Game Recap | Wpg 33 Cal 28

And the man who brought that jolt to the whole squad -- not just the offence -- was veteran quarterback Zach Collaros in a virtuoso performance that seemingly turned the clock back five years.

Collaros & Co. were sensational in Saturday night's critical 33-28 victory over the Calgary Stampeders in front of another Princess Auto Stadium sell-out crowd of 32,343 on a picturesque October night.

Winnipeg's QB1, who had missed the last two games after leaving the Banjo Bowl win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, completed 19-of-27 for 349 yards with TD strikes to Pokey Wilson and Nic Demski, while also galloping once for 14 yards in a critical fourth quarter second down conversion.

"He's our leader. He's Zach Collaros. He's our quarterback," said veteran guard Pat Neufeld of Collaros. "His fieriness, his competitiveness, is infectious and it really rubs off on the offence. It starts in pre-game with his focus and attention to detail and then he goes and is just Zach out there.

"All that we can ask of him -- being himself -- and then we just roll with it. It's a beautiful thing."

And it's an especially beautiful thing in the wake of what happened last week in Montreal, when the Blue Bombers looked so lifeless in a 37-10 loss to the Alouettes that brought to the forefront so many pressing questions.

The win over the Stamps doesn't make all that instantly vanish, but it does change the energy in Bomberland.

Asked afterward what the result 'announced to the rest of the world about yourselves today', Collaros shrugged and said: "I don't know if we announced anything but, obviously, a huge game with a lot on the line... playoff atmosphere, all those things.

"You couldn't ask for a better day. you couldn't ask for a better environment. As always, our crowd brought the energy and made it difficult for (the Stamps) and really gave us a lot of life out there."

The result is massive as it evens Winnipeg's record at 8-8 -- the Stamps fall to 8-9 -- while giving the Blue Bombers the season series 2-1 in a potential tiebreaker.

It also means Winnipeg has pulled even in points with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who are 8-7 and face the Montreal Alouettes in Quebec on Thanksgiving Monday.

Worth noting here: the Blue Bombers also hold a potential tiebreaker with the Riders, having split the season series but winning the point-differential.

"I'm proud of the guys," said running back Brady Oliveira, who had eight carries for 40 yards and three catches for 29 as the Stamps worked to take away the run by consistently stacking the box with bodies. "We executed the plan. A lot of work was put in and we obviously understood the urgency of this game -- honestly, probably every game for the rest of this season.

"We really fought hard and got the job done."

More thoughts on the Blue Bombers eighth win of the season from our view in the press box... INSTANT TAKEAWAYS:

1. Winnipeg found some big-play magic offensively and it was critical given they were on the wrong end of the time of possession metric for a second straight game.

The Blue Bombers finished with 392 yards offence, averaging 9.6 yards per play. Included in that were four big-play completions -- three to Dorian Singer covering 52, 45 and 39 yards and another to Tim White for 41.

That's significant given Winnipeg came into the game with just 13 completions of 30 yards or more all season, last in the CFL.

"You got some guys out there that can make plays," said Collaros. "They just need opportunities.

"It's kind of what they give you. It's always that way. Some weeks you run for more, sometimes you pass for more. I feel like we didn't have the ball enough; we did have some explosive plays, two turnovers really shot us in the foot.

"Ball control is important. Helping the defence and keeping them off the field is important but when you get explosives, sometimes the game morphs that way."

2. Singer was again a force and continues to emerge as not only a game-breaker in this offence, but as a rising star in the Canadian Football League.

He finished with five catches for 166 yards -- the highest receiving total for any Blue Bomber this year.

Consider this, since making CFL debut in the Labour Day Classic, Singer has 20 catches for 380 yards and two touchdowns.

"It's pretty cool," said Singer, after making sure he credited the O-line, Collaros and his teammates. My family was here. They drove six hours from Minnesota.

"It's pretty cool to get the 'W' but it's a team game so I'm just proud of my team and just happy we got to come out and get a win."

3. The Blue Bombers got some magic on special teams again from ace return man Trey Vaval, who took the opening kickoff of the second half 88 yards for a touchdown. That score, his second return TD of the year, put the home side up 24-9.

Vaval finished with three kickoff returns for 125 yards and four punt returns for 65 more.

"Coach Mike (Miller, special teams coordinator) had an amazing gameplan for us," said Vaval. "It's amazing to have a special-teams coach like Coach Mike. He played for the Bombers, played in this league for a long time and it makes coming into work so much better and easier to be able to play for a guy like that.

"We trusted him and my blockers did what they needed to do -- they blocked their asses off and I'm thankful for them."

4. Facing the CFL's most prolific offence, Winnipeg's defence surrendered three touchdowns -- the second with just 14 seconds remaining -- as Calgary held the ball for a whopping 36 minutes and 15 seconds.

Critical, though, were two stops on two-point conversions.

"They logged a lot of minutes in the first half," said head coach Mike O'Shea of the defence, which was on the field for just over 20 minutes in the first two quarters. "They came out in the second and were still playing with a ton of energy. They were flying around, they were relentless.

"Calgary is averaging 33 points a game so they're going to make some plays. Vernon (Adams, Jr., Calgary's QB) is going to make some plays. He had a couple rushes that extended drives and him throwing on the run is very difficult to defend. Our guys stuck with it and played hard, and a lot of those guys play special teams, too, so they put on a lot of miles and were just gutting it out."

5. This never gets old and we'll say it again just because it's such an incredible number in this league: the Blue Bombers sell out Saturday was the seventh in 10 homes games this season and 16 in the last 19 home dates. Given the attendance challenges in some markets, that kind of support continues to be the standard for the rest of the league to chase.

"Another sell out. They were fantastic," said O'Shea. "I thought they were very loud when it mattered most. They got into it. The six o'clock game time... they might have started a little slow. I don't know if they didn't open the Rum Hut on time or something like that, but they certainly got into it.

The Vaval return was massive, but with 3:30 left in the game the Blue Bombers were up by just one score at 30-22 when Collaros scrambled for 14 yards on a second and eight.

That not only moved the sticks but then allowed the club to take the clock down to 1:44 and led to a 33-yard field goal by Sergio Castillo to put the Blue Bombers up by two scores at 33-22.

349 -- Passing yards for Collaros, who completed 70 percent of his passes and connected with Wilson and Demski for the two TDs. Epic performance from the future hall of famer.

The Blue Bombers will now finish up their regular season with two straight road games, beginning next Friday in Edmonton against the Elks with an 8:30 p.m. Manitoba time start before finishing up in B.C. against the Lions on Friday, October 23rd with a 9 p.m. start.