Upon Further Review | Argos 30 Blue Bombers 28

There are still four games left on the schedule and the Blue Bombers -- now 7-7 after Friday's disheartening 30-28 loss to the Toronto Argonauts --are still just two points behind the B.C. Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders, both 8-6, for second place in the Canadian Football League's West Division.

That, in short, is the sun-is-going-to-rise-tomorrow outlook when it comes to this football team and what's still ahead.

Still, there's an absolute ache that lingers from a loss like Friday against Toronto and it comes not just because of the long list of mistakes the Blue Bombers made in the defeat, but also due to this:

We've seen this movie far too many times this season.

First, the most recent evidence:

The Blue Bombers took a 28-24 lead with 5:48 left in the game on Bryce Perkins' sensational 76-yard, short-yardage touchdown but then surrendered two late field goals in the loss.

And revisiting some of the other losses, this is a team that lost in OT to Saskatchewan in the Labour Day Classic when they couldn't answer a Roughriders score in extra time.

This is a team that rallied from a 17-0 hole against Edmonton earlier in the season but surrendered the game-winning TD with 53 seconds remaining and then later lost to the Elks on a walk-off field goal.

This is also a team that led the Lions 19-13 in the fourth quarter in late July only to get completely steamrolled down the stretch in a 35-19 loss.

Their two other losses, FYI -- 52-30 to Calgary and 37-27 to Hamilton in the home opener -- were simply those games where you acknowledge you got your pants kicked.

But part of the reason this team is 7-7, simply put, is because it consistently hasn't made plays in crunch time, something we've come to expect so often over this stretch which has seen the Blue Bombers post nine consecutive double-digit win seasons, make five consecutive Grey Cup appearances and win two championships.

"We weren't good enough when it mattered," said veteran defensive back Redha Kramdi inside the Blue Bombers locker room late Friday night. "We knew how tough a team Toronto is. They play good when it matters on defence. They play with a passion and create turnovers; they get after the quarterback.

"And on offence they take shots -- we knew it, we talked about it and it wasn't a surprise. They've got an all-star quarterback, they outplayed us on special teams and they got a couple shots on defence that are not supposed to happen."

That's a clear and concise capsule of the seventh loss of the season. The question now is, what kind of response are we going to see from this squad as it heads into Montreal -- where the Alouettes are a perfect 7-0 -- for a game next Saturday, followed by a home date with the Stamps and finishing the regular season with trips to Edmonton and Vancouver.

"We don't want these results and we all know this. We put way too much work in. So, we're going to come back tomorrow and fix it," said running back Brady Oliveira. "We've got to stick together. We've still got a stretch ahead of us and like I said earlier in the week we still hold our own destiny."

That's true, although that hold is far less firm today than it was and what it could have been had the Blue Bombers closed it out Friday night and pulled even with the Lions and Riders at 8-6.

Instead, it's more coulda, woulda, shoulda.

"Too many mistakes. Lack of execution. Didn't play to the standard we talk about all the time," said veteran guard Pat Neufeld. "They made plays. They took advantage of field position, and they made some plays in crunch time, so hat's off to them and there's a lot for us to learn from.

"We're going to put it on us. Winning covers up things sometimes and losing puts a magnifying glass on things. Obviously, after a loss like that the magnifying glass is going to be 10 times bigger. That's a good thing for us right now -- you've got to have some courage to look at this and everyone in this building has got to be honest about where we're at and why we're losing a game like that and why we can't come out in the second half and keep playing like we were in the first half."

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. Brady Oliveira added to his league-leading rushing total with 139 yards on 18 carries Friday night -- a gaudy 7.7-yard average -- and he now has six 100-yard efforts in his last eight games. He's already at 1,223 yards rushing with four games to go and that total is the third highest in his career behind the 1,534 he had in 2023 and 1,353 he had in 2024.

Yet, there was a play Friday where he didn't get the ball that screams out to so many in hindsight. Leading 28-27 with 2:32 left and the ball at their own 41, Oliveira scrambled for six yards on first down. And on second down Dru Brown was then sacked, forcing the Blue Bombers to punt -- and after the Argos took a time out -- leaving the Argos with plenty of time remaining.

Yes, that's doing the armchair QB thing, but Winnipeg had been moving the line of scrimmage so successfully in the first half and then inexplicably went away from it.

Consider this: Oliveira had 14 carries for 102 yards in the first half -- including nine runs in the first quarter alone -- and then had just four carries in the final 30 minutes. There's also this: he averaged 9.25 yards per carry on those four second-half touches and had only one run all evening that was for zero yards.

2. A tip of the hat to Argos' QB Chad Kelly who, on this night, came exactly as advertised with his gunslinger approach. The Blue Bombers intercepted him twice -- once by Evan Holm in the end zone and a second time by Deatrick Nichols -- but he also torched the Winnipeg defence with a couple of howitzers for a 56-yard TD to Tyler Kahmann and 84 yards to Damonte Coxie.

The Argos averaged 9.4 yards per pass completion and a ton of that comes from Kelly's arm strength and his bravado in the pocket.

3. Sergio Castillo had been on such a great run for the club -- his 26 straight was second-most in franchise history to Justin Medlock's 28 over the 2016-17 seasons -- but he missed wide left on his first attempt from 45 yards, with that then returned 128 yards for a TD by Janarion Grant.

His second miss came from 55 and fell short.

"The first one, I didn't have any juice," Casillo said. "It's just weird. It was the motion with my kicks and little things... I just felt off. Pre-game I was hitting them clean.

"You're going to miss. It's just how can I correct. The first one I had the wind with me, the second one I had the wind against me. I just did not hit them clean enough. The name of the game is how badly do your miss-hits look and normally my miss-hits look pretty darn good and still go in and on that 53-54 yarder it came up short. I've just got to do a better job on those."

QUOTABLE

"We're going to respond. We'll get together and everybody is going to buy in; everybody is going to have those tough conversations that need to be had and find out what we need to do to execute and close out games.

"I don't think this team is steering off. I feel like we're going in the right direction." -- receiver Dorian Singer.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN AN EXCEPTIONAL... game-winning moment was the Bryce Perkins 76-yard TD run on short yardage in the fourth quarter.

Instead, it now stands alone as the lone highlight of the second half of Winnipeg's offence.

"We've been close so many times," said Perkins, who had a short-yardage TD run in the Banjo Bowl called back by penalty. "We always just say, 'It's a matter of time.'

"All I had to do was run. They did a great job up front of pushing and it was an easy crease to find. All I was thinking was, 'Don't get caught.' You never know when those ones are going to break so when there's one to pop, you've got to execute it."

VERY COOL TO SEE... so many members of the 1988 and 1990 Grey Cup Champion Blue Bombers in the house Friday night as those two squads were added to the Winnipeg Football Club's Hall of Fame.

Among that group in attendance and-or attending the Gala dinner Saturday were:

-Head coach Mike Riley, former trainer-assistant GM Ross Hodgkinson and equipment guy Jim Grieve -Offensive linemen Chris Walby, David Black, Bob Molle, Scott Redl -Quarterbacks Danny McManus and Sean Salisbury -Running backs Robert Mimbs, Terry Cochrane, Kensley Palmer and Kelly Hudson (wife of Warren Hudson, who passed away in 2012) -Receivers James Murphy, Rick House, Lee Hull, Randy Fabi, Jeff Smith and Darren Yewchyn -Defensive backs Ken Hailey, Less Browne, Rod Hill, Darryl Sampson, Dave Bovell and Paul Clatney -Linebacker Dan Wicklum -Defensive linemen Stan Mikawos and Leon Hatziioannou -Kickers Trevor Kennerd and Bob Cameron

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: