Oliveira shines in win over Redblacks, Collaros rocked again

It wasn’t a stellar performance by any stretch.

But at this point, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will take a win no matter what it looks like.

The Blue and Gold outlasted the winless Ottawa Redblacks 33-21 on a rainy Friday night at Princess Auto Stadium to improve to 5-4.

“It’s great to finally get a win at home for our fans and to go out and play a better game is very encouraging,” said right guard Patrick Neufeld.

“Ottawa still has really good players … They play just as hard as anyone else. And obviously, we’re gonna have to keep elevating our play to get to where we want to go.”

Next week, they’ll have a much stiffer test in Edmonton against the Elks (6-3).

Before we look ahead, let’s revisit Friday with the latest edition of 5 Takeaways.

BRILLIANT BRADY

Running back Brady Oliveira wasn’t guaranteed to play.

An ankle injury limited him throughout the week, but you never would’ve been able to tell by his performance.

He was a one-man wrecking crew in the first half, racking up 71 receiving yards on six grabs and 61 rushing yards and a ground score on six carries.

Oliveira added 34 total yards in the second half.

“They asked a lot of me today and you’ve got to respond,” said Oliveira.

The 29-year-old Winnipegger averaged four catches per game last year. Through the first eight games this season, Oliveira had just 20 catches.

With the effort, he moved up three spots to 21st on the CFL’s all-time rushing leaders list. Now at 6,212 career yards, he surpassed fellow Canadian and former Calgary Stampeders legend Jon Cornish and is now just 22 yards shy of Willie Burden for 20th.

ZACH GETS ROCKED

You can’t have your quarterback get hit from the blind side.

It happened over a month ago in Hamilton, resulting in Zach Collaros missing a month with a neck injury.

It happened again on Friday, and it looked much, much worse.

Redblacks linebacker Luc Cormier came around the edge unblocked and delivered a violent blow to the soon-to-be 38-year-old pivot.

“They had the perfect call for the protection we were in,” said Neufeld.

Collaros was down for nearly five minutes before retreating to the sideline. Four plays later, he was back in the contest.

After the game, he said he just had the wind knocked out of him.

Head coach Mike O’Shea was questioned about how concerning it is that the team can’t seem to protect its highest-paid player.

“We obviously like those not to happen,” said O’Shea.

“I’m not going to stand up here and point fingers and blame. There are obviously things we’d like to clean up on that play.”

Collaros was sacked a season-high four times. It wasn’t all on the O-line, as Collaros definitely held onto the ball far too long on several occasions.

But if something doesn’t change, backup QB Dru Brown might be getting more games under his belt.

PASS ATTACK

Ottawa’s secondary is a complete mess.

They’ve surrendered the most passing yards in the league (344.5 yards on average) and cut two veterans, Demerio Houston and Amari Henderson, on Monday.

And yet, the Bombers didn’t accomplish a whole lot through the air.

Collaros completed 21-of-31 attempts for a modest 222 passing yards and averaged just 7.16 yards per attempt.

Although that stat line would’ve looked a bit better if a wide-open Ontaria Wilson hadn’t let a perfect toss to the end zone bounce off his helmet in the third quarter.

GOTTA BE BETTER

A win is a win.

And considering the Bombers were on a two-game losing streak and were just 1-4 at home prior to Friday, they’ll happily take the result they got.

With that said, did they show enough against the CFL’s basement dwellers to make anyone believe they can hang with the best of the best?

Not quite.

It gets even harder after Edmonton. They welcome early Grey Cup favourites Montreal to town on Friday, Aug. 28, before their annual back-to-back with Saskatchewan.

“It’s gonna be a test,” said defensive end Willie Jefferson.

“We’re gonna lock in and be ready to play those games.”

TROUBLE IN OTTAWA

The Redblacks are flirting with a record that no team wants to be associated with.

Dating back to Sept. 12, 2025, Ottawa has now lost 15 consecutive games.

The CFL record is 16, which was set by the 1948-49 Hamilton Wildcats (precursor to the Tiger-Cats).

The Redblacks are tied for the second-worst stretch with the 1994 Shreveport Pirates, who started that season 0-14.

Considering Ottawa, now 0-9 this season, is scheduled to play Montreal this week, all signs point to them tying the dreaded record.

“The football gods don’t owe us anything. They really don’t,” said Redblacks quarterback Jake Maier.

“There’s a respect to the game you try to play with in order to get some breaks and be ready for the opportunities when the luck kind of presents itself, and right now we’re just not taking advantage of those opportunities. We’re not owed anything, man, we just, unfortunately, on the wrong side of things right now.”

winnipegfreepress.com/taylorallen