Bombers offence stalls in 22-19 loss to Elks

It was a microcosm of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ season to this point: a first half that burned bright only to be doused in cold water.

The Bombers began the first leg of their mid-season gauntlet with a 22-19 loss to the Edmonton Elks at Commonwealth Stadium in the Alberta capital on Friday night.

Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo orchestrated an eight-play, 54-yard drive that set up a 40-yard game-winning field goal by Vincent Blanchard that snuck inside the left upright with zeros on the clock.

The drive, which was plagued by poor tackling by the Bombers defence, came after Bombers kicker Sergio Castillo tied the game at 19-19 on a 53-yard boot with 1:41 remaining in the contest.

The Bombers led 16-0 in the second quarter before shutting down offensively and allowing the Elks to storm back to the tune of 16 unanswered points.

Judging by how the first half was perhaps Winnipeg’s finest collective performance of the season, this one stings — real bad.

Zach Collaros, who completed 16 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown in the opening half, finished 19 of 30 for 219 yards with one touchdown and an interception.

Brady Oliveira, who was on his way to a monster performance after amassing 110 yards on 14 carries by halftime, ended with 118 yards on 16 totes and added two catches for 11 yards.

Nic Demski led all Bombers receivers with five catches for 80 yards.

“Tale of two halves for both teams. We had a really good first half, and I would say Edmonton is probably thinking they could have been better in the first half. We didn’t play very well in the second half, didn’t make enough plays, and they did,” said head coach Mike O’Shea.

“Tight battle, you lose by three points against a good football team, and that’s never going to be good enough. You gotta find ways to make plays to get the outcome our way.”

It only gets tougher for the Bombers, who will now take their 5-5 record home as they prepare to host a buzzsaw in the league-leading Montreal Alouettes (9-1) at Princess Auto Stadium on Aug. 28.

The Elks improved to 8-3, continuing one of their best starts to a season in over a decade.

Let’s peel this one back further.

First half dominance

The Bombers had just about anything they wanted in the first half.

Collaros was dealing, Oliveira and the offensive line were churning out chunks on the ground, and the defence was forcing turnovers.

To put the half into perspective, Winnipeg had 16 points to Edmonton’s five, ran 40 offensive plays to the Elks’ 17, out-possessed the hosts 23:53 to 7:07 and out-gained them 300-130 in net offensive yards.

In the first quarter alone, Edmonton ran five plays and had amassed 73 net yards, while Winnipeg ran 19 plays that totalled 148 yards.

Cody Fajardo had just six completions entering the locker room at halftime, while Justin Rankin had amassed eight scrimmage yards.

The Bombers scored points on four of their first five drives, while the Elks had more turnovers (two) and punts (two) than first downs (one) in that same stretch.

The stats go on and on.

The troubling part was that the Bombers only led 16-6 at halftime, and that was due to the offence stalling in the red zone.

More on that in a minute.

The Bombers had all the momentum in the world going for them, and just as it looked like the Elks might be gaining some momentum, the visitors’ defence answered as Evan Holm dispossessed rookie receiver TJ Luther and Tony Jones jumped on the loose pill.

Taking over for their third drive of the game, offensive co-ordinator Tommy Condell dialled up a deep play-action shot, and Collaros dropped it in the bucket to Tim White for a 30-yard touchdown to give Winnipeg a 10-0 lead.

Two Elks drives later, with the Bombers up 13-0, defensive back Jonathan Moxey picked off Fajardo on an outstanding read in which he essentially ran the route for Elks’ receiver Austin Mack.

While the offence couldn’t capitalize with a touchdown this time, Castillo drilled a 52-yard field goal to give the Bombers a 16-0 lead in the second quarter.

A sign of how well things were working for the Bombers, quarterback Bryce Perkins fumbled the exchange on a third-down quarterback sneak attempt in the second quarter but landed on it with barely enough yardage for the first down.

Close, but no cigar

Winnipeg had converted just half of their trips to the red zone with a touchdown entering Week 12 — a sign of a struggling offence.

While the offence was chugging along in the first half, the true story was how it was not able to finish drives.

This was evident as the Bombers drove down the field efficiently on the opening drive with an excellent mix of the run and pass dialled up by Condell, but settled for a 15-yard field goal by Castillo

The club’s second drive was similar, as the Bombers marched deep into Elks territory in four plays but were stymied just outside of scoring territory. They went for it on third down, but Collaros’ attempt to Demski was snuffed out.

On their fourth drive of the game, midway through the second quarter, the Bombers yet again sustained an impressive eight-play 58-yard series only for the drive to stall at Edmonton’s 12-yard line and Castillo attempt a chip shot.

“You lose by three, I make a decision to go for it inside the five on third-and-three, could have got a first down out of it or scored a touchdown… which gives you, I think, two options there, in my mind,” O’Shea said. “But when you lose by three, and you didn’t take that field goal, I’m sure that comes into question.”

Don’t let them hang around…

Near the end of the first half, the Bombers were still in full control until defensive back Jake Kelly was called for pass interference in the red zone that moved the ball 51 yards and put the Elks into scoring territory.

The Elks promptly took advantage as Fajardo found Austin Mack on a short pass and the receiver rumbled for a 15-yard touchdown. The hosts failed on the ensuing two-point convert attempt to keep the score 16-6.

That became the early turning point in the game.

Including their last two full possessions of the first half (not including the kneel-down before halftime), the Bombers offence only mustered 30 yards of net offence the remainder of the game, while Fajardo and the Elks offence began to heat up to the tune of 252 net yards of offence in the second half.

“I think in the third quarter, we didn’t stay on the field. I don’t know how many plays we had in the third quarter — maybe four or six? I’m not sure, not very many — so in order to get the plays you want to get run, you got to stay on the field, and we just couldn’t,” O’Shea said.

Fajardo rushed for a two-yard touchdown to cap an 11-play 84-yard drive in the third quarter to tie the game at 16-16. The Elks’ pivot completed 20 of 32 passes for 259 yards, one touchdown and one interception while adding 28 yards on six carries and a major to his total.

As the game wore on, the Bombers’ defensive front began to get leaky, and Rankin started churning out yards on the ground.

Rankin ended with 93 yards on 19 carries.

What began as a performance that might’ve changed the tune around a club that had been stuck in first gear ended with the same old song and dance.

“They’re all frustrating, absolutely, but that doesn’t change our process,” said O’Shea. “We watch the film, see the truth, figure out how to make more plays (and) get back to work.”

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