Blue Bombers on wrong side of history in 'heartbreaking' 3rd-straight Grey Cup defeat
'I haven't even really felt the pain yet. I'm just numb right now': Bombers' Nic Demski
Confetti rained down at Vancouver's B.C. 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."
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.
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 B.C. Place after his team beat the B.C. 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."
Bomber fans Brenden Gorman and Adam Ginn, who made the trip to B.C. Place, left the game disappointed but still smiling.
"I still love the Bombers. I'll still keep cheering for them," Gorman said.
The two men also went to the Grey Cup in 2022 in Regina — the Bombers' first loss in its current three-game championship skid.
"That one, I think, stung a bit more, just 'cause we were so close to winning that one."
The Bombers also faced the Argos that year, losing 24-23 after Toronto blocked a Winnipeg field goal attempt with 45 seconds remaining.
"This one, we just didn't really play well all game, so you just felt it slowly coming to that [ending]," Gorman said.
The difference in the game came down to play calls, with the Bombers being "thoroughly out-coached," Ginn said.
"I think Buck [Pierce, the Bombers' offensive co-ordinator] called a terrible game. We've got the best running back in the league, and you only give him like what, 10 touches all game, which is brutal," Gorman said.
Brady Oliveira actually had 11 carries for Winnipeg, and tallied 84 yards (an average of 7.6 yards per carry). In comparison, Toronto's Ka'Deem Carey had 15 carries for 79 yards (5.3 yards per carry).
"I was hoping they'd come out with a little more in the second half, [but] nothing went their way, and any little chance they got was squandered," Gorman said.
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.
Ginn is already looking forward to that one, trying to put Sunday's debacle in the past.
"We're still Bombers for life, but that hurts," he said. "Next year at home, though. You gotta believe."
With files from Mike Arsenault