Bombers missing A-game against Elks

EDMONTON — The Winnipeg Blue Bombers that produced a near-flawless performance two weeks ago were nowhere to be found in Edmonton.

While the personnel remained the same, the Blue and Gold left their A-game at home and were troubled for majority of Saturday night in a 25-20 loss to the Elks inside Commonwealth Stadium.

With the win, the Elks stay alive in the West Division playoff race and improve to 7-9. The loss drops the Bombers to 8-8 and dramatically shrinks their chances of hosting the West semifinal.

The three phases that shone in Week 17’s 40-3 beatdown over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats all made blunders, but it was Winnipeg’s offence that took the biggest step back with quarterback Zach Collaros and the offensive line being the main culprits.

Despite all that, the Elks prevailed thanks to a whacky punt return touchdown that had no business resulting in seven points.

“Not good enough to overcome a little bit of bad luck,” said head coach Mike O’Shea.

“We caused that fumble on that punt cover kicking out from our own end, and they end up returning it for a touchdown and that turns out to be the difference. That’s only one play, right? We didn’t play well enough through the rest of the game to overcome a little bit of adversity that’s going to happen in every game.”

The Bombers trailed 18-10 with less than five minutes to go in the third when special teams ace Nick Hallett punched the ball out of the returner’s arms. The ball was kicked around several times before Kordell Jackson scooped it up for the Elks and sprinted 47 yards to the house to go up 25-10.

“It was a big swing in the game, but nothing we couldn’t have came back from,” said Hallett. “Obviously, you’d like those to come out in your favour when you’re able to pop a ball out, but I need to do better. I need to get after it and get on that ball instead of watching. I got up and stood there and watched the ball ping pong around.”

Whether the Bombers won that rally or not, their offence wasn’t deserving of a win.

Collaros threw undoubtedly one of the worst interceptions of the season when the game was tied 10-10 with less than a minute remaining in the second. The veteran passer stood in the pocket flat-footed and lobbed up a deep ball to a double covered Nic Demski for a free INT for Elks cornerback JJ Ross who returned the ball 59 yards. To make matters worse, Demski pulled up lame with what appeared to be a leg injury and did not return. O’Shea didn’t provide an update on the star receiver post-game.

The Elks failed to capitalize on the mistake as their kicker Vincent Blanchard missed a 33-yard field goal — his second miss of the game — wide left for a rouge to take an 11-10 edge into half.

“I thought we had what we wanted, and the corner fell off from the other side. I got to be able to see the entire picture there,” said Collaros.

“We left some plays out there for sure, some that we’d want back, and it starts with me as the quarterback.”

Collaros wasn’t done misfiring. He tossed another flat-footed pick over the middle to defensive back Kenneth Logan Jr. with 10 minutes left in the fourth with the Bombers down 25-13. He also underthrew an open Demski on a corner route in the end zone on their second possession of the game that resulted in the visitors settling for a field goal.

Collaros completed 22-of-34 passes for 202 yards and one touchdown to go with his pair of turnovers.

“We did not play complementary football at all. We were just off in every phase,” said right guard Patrick Neufeld.

“We weren’t scoring, we were turning the ball over, and we weren’t getting good first down production, which we talked about a lot. They did a good job of not allowing us to get into a rhythm. It’s one of those games where just everyone wasn’t in sync.”

No one can say Ontaria Wilson was off, though. The Bombers receiver made arguably the catch of the season with a fourth quarter touchdown that will be replayed for many years to come. After an underthrown pass ricocheted off two Edmonton defenders, Wilson reached out with his right hand and batted the ball up twice before securing it for an incredible 35-yard score to cut the deficit to 25-20 with six minutes left on the clock.

“In my head, I’m like ‘It’s my ball or nobody’s ball.’ I was really fighting to not let the defender get the pick, but it ended up being a catchable ball after the bounce,” said Wilson, who finished with four grabs for 65 yards. “I’d rather win than (have) that catch, honestly, but that’s a great catch in my rankings. I’ll always probably remember it. Catches like that don’t happen often.”

The improbable play put the Bombers in position to steal a win, but they couldn’t get it done. Their best chance came with three minutes left on their own 19-yard line when Collaros flinged a pass near midfield to an open Brady Oliveira who didn’t have a single defender behind him. Elks defensive back Chelen Garnes managed to jump up and get the tip of a finger on the ball and the running back couldn’t track it to bring it in.

“Yeah, we’re gonna look at that and be upset about that one, for sure,” said Collaros.

Oliveira ran 12 times for 117 yards and had seven catches for 30 yards, but Elks running back Justin Rankin stole the show. Rankin had 18 carries for 138 yards, including a 64-yard touchdown scamper at the start of the third to put Edmonton in front 18-10.

Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo was mostly quiet, 13-for-24 and 142 passing yards, plus four rushes for 25 yards and a score.

“He’s the best running back in the CFL from my perspective,” said Bombers dime back Redha Kramdi.

“He’s hard to bring down. If I had to take one play back, it would be that one play and just wish we could bring him down.”

The good news for the Bombers is they captured the season series over the Elks since they beat them by a larger margin — a 36-23 result back in June. The bad news is they’re firmly in fourth since both the B.C. Lions (9-7) and Calgary Stampeders (9-7) won this weekend. If the standings remain the same in two weeks, the Bombers — who have the tiebreaker over the Lions but don’t have it with the Stamps — will cross over and head to Montreal (8-7) for the East semifinal.

“If we don’t take care of what’s in front of us right now, there ain’t no reason to talk about the playoffs,” said Kramdi. “We need to start winning.”

The Bombers return to action on Friday when they host the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Riders (12-4) clinched the top spot in the West on Friday at Mosaic Stadium with a 27-19 win over the Toronto Argonauts. The Bombers will then close out the regular season on Oct. 25 at Princess Auto Stadium against Montreal.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca