Upon Further Review | Alouettes 37 Blue Bombers 10

Winnipeg's 37-10 loss to the Alouettes -- a result which dropped the club to 7-8 and into last place in the Canadian Football League's West Division -- fits best into which of the following categories:

• A disturbing defeat which only further magnified this team's deficiencies;

• A frustrating and maddening outcome given its October and the high stakes in the West;

• A stinging loss, but one which might not matter if they rebound for a win over the Calgary Stampeders this Saturday;

• All of the freakin' above

We try not to sugarcoat things in this space and what happened Saturday night in Montreal was telling for all the wrong reasons.

Winnipeg's offence struggled to simply move the chains and stay on the field after putting up 10 points in the first quarter and then completely bogging down. And the defence really had no answer for an Alouette attack which was perfectly precise from start to finish.

Inside the Blue Bombers locker room post-game, the responses varied from disbelief -- "I'm just kind of numb right now" was Nic Demski's initial take -- to anger to resolve.

"They just whipped our ass," said veteran left tackle Stanley Bryant. "They played a helluva game. They got on the gas pedal and they didn't look back.

"We've just got to lock in. It's going to be like a playoff atmosphere, a playoff game for us. We can't come out the way we did tonight. We've got to find a way to win next week. I know right now everyone is upset. But we've got to find a way to play our best ball on both sides and on special teams. Next week is going to be a great challenge for us to prove who we really are and get the job done."

"Win, lose or draw you've got to press the reset button and start all over," added defensive back Deatrick Nichols. "Of course, we have to watch the film, go over it, learn from it and then it's off to getting ready for Calgary.

"That's my motto -- I'm not trying to repeat myself, but win, lose or draw you press that button and start your process over again."

That, clearly, is the storyline that bleeds into this week -- how does this Blue Bombers squad respond after getting knocked to the canvas by the Alouettes in the biggest game of the season this weekend at home against Calgary?

Can it find its mojo to get back to .500, win the season series with the Stamps and get right back into the fight?

Or, does this freefall continue? Consider this harsh reality: since starting last season 3-0, this team is 14-16; 14-17 if you add last year's first-round playoff loss to the Alouettes.

That, truthfully, doesn't matter now. Coaches and players always talk about writing their own story each season with one year being different than the next. It's time now for this bunch to change the narrative in these parts.

"Calgary's going to be a big one, but it's one that we can win," said defensive end Willie Jefferson. "It's the last home game of the season and we really have something to play for. I don't want to look too far ahead but it's still possible we can get going.

"We've got to handle our business. We can't have our head in the dirt and just hope for the best. We've got to come back, watch the tape and flush it. This was a big win for (Montreal). They won offensively, defensively and special-teams wise. We've got to be better. Calgary will come in motivated so they can continue to try and get into the playoffs. Just like us.

"We've still got the opportunity to get into the playoffs, but we've got to win," he added. "We've got to want it more right now than just talking about it. We've got to come in, put in the work and then put it on tape on game day. It's not enough to practice hard and say you want to do something and then not show up on game day. It has to be everything during the week and then show it on game day."

ICYMI, the link to our Game Recap is here.

And what follows is the rest is this week's edition of UPON FURTHER REVIEW...

THREE NUMBERS WHICH JUMPED OUT AFTER A SECOND GLANCE AT THE STATS SHEET:

1. We're poking at a fresh wound here, but Winnipeg's offensive numbers were abysmal. The attack managed just six first downs and 182 yards of net offence as they managed just 30 offensive plays to Montreal's 70. That's SEVENTY, or 40 more than Winnipeg.

Here's the number that hammers that futility home: Montreal's time of possession was 40 minutes and 38 seconds to 19:22 for the Blue Bombers. We checked with CFL stats guru Steve Daniel this morning and that 40:38-19:22 was the largest time of possession margin on record for the Blue Bombers since that stat was first monitored in the mid 1990s.

2. We mentioned this in the Game Recap Saturday night, but Montreal converted a whopping 70 percent of its second-down opportunities (19-of-27). Winnipeg, by comparison, was just 17 percent (2-of-12).

Here's another ugly number for the defence, which did attempt to blitz Alexander on occasion and throw different looks at him. Unofficially, in second-and-seven or longer situations Alexander was 11-of-11 for 189 yards. Montreal converted 10-of-12 second-and-seven situations, with the only two non-conversions a pass completion of just two yards on a second-and-10 and a sack by Michael Griffin II late in the game with the Als way ahead.

3. It became lost given the discrepancy in the score, but a key moment that went sideways for the Blue Bombers came late in the first half with Montreal up by just one TD at 17-10. Winnipeg's defence forced a turnover on downs with just over four minutes remaining on the second quarter as Thiadric Hansen and Tanner Cadwallader -- and a host of others -- stopped Caleb Evans on a third-and-one gamble.

Big moment potentially, right?

Yet the Blue Bombers offence went two-and-out on their next possession. Winnipeg's defence then held again to force the Alouettes to punt with 1:53 left and... the offence goes two-and-out again.

And on a night when the Als offence was near perfect, giving Alexander the ball back with 59 seconds left was playing with fire in a gasoline suit and the young QB made Winnipeg pay with a six-play, 81-yard TD drive in 45 seconds.

Ouch.

AND FINALLY... for those of you who are still following along, thanks for reading. If you want to see a condensed recap of the loss, check it out here: