Bombers lose Collaros and fourth straight in Calgary

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Another week, another close loss – and another potentially huge loss to injury.

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers continued their nightmare start to the CFL season with a 22-19, overtime defeat in Calgary on Saturday.

Losing starting quarterback Zach Collaros late in the first half, the Bombers rode backup Chris Streveler to their fourth straight loss, leaving the four-time defending West Division champs battered and buried in a hole with the sides caving in.

Not that Streveler didn’t make it interesting.

The 29-year-old capped a last-minute drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to former college teammate Drew Wolitarsky, tying the game at 19-19 with 37 seconds to go.

The drive needed eight plays and covered 74 yards in just 47 seconds.

Looking for a touchdown on Winnipeg’s first overtime possession, though, Streveler came up short on a pass to Nic Demski in the end zone and it was intercepted by former Bomber Demerio Houston.

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Calgary won it on their overtime possession, Rene Paredes nailing a wind-aided 52-yard field goal.

“We made enough mistakes to lose a real close one,” head coach Mike O’Shea told CJOB radio, post-game.

He didn’t say “again,” but he could have.

The Bombers have lost their last three games by four, two and three points.

They’ve gone from finding ways to win those to finding ways to lose them.

Which brings us to Collaros.

The two-time Most Outstanding Player took a hard hit in the midsection from the helmet of D-lineman Josiah Coatney, went down clutching his ribs and stayed on the ground for several minutes.

He returned three plays later and one play into Winnipeg’s next offensive series, but didn’t come out to start the second half, while the team posted on X that he was “questionable” to return.

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Soon he was standing on the sideline wearing a ball cap instead of a helmet.

“Precautionary,” O’Shea called it. “He seems fine. Just not going to put him in there. Strevy can run the whole offence. Put him in and let him work. He gave the team a real good chance.”

That he did.

But Streveler also struggled to complete passes and move his team consistently, hitting on 14 of 24 passes for 170 yards, the one touchdown and the interception that cost his team a shot at the win.

“Obviously I can’t thrown an interception in that situation of the game,” Streveler said, saying he should have found a way to buy himself more time to throw in the face of a Calgary blitz. “I just got my arm hit throwing and couldn’t enough on the ball. I’ve got to be smart in that situation. It’s on me.

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“I didn’t play good enough. Made a mistake at the end of the game. There’s no excuse for that. That’s my job. I’ve got to be ready.”

Before getting hurt, Collaros completed eight of 12 passes for just 55 yards and one interception.

The Winnipeg defence yielded its only touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter.

“The defence did a good job of eliminating the big explosion plays,” O’Shea said.

At the same time, it generated just two turnovers, as the Bombers lost the turnover battle by one.

Calgary finished with 21 first downs to Winnipeg’s 17, with 307 yards net offence to the Bombers’ 297.

Winnipeg was already without star receivers Dalton Schoen and Kenny Lawler, Schoen done for the season and Lawler on the six-game injury list with a broken arm.

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On defence, injuries have taken out three starters on the line, but Calgary, behind quarterback Jake Maier, who wasn’t very sharp himself, didn’t manage a single big play, their longest a 25-yard pass.

The biggest play the Bombers offence made was 21 yards.

“These last three games have come down to a couple of plays,” Streveler said. “We don’t think the record indicates the type of team that we have. But we’ve got to find a way to get it done. I don’t think anyone’s leaving today thinking they played their best game.”

Demski was Winnipeg’s top target with six catches, but only for 54 yards.

Brady Oliveira ran for just 26 on 10 carries, as the Bombers failed yet again to get their ground game going.

Some other notable items from Saturday:

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– With the Bombers lined up to punt in the third quarter, a bad snap made Jamieson Sheahan bolt to his right to one-hand the ball.

When he turned his eyes back up-field, the punter saw enough space to run for 18 yards and a first down.

– Sergio Castillo went four-for-four, including a career-high and Winnipeg franchise-record 60-yard field goal, with the wind, with some 9:00 to go.

The old Bombers record was 58 yards, shared by Justin Medlock and Bernie Ruoff.

– Niggling penalties late in the fourth quarter cost the Bombers.

With around five minutes to go, a procedure call on centre Chris Kolankowski cost them five yards.

Receiver Kevens Clercius was offside on the next play, backing them up another five, leaving a second-and-20,

Two plays later, Oliveira came up one yard short on a third-and-nine gamble.

On their last drive, perennial all-star Stanley Bryant was called for procedure.

In all, Winnipeg took eight penalties for 60 yards, Calgary just three for 40.

Up next, a home date against Ottawa on Friday.

pfriesen@postmedia.com

X: @friesensunmedia

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