Blue Bombers on wrong side of history in ‘heartbreaking’ 3rd-straight Grey Cup defeat

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Peggy

Confetti rained down at BC Place Sunday night for the Toronto Argonauts while the Winnipeg Blue Bombers made the all-too-familiar walk back to the locker room as the losing team in the CFL championship game.

It was the third consecutive Grey Cup loss for Winnipeg.

The Bombers’ season had all the makings of something out of a Hollywood movie after starting the campaign 0-4, then pulling out nine wins in their last 10 regular season games, then knocking off the Saskatchewan Roughriders to advance to the league championship game.

But the feel-good ending never came and the Blue Bombers fell 41-24, becoming the first team to lose three Grey Cups in a row since the Montreal Alouettes back in the 1950s.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Blue Bombers defensive end Willie Jefferson said post-game in the locker room. “To have such a good team, such a good unit, guys that we built this camaraderie and stuff with, to come down to the end and it ends like that, it’s sad.”

The Blue Bombers had looked to cement a dynasty by winning their third Grey Cup in five seasons. Instead, they left the field in defeat as team president and CEO Wade Miller offered handshakes to the players heading into the locker room.

Quarterback Zach Collaros tried to keep his emotions in check as he talked to media.

“It feels pretty bad every time. There are just so many people in the locker room you care for, put in a lot of time [for], a lot of work together. To not have it go your way in the ultimate game is obviously tough.”

Two football players hug. — Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros (right) congratulates Toronto Argonauts backup QB Cameron Dukes after the Grey Cup game. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

He finished the night completing 15 of 30 passes, good for 202 yards, but throwing four interceptions. Three of those came after he returned to the game following an injury in the third-quarter to the index finger on his throwing hand.

“It was a little bloody, had to get some stitches in it and numb it,” he said. “But it’s not an excuse for our performance tonight.”

Head coach Mike O’Shea said if it was a regular season game, Collaros wouldn’t have returned to the game.

“He really had an extremely hard time gripping the ball. He put a glove on his hand [and] that’s not something he would normally do.”

O’Shea also echoed his quarterback’s thoughts on the loss.

“They all have their space to be terrible,” he said. “It will keep building and building to a point where it’s awful.”

As for the Argos, snagging their 19th Grey Cup in franchise history and improving to 8-0 over Winnipeg in Grey Cup games, also came with its Hollywood-esque storyline.

The team’s star QB Chad Kelly was injured in the Eastern Final one week earlier so backup Nick Arbuckle was given the reins Sunday and threw 252 yards and two touchdowns en route to being named the game’s MVP.

A football player and his daughters. — Argonauts quarterback Nick Arbuckle passes the MVP trophy to his daughter following his team’s Grey Cup victory. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

By the time he came to the podium flanked by his children to address the media Sunday night, the smell of victory cigars lingered in the air.

“I never quite doubted that we would get here as a team and that we’d be celebrating this moment as a team,” Arbuckle said. “Didn’t know I would be front and centre, with the opportunity to help the team win in this way.”

Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie told reporters after the game he taped a toonie to the top of his locker at BC Place after his team beat the BC Lions there earlier in the season, vowing they’d be back to play in the Grey Cup.

He retrieved that toonie and now plans to put it in his trophy case alongside his championship ring.

“I don’t know why anybody didn’t think we were going to get this done,” he said. “That’s just how we felt.”

In the Blue Bombers locker room, the sting hadn’t yet set in for receiver and Winnipeg native Nic Demski.

“I haven’t even really felt the pain yet. I’m just numb right now,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll hit me tomorrow, or maybe later tonight, maybe a week from now, I don’t know.

“But I know once it does hit me, it’s going to last a while.”

That’s when healing and learning starts, said Jefferson.

“We just gotta grow from it and get ready to come back next year.”

If the Bombers can make it back to the CFL’s biggest game of the year next season, redemption could come on home turf. The 2025 Grey Cup game is set for Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.