of watching the film back on what was a lopsided defeat.

“Yeah, you could call it a hangover. It’s always going to sit in the back of your mind — especially with the bye week — until you come in and watch the film and wash off the wrinkles,” receiver Nic Demski said after the team’s practice on Sunday.

“At the end of the day, it’s a long season. We play them two more times, so you know that means two more opportunities, and we got a lot more opportunities to go out there and win football games. You can’t let it be a rainy cloud over your head, you just got to be positive and come back and get ready.”

The latest loss was particularly notable for a club that has experienced so much success in recent years.

The 21-point margin was the largest defeat Winnipeg suffered with Zach Collaros as the quarterback since Week 3 of the 2023 season when it lost 30-6 at home against the B.C. Lions. In fact, that’s the only other time that the Blue and Gold have lost by more than 20 points since Collaros was traded here in 2019.

So, although this isn’t uncharted territory for this group, it’s rare that the Bombers find themselves in this position.

“I want us to respond in the way we have in the past, which is pretty damn good,” said head coach Mike O’Shea, whose club won a road contest in Montreal after that loss in 2023.

After two byes in the first six weeks of the season, the Bombers (3-1) stare down the barrel at a stretch of 11 straight, beginning with a rematch against the Stampeders (4-1) at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday (7:30 p.m.).

“Any time you have a few days off, I don’t think you ever want to have a sour taste in your mouth,” said defensive tackle Jake Thomas. “Usually it’s a couple of days of watching film after and you’re just off, you’re just a little upset. So I guess the one benefit is that we knew we were playing them the following week.”

Collaros disagreed with the notion that there is a hangover after a bad loss. The pivot carved out a bit more time for his family during the bye week, but everything else remained status quo as he continued to clock in for work every day.

“You should be champing at the bit to get back at it. I think you are every week, win or lose,” he said.

“To not play up your expectations that you have for yourself, to be kind of dominated in a game, is not a fun thing. Like we all say going into the bye week, it wasn’t a great way to do that and go into an entire week thinking about that, but again, we’re fortunate we have the opportunity to play them again.”

The Bombers’ offence, which played exceptionally the week prior, had fits against the stingy Stampeders’ defence. Winnipeg spotted the hosts 14 points, as Collaros threw two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns, and the unit never found traction.

“Like I said after the game, turnovers, you can’t turn the ball over. You can’t allow that to spill over into points. They didn’t do a ton of different things,” Collaros said. “It wasn’t things that we weren’t expecting, just a level of execution that we had to get better at.”

Meanwhile, the defence didn’t fare much better. Calgary needed just 47 plays to rack up 334 yards of net offence and 23 points. The Stamps outpaced the Bombers 3-0 in big plays in the contest.

“I think just communication and execution,” said Thomas. “A few of the plays that they made, we were in the right spot, they just made a heck of a play. Then, a few plays I think we could communicate better, and hopefully that results in a better result for our side.”

“The CFL season is a long season,” he added. “There’s 18 games in the regular season, and each week you’re just trying to get better. Sometimes you take a step back to take two steps forward. Usually with a loss, it highlights a lot more of the issues that you had, so you see the mistakes, and we’re lucky enough that we have a chance to go fix them this week.”

Indeed, there is no one the Bombers would rather face than the Stampeders this week, and history would suggest they have a good chance at righting their wrongs.

The club is 18-1 when coming off a bye week since 2017. The only way to truly remedy their hangover is to win.

“Back to backs, they’re tough, but at the same time they’re a beautiful thing,” said Demski. “That bad taste definitely stays in your mouth, and obviously you want to make it a good taste, so, as I said, it’s all about opportunities in this league, and we’re getting all the opportunity to go out there and play them again and compete.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam