Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg @ Hamilton, July 5, 2026

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Yes. It was easy to look good doing shorter passes too.  That was a good decision to keep it simple.  Had we let him loose and chucked it down field as some were calling for, you may have seen a few good throws but I suspect some bad as well.  We don't know.  He is new and needs more reps for sure before he is allowed to play big in a game. 

A single pick six and they would have lost the game, so they were very wise not to attempt to push the ball too far down field.

[The Zipp]

Are you serious? That was the worst display of quarterbacking I ve ever seen. Yes, Elgersma was better than ford and dolegla—-I can't believe either of these guys has a job in the cfl, they are horrible, just terrible, and it's not like it's their first kick at it. Hamilton is in serious trouble. As for our offense, I can't believe we won a football game when our offense was never in the red zone once during the entire game!! That was the worst display of offensive football I've ever seen at the professional level

the strev games last year were far worse.

[dd]

This game was on par with a strev game. We had a massive punt return and a jet sweep and that was our offense for an entire half, and up to that point we had scored 4 points and given up a pick six. 

Face it, it was a horrible game offensively and that was including when Collaros was in!! My god Dru brown will look like Tom Brady compared to this garbage!!

[Pigskin]

This game was on par with a strev game. We had a massive punt return and a jet sweep and that was our offense for an entire half, and up to that point we had scored 4 points and given up a pick six.

Face it, it was a horrible game offensively and that was including when Collaros was in!! My god Dru brown will look like Tom Brady compared to this garbage!!

We gave up a pick six??

[theaardvark]

Not having a declared #2 in Ham was a terrible idea, juggling them, bringing them off the bench cold repeatedly was terrible coaching, and e did not take advantage of that enough.

On the whole, we had a pretty good game, just good enough to win.

Jake Kelly had a surprising game, he made some good tackles, and blew up on teams.

Kramdi needs to be at SAM.

Big Stan is not the OT he was, he is getting beat pretty regularly.

4 int Olines in multiple games?  When has that happened before?  With WPG being one?  Yikes.

[Tecno]

Castillo with the glasses.

Is there a story to go with that?  My buddy made it sound like it was a storyline somewhere?  I missed it.

We joked that the reason Castillo was short was he got the glasses on for the first time, went out, and looked at the uprights and said "holy bleep that's far away!".  Or... he has high magnification and he thought they were 10Y closer than they really were.

In any event, I can't help but think of Sheen in Major League.

[Tecno]

That first throw and the pick was not on the line, all rushers were picked up, that was on Zach.

The INT was a result of us trying to force a short game that doesn't exist.  We did that "everyone goes 6Y and curls" scheme which I had just mentioned in the last couple of GDTs as always failing (yet always working for the opponent...).  That's one of the plays that helped lose us the '22 GC.

The strange part is, Zach put way more zip on this ball than he's usually able to.  But his wind up is still slow and he takes that extra tiny pump beforehand that gives that DB that extra moment to pounce.  And he wasn't staring it down for long, but he was just enough to tip his hand.

I think because they make that pass in practice against DBs not really trying at full speed, that they think they can make it work against a live D.

Just more indication our short game is total butt.  Zach has to look it off longer, avoid that final mini-pump, and find a way to wind faster.  Or we have to abandon every curl where the DB is within 5Y.

[ModAdmin]

[ModAdmin]

[Tecno]

Bye bye Stan

The Zach slaughter is not on Stan.  It was on Brady.  Stan did the right thing taken the innermost guy who otherwise would not be covered.  STAN DID NOTHING WRONG.  If Stan doesn't take the DE, then the DE would be free to the QB and take him out.

Instead of staying on the threat side, Brady goes to cover a guy that Broxton had redirected: accomplishing nothing..

This hit is 100% on Brady.  Sorry folks.

And Stan did recover the fumble, otherwise it's HAM ball.

Actually, if you look closely, we might be able to assign half the blame to Daniels.  Just before the snap, Brady points to the threat, and might even be saying something to Zach.  Brady then slaps his left thigh.  The only one who could have seen that in this scheme is Daniels, who was behind Brady pre-snap.  But by the time Brady slaps his thigh Daniels is already committed to his FB-sneaks-out route, at the line, and can't see it.

