Game Recap | Tor 30 Wpg 28

One week -- heck, one half -- they perfectly straddle the line and look like legit championship contenders. And a week later -- yes, sometimes one half later -- they're stumbling, then tumbling, into a deep dive.

And after Friday's 30-28 mistake-filled loss to the Toronto Argonauts in front of another sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium, the safety net that was games remaining and time to find some consistency has become extremely precarious.

Now 7-7, the Blue Bombers remain in the West Division fight, but are now staring up at all but the Calgary Stampeders, 6-8, who face the winless Ottawa RedBlacks on Saturday.

The Edmonton Elks remain atop the table at 10-4, and the B.C. Lions 31-24 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders later Friday night now has both those squads at 8-6.

"That one doesn't feel very good," began head coach Mike O'Shea in his post-game press conference. "Their first three touchdowns were just explosive plays. There's a missed field goal return touchdown that is a 10-point swing that we should obviously have better coverage on, and then they get behind us for two deep balls."

That's bang on, and yet those three touchdowns -- a Janarion Grant 128-yard missed field goal return followed by Chad Kelly long-bomb connections to Tyler Kahmann for 56 yards and Damonte Coxie for 84 yards -- all came before the game was 32 minutes old.

What will be frustrating for the Blue Bombers is not just how they blew a 21-7 first half lead, but how they bogged down in the final 30 minutes, took too many penalties and got burned by a trick special teams play inside the final two minutes that led to the game-winning field goal.

Full credit to the Argos, naturally, but the Blue Bombers collective fingerprints are also all over this crime scene.

"We just didn't play good enough tonight to win," said running back Brady Oliveira, who was again sensational with 139 yards on 18 carries. "We didn't make enough plays. We had some key plays we didn't capitalize on, some errors, and at this time of year, man, you've got to try and play as clean as possible.

"... There's been a few games like that this year. Some games where I feel like we're right there, we're in it, and we let it slip away. There's been waaaay too many games like that this year.

"All of us need to look at ourselves and see how we can get better. We've still got opportunity in front of us, but we're losing time."

More thoughts on the Blue Bombers crushing loss from our view in the press box... INSTANT TAKEAWAYS:

1. The Blue Bombers' Jekyll-and-Hyde act screamed out in a quick peek at the stats sheet. Winnipeg cranked out 15 first downs and 270 yards of offence while holding the ball for 21 minutes and 39 seconds in the first half as Dru Brown connected with Dorian Singer and Tim White for touchdowns -- the Argos had just four first downs and 100 yards -- and yet led by only one score.

The second half was in direct contrast, as the Blue Bombers were outscored 16-7 in the final 30 minutes, mustered only five first downs and 115 yards of offence.

Winnipeg's six second-half possessions included two Brown interceptions and three punts and one TD -- a short-yardage 76-yard TD run by Bryce Perkins that put the home side ahead 28-24 before the Argos' rally.

"I think as you can imagine, everyone's pretty upset," said Brown, who finished 16-of-28 for 193 yards with two TDs and two interceptions in his post-game media session when asked what the mood was like afterward. "We just didn't come out in the second half and execute well in moments that we needed to stay on the field."

2. Winnipeg's special teams, which have been so steady this season, would likely just as prefer to burn the game film after this one rather than dissect it -- which they, of course, will.

The Grant missed field goal return was just part of it, as Sergio Castillo missed both of his attempts to end his streak of 26 straight, while Grant also connected with David Ungerer on a lateral pass on a punt return late in the game that led to a 32-yard gain to the Winnipeg 46-yard line to set up Lirim Hajrullahu's game-winning field goal.

"We ran the same play here," said O'Shea. "You've got to be prepared for it on that play; you've got to be prepared to execute on that play. You just can't just wait for it and wait for it and wait for it. You've got to play football, see it happening and then react."

3. The Blue Bombers wasted a couple excellent offensive performances, as in addition to Oliveira going over 100 yards rushing again, Singer also pulled in six passes for 113 yards.

"I've got to do a better job in the run game and blocking that could have helped set up a couple more plays, for a couple more yards," said Singer. "I'm going to point the finger at myself because I've got to look in the mirror to see what I can do to be better and help us -- and that's a major thing for me, the blocking."

4. Winnipeg was nailed for eight penalties for 92 yards with a whopping seven of them for 81 yards coming in the second half.

"We had a couple bad off-the-field killers, we call them, where we're going to make them put it in a bad spot or get the ball back," said O'Shea. "We took very untimely penalties.

"There were moments in the game where it was just going bad and we need not to contribute to that little ebb. We need to be better to not put us a little further down."

The Blue Bombers led 28-27 with 2:33 left in the game and began a possession at their own 41-yard line with a six-yard run by Oliveira on first down. But on second-and-four Brown was sacked by Adarius Pickett.

That two-and-out then led to the Grant-to-Ungerer lateral that quickly put the one-point lead into jeopardy. Kelly then completed a massive second-and-nine from the Blue Bombers' 45-yard line with a 15-yard strike to Makai Polk.

16-7 -- The margin by which the Blue Bombers were out-scored in the second half, including surrendering two field goals in the last 2:38.

The Blue Bombers now face the difficult task of getting up off the mat again next Saturday in Montreal where the Alouettes are a perfect 7-0. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.