The Winnipeg Blue Bombers struggled in several aspects of the game at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium—a place where they’ve had some success in recent years.
That success was nowhere to be found Sunday afternoon as the Bombers suffered a 35-14 loss to the Montreal Alouettes, marking the team’s fifth loss in their past six games.
The Bombers special teams unit couldn’t contain Alouettes’ kick returner Stefan Logan who returned a punt for 78 yards for a touchdown in the first half and then opened the second half with a 95-yard kickoff return which led to an Alouettes touchdown.
Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols completed 23 of 48 passes for 189 yards and had one toss picked off by Billy Parker in the first half.
Nichols told reporters in Montreal after the game the two long returns by Logan were a big factor in the loss.
“You take 14 points away from them, really with those two returns, it’s a tighter game and we’re not having to go into hurry-up mode to try and force the ball downfield and you’re able to run your normal stuff,” said Nichols. “It’s tough but credit to them. They made the couple big plays that they needed and we didn’t.”
The Blue Bombers—who were coming off a 22-7 victory last Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders—have not won back-to-back games all season.
Looking at the schedule, it won’t get any easier for the Bombers (4-8).
Their next two games are at home at Investors Group Field beginning with the league-leading Calgary Stampeders on Friday September 25th.
Following that matchup the blue and gold will host the Edmonton Eskimos who currently sit second place in the CFL’s West Division just two points back of Calgary.
“Two tough games to win but we’ve got to be prepared to win them,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’ Shea.
“We’ve got to figure out our mindset, figure out what that is, that will allow us to win two in a row and we need to obviously… starting now. We need to figure out how to win a game and then win another game.”
