One year ago, a game between the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers was considered a heavyweight bout of epic proportions. This season, it’s more of a welterweight matchup as both teams have already lost more games in 2024 than they did in all of 2023.
Toronto is coming off a disappointing loss to the previously winless Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The club gave up a blocked punt, allowed a defensive touchdown on a scoop-and-score from Destin Talbert, and Cameron Dukes was pulled in favour of Nick Arbuckle for the second time this season.
The Blue Bombers are also coming off a poor performance as they fell to the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium. The offence generated only nine points as Zach Collaros struggled to sustain drives and threw an awful interception to Adam Auclair, while the defence allowed rookie receiver Ajou Ajou to put up over 100 yards in a relief role.
The Argonauts sailed to a first-place finish in the East Division last year at 16-2 but will be in tough to finish atop the standings again this year, sitting two points behind Ottawa and four points behind Montreal. Winnipeg is in far worse shape in the West Division, trailing Saskatchewan and B.C. by six points each with the Riders having a game in hand.
This meeting will mark the first between the two teams at BMO Field since early in 2022 when the Blue Bombers won 23-22. Andrew Harris ran for 111 yards in the game, his first against his old squad, though Boris Bede missed a convert attempt with 25 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, which would likely have sent the game to overtime.
Janarion Grant will face his former team for the first time amid a torrid start to the season during which he has returned three kicks for touchdowns, bringing his career total to 11. Winnipeg has had three different rookies handle the return duties this season, though none have come close to matching the all-star level at which Grant has played throughout his career.
The Toronto Argonauts (3-3) will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2-5) on Saturday, July 27 with kickoff slated for 7:00 p.m. EDT.
The rest of the lines for Week 8 are as follows.