Winnipeg Blue Bombers fumble away game against Elks (& 11 other thoughts)

Samantha Keen/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost to the Edmonton Elks on Thursday night by a score of 23-18 in front of 32,343 fans at Princess Auto Stadium. Below are my thoughts on the game.

Repeating yourself

Winnipeg’s defence got ripped to shreds by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats two weeks ago, a performance the team’s starters had a hard time explaining.

The week prior, the unit started badly against the Calgary Stampeders, then dominated the second half until giving up a long touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter.

Facing an Elks offence led by a red-hot Justin Rankin, the Blue Bombers essentially repeated their defensive performance from Week 1.

Cody Fajardo faced little pressure in the opening half and had no trouble finding open receivers, completing 13-of-16 pass attempts for 164 yards. Rankin ran wild, notching 11 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown.

The unit was particularly bad on Edmonton’s opening possession, allowing a seven-play, 100-yard touchdown drive. Jonathan Moxey blew contain on a 29-yard carry from Rankin, Redha Kramdi gave up an 18-yard reception to T.J. Luther across the middle, and Evan Holm missed a tackle on Javon Leake in the red zone. It was ugly.

The tides turned in the second half, starting with an improved pass rush.

Michael Fletcher pushed the pocket early, leading Willie Jefferson and Jayden Smith to bring Fajardo down near the line of scrimmage. Jefferson got a pressure of his own moments later when he flushed Fajardo from the pocket and Kydran Jenkins gave pursuit, forcing the quarterback to throw the ball away.

The Blue Bombers finished the game with zero sacks, but the team’s made it clear they don’t particularly care about getting sacks, so long as they’re pressuring the opposing quarterback.

The secondary also responded, contesting balls at key moments. Deatrick Nichols, who had arguably the worst game of his career against Hamilton, was back to his usual All-CFL level this week, finishing the game with two tackles, one fumble recovery, and one pass knockdown.

In the end, however, the defence couldn’t get the stop when it needed it most, allowing Cody Fajardo to hit T.J. Luther for the game-winning touchdown (more on that in a moment).

Clearly, this unit needs to find a way to start stronger. Through three games, they’ve had three bad starts.

Fumble-itis

It’s not often that a team fumbles four times in the same game, much less in the same half.

Midway through the first quarter with the ball deep in Edmonton territory, Brady Oliveira got crushed at the line of scrimmage by defensive lineman Jordan Williams (more on that in a moment). He lost control of the ball, which popped into the air.

Brock Mogensen, who started in place of the injured Nick Anderson, scooped it up for the Elks and eventually lateraled to former Blue Bombers defensive back Tyrell Ford, who is one of the fastest players in the CFL.

94 yards later, Zach Collaros and Ontaria Wilson managed to force Ford out of bounds at Winnipeg’s three-yard line. It was an especially impressive play from Collaros, who showed lots of speed for a 37-year-old and set up the perfect angle to slow Ford down and give Wilson enough time to close the gap.

The high-effort play from Collaros and Wilson paid off as Winnipeg’s defence forced two-and-out on Edmonton’s ensuing drive, leading to a 15-yard field goal from Vincent Blanchard. It was still an awful exchange, though it didn’t end up costing Winnipeg a touchdown.

This is exactly what happened early in the second quarter, when Dante Daniels made a nice catch-and-run up the sideline when he tried to hurdle a defender. The rookie tight end ended up taking a hit from defensive back Kordell Jackson and fumbled, which recovered by Joel Dublanko.

Five plays later, the Elks scored a touchdown to increase their lead to 17-0.

Winnipeg could easily have lost two more fumbles — one on a short-yardage plunge from Bryce Perkins, and another on a muffed punt return from Trey Vaval. Nic Demski also appeared to lose the ball at one point, though he was ruled down by contact. Looking at the replay, it probably should have been ruled a fumble.

The team’s turnover woes continued into the second half, as Zach Collaros was stripped of the ball.

The team ran play-action out of maximum protection but Ethan Vibert, who was promoted from the practice roster after Patrick Neufeld was a late scratch, whiffed on his block, allowing Noah Taylor to crush Collaros off the edge. Malik Carney recovered the loose ball for the Elks.

Collaros hung onto the ball for too long at times on Thursday night, though this wasn’t one of those plays. When a team has eight blockers on the field, the quarterback should have time to throw. This particular fumble was on Vibert.

There was yet another fumble on Winnipeg’s last possession when the pocket collapsed around Collaros. Gabe Wallace recovered the loose ball, and though it’s fun to see a 330-pound man tote the rock, the Blue Bombers need their offensive linemen to focus on blocking — not recovering fumbles.

It’s hard to win football games when you’re bad at the fundamentals. Two weeks ago, the defence struggled badly with missed tackles. This week, the club’s playmakers couldn’t hang onto the ball.

Sergi-no

Sergio Castillo is as consistent as any kicker in the CFL but he had a night to forget against Edmonton, going one-for-three on his field goal attempts.

The 35-year-old’s first miss came from 49 yards out in the first quarter. The second came from 50 yards out in the second quarter. Long field goal misses can be dangerous

Both kicks came from relatively long distances, sure, but Castillo is generally reliable up to 50 yards. The wind also didn’t appear to be a factor.

When you lose a game by five points and miss two field goals, those mistakes loom large.

O-line shuffle

Shortly before Thursday’s game, Winnipeg announced that longtime right guard Patrick Neufeld had been scratched for personal reasons. Tyler Elsbury shifted over from centre to replace him, with Tui Eli taking over from Elsbury.

Though it’s tough to assess trench play without looking at the game film, the gap between Eli and Elsbury appeared to be where Jordan Williams broke through to crush Brady Oliveira late in the first quarter. On the television replay, it looked like Elsbury tripped and Eli missed a chip block while running to the second level.

Again, it’s tough to say for sure, but I feel comfortable speculating that if Neufeld was in the game, Oliveira wouldn’t have gotten creamed by a 285-pound defensive tackle on that particular play. Offensive line play is all about cohesion and it seemed evident that Eli and Elsbury hadn’t taken reps together at their respective positions.

On the whole, it wasn’t a strong night for Winnipeg’s offensive line. As outlined above, Ethan Vibert was beaten badly for a sack early in the third quarter, then Jordan Williams beat Gabe Wallace for a sack late in the third quarter.

Zach Collaros finished the game 24-of-33 for 290 yards and two touchdowns, though he took far too many hits. If he’s going to stay healthy all season, he needs better protection.

Viva la Vaval

Aside from his one muffed return, Trey Vaval was exceptional on Thursday night — arguably Winnipeg’s best player.

The 25-year-old ran fearlessly, returning six punts for 83 and three kickoffs for 105 yards. He made at least one defender miss each time he had the ball in his hands and came close to breaking one for a touchdown near the midway point of the fourth quarter.

Vaval is the CFL’s reigning Most Outstanding Special Teams Player for a reason. If he keeps up his current pace, he may very well win the award again in 2026.

Bad memories

Fans in Winnipeg probably want to forget Cody Fajardo’s game-winning touchdown pass to Tyson Philpot in the 110th Grey Cup. However, they were likely reminded of it on Thursday.

The veteran quarterback hit T.J. Luther for an eight-yard touchdown with 56 left in the game at Princess Auto Stadium. It was a quick slant to the left, which was essentially the route Philpot ran three years ago.

You have to wonder if that particular play was on Fajardo’s mind when he made the throw to Luther. After all, it’s the most iconic of his career.

Breaking out

Jayden Smith, who missed last week’s game with a head injury, had a bit of a breakout game for Winnipeg on defence.

The native of Hamilton, Ont. only made two tackles but snuffed out a late Elks drive when he ran Fajardo out of bounds from the opposite side of the play. The 24-year-old oozes athleticism and effort.

Smith was extremely versatile during his collegiate career at the University of North Texas. He’s starting to show he can be the same weapon at the professional level.

The streak

The Blue Bombers extended their sell-out streak to 16 games. It’s pretty amazing how fans have kept showing up to support this team, and how much noise they make each game.

What made the atmosphere at Princess Auto Stadium even better was a lack of rain and thunderstorms, which appeared periodically in the forecast leading up to Thursday’s game.

The infirmary

Ontaria Wilson appeared to suffer an injury when he tackled Tyrell Ford on Edmonton’s long fumble return. He didn’t see the field during the second half with Joey Corcoran filling in as the team’s fifth receiver.

Jake Ceresna also left for the locker room early in the third quarter and didn’t return. The 31-year-old didn’t record any statistics against his old team and the nature of his injury remains unclear.

Brown & Gold

The Blue Bombers made a big splash this week when they reacquired Dru Brown from the Ottawa Redblacks. The 29-year-old didn’t dress against Edmonton but will presumably be the primary backup behind Zach Collaros as soon as he’s learned the offence.

The move led some to question how Winnipeg can afford Brown’s contract against the salary cap, but the numbers are actually quite reasonable.

The Redblacks have already paid close to half the hard money he’s owed for 2026, leaving Winnipeg on the hook for roughly $140,000. For context, this is about the same value as several veteran backups around the CFL, including Tre Ford, Nick Arbuckle, Dustin Crum, and Taylor Powell.

With Brown assumedly taking over the No. 2 job, it’ll be interesting to see who does short-yardage duty.

I’m sure the team would love to keep Taylor Elgersma on the active roster, but Bryce Perkins looked awfully good on his 20-yard scamper in the fourth quarter. CFL teams can only dress three quarterbacks, so one will have to sit.

Next up

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1-2) will visit the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2-1) on Sunday, July 5, giving them nine days to rest before their next game. The two teams met at Princess Auto Stadium in Week 2, when Bo Levi Mitchell lit up Winnipeg’s defence for 287 yards and three touchdowns to lead Steeltown to a 37-27 win. The Tabbies are idle this week on their first of three byes.

The Blue Bombers have lost three of their last four regular-season games in Hamilton, including a 32-21 defeat last September.