But Brady can't abandon the protection on this side until he's pretty sure rookie Daniels knows what's going on.  He's probably reacting to the 3-on-2 on the RG/RT, and the 3-on-3 on C/LG/LT, but he needs to recognize RT is playing wider and that side is less of a threat -- not to mention, the left side is the "blind" side.

What a poop show all 'round.  But don't blame Stan.  He did the right thing.

[Tecno]

if a hit like that ends zach for the game time to move on

a) That hit has always ended Zach's game since he came here.  This isn't new.
b) We always take him out as a precaution -- and I think he likes it that way.
c) We all know the drill, "upper body", later "head" or "neck", he misses 0 to 2 weeks and then comes back.

If it was "time to move on" because of this hit, we should have "moved on" 4 seasons ago, because literally nothing is different.

[ModAdmin]

Game Recap | Wpg 14 Ham 13

HAMILTON, ON — It was a bit unconventional and unorthodox and whole lot of gritty and grimy.

Still, let it be said there are no points for artistic merit in the Canadian Football League and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 14-13 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in front of 20,189 here in Steeltown is all about the significance of the result and all the potholes and detours the visitors had to overcome along the way.

Case in point: the Blue Bombers first lead in the game came with 21 seconds remaining on a Sergio Castillo field goal and with Taylor Elgersma at the controls and not Zach Collaros — more on that later — and against a Ticat squad minus their maestro in QB Bo Levi Mitchell, who left due to an injury.

So, a 'W' a rookie QB at the controls, with a defence holding firm after taking an early shot and some magic in the end...

"Vintage, man," said running back Brady Oliveira, who was solid with 17 carries for 84 yards — including 44 yards on the final Blue Bombers possession. "I felt that was almost a must-win for us. It's the mindset of by any means, whatever it's going to take, grittiness, vintage style whatever it's going to look like.

"We faced a lot of adversity tonight. It still wasn't our cleanest game of football at all, but we still responded, especially in the second half. The offensive line did an incredible job and when we need those guys the most, we can lean on them and take the game over.

"That's Bomber football right there — especially when they know exactly what we're going to do — and they move the guy across from them. I'm so proud of how the guys responded."

The win evens the Blue Bombers record at 2-2 — now just two points back of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Elks at 3-1 — in the uber-competitive West Division race.

More on the club's second win of the season from our view in the Hamilton Stadium pressbox...

QB QUESTIONS GALORE: One of the tasty subplots to Sunday's game was the matchup between two future hall of fame quarterbacks in Collaros and Mitchell.

Sadly, neither QB finished the game.

Collaros took a shot to the upper body on a sack by Reggie Stubblefield on the first play the second quarter and finished the game on the sidelines in his gear. He was 5-of-7 for 41 yards and an interception — on the game's first offensive play, no less — before exiting.

More on the game here...https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/07/05/game-recap-wpg-14-ham-13/

[Tecno]

Not having a declared #2 in Ham was a terrible idea, juggling them, bringing them off the bench cold repeatedly was terrible coaching, and e did not take advantage of that enough.

HAM juggling QBs was insane.  I was sitting there dumbfounded.  Let's hand it to Mafia for deciding on and declaring a #2 out of TC.  They could have easily decided to platoon them like HAM clearly did.

I think most of us would have given your "fave" QB 2 series then switch if he sucks.  But once you switch, there's no going back.

In a way, our vet/aged team was a boon and probably is what got us the W.  Star QB is down?  Pfft, our star QB goes down every 6 games for 6 years.  Old hat.  Instead of moping like HAM clearly did, we played harder to pull a W out for Zach.

[Tecno]

Are you serious? That was the worst display of quarterbacking I ve ever seen. Yes, Elgersma was better than ford and dolegla

Are you really making me haul out some clips from '12, '13, '14 when guys like Brohm couldn't complete a single pass, no matter how short or wide open??  Elgersma was totally calm, totally focused, and did exactly and only what Condell/MOS asked/allowed him to do.  Quite astounding actually for a rookie.

[Tecno]

They just showed the play where Zach was taken out.  I wonder if Broxton kicked him in the head as he was backing up and falling down?  Maybe that's what took him out?

The hit was blindside and 100mph -- that G-force alone is enough to take Zach out of a game 100 of 100 times for concussion protocol / seeing birdies.

I'll check the Broxton thing later.  It is possible that any after-contact cricked his neck.  He'll probably clear the concussion precautions this week -- but any possible neck crick could cause 1-3 weeks of missed games.