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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicked off the Thanksgiving weekend by serving up a Friday-night turkey to greater than 32,000 invited company.

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A fourth consecutive sellout crowd watched the Bombers drop a 14-11 choice to Toronto, ending the house facet’s eight-game win streak and gobbling up its try to clinch first place within the CFL West.

The Bombers, 10-7, can nonetheless declare first if Saskatchewan (8-7-1) loses to the B.C. Lions on Saturday.

In any other case, they’ll have to complete the job of their regular-season finale in Montreal in two weeks.

“I’m not a fan of relying on folks,” defensive again Deatrick Nichols stated, post-game.

His head coach agreed, to an extent.

“Profitable’s all the time higher,” Mike O’Shea stated. “We’re on this spot as a result of we labored our asses off to be right here.”

They’ll have a bye week to consider how they let this primary probability slip via their fingers. Not that they didn’t battle to the bitter finish.

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They don’t name it a sport of inches for nothing, and Friday that held true.

Dealing with a third-and-17 with barely a minute to go, Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros took off with the ball and sprinted for the first-down marker, solely to be pushed out of bounds some eight inches brief, on the Toronto 48-yard line — in Sergio Castillo’s field-goal vary.

With nothing to lose, O’Shea challenged the spot of the ball.

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“I might assume since nothing’s touched out of bounds…to me it will be like placing the ball over the pylon on the entrance of the top zone,” O’Shea stated. “I simply threw my problem to attempt to give them extra time to see if they’d one other angle. And I disagreed with the spot, clearly.”

Collaros had the identical thought, however wasn’t instantly certain if he’d stepped out of bounds.

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“If my foot was out of bounds, then I didn’t get it,” he stated. “If my foot was in bounds, then I clearly bought it.”

The replay wasn’t conclusive and the decision was upheld.

The win improved the Argonauts to 9-7, leapfrogging Ottawa for second place within the East, not less than for a day.

In a sport dominated by defences, the Argos made the larger performs, rolling up seven sacks on Collaros and retaining Winnipeg out of the top zone till the fourth quarter.

“I’m certain there was a pair occasions that I used to be making an attempt to do an excessive amount of and prolong performs,” Collaros stated. “I really feel unhealthy as a result of I do know that quantity’s an essential factor for the offensive line they usually take satisfaction in that.”

Veteran lineman Pat Neufeld acknowledged the O-line had a tough first half, particularly.

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“They performed actually bodily. They over-matched us in that first half,” Neufeld stated. “We’ll put this on us as an offensive line simply not being practically ok. And we’re man sufficient to say it. We are able to settle for that. They usually performed very well. We’re going to be very crucial of ourselves, have a look at ourselves within the mirror and guarantee that we battle to not let that occur once more.”

Down 13-4 with some 9 minutes to go, Collaros lastly led the Bombers on their lone landing drive, chipping away on the cussed Toronto defence till it lastly began to offer.

The ultimate present might have come from the officers.

A move interference name in opposition to Argos defender Mark Milton, masking Kenny Lawler deep in the long run zone, was iffy, at finest.

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However Toronto coach Ryan Dinwiddie had blown an earlier problem and couldn’t ask for a overview.

Winnipeg bought the ball on the Argos one and scored two performs later, establishing the late dramatics.

When he had time, Collaros was sharp, hitting on 23 of 30 passes for 249 yards, however no touchdowns. His solely interception got here on a Hail Mary on the ultimate play.

He additionally took off 5 occasions, emblematic of his evening, gathering 44 yards.

Neufeld says his quarterback didn’t let the pounding he took get to him.

“He doesn’t change,” the lineman stated. “He’s the consummate professional. There’s nobody else I’d need again there. He’s the identical dude each play. I like him to demise and now we have to be higher for him.”

After a season-high 147 yards in Hamilton final week, working again Brady Oliveira carried the ball simply 12 occasions for 64 yards.

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“Each defences performed fairly rattling good,” O’Shea stated.

Toronto managed 203 yards via the air, 99 alongside the bottom, however didn’t hand over a single sack.

The Bombers turned the ball over 3 times — on a fumble, on downs and on the late interception — whereas the Argos gave it away twice, on a fumble and on downs.

It wasn’t a stellar evening for Castillo, both. He missed from 42 within the first quarter, hit from 26 within the second and rattled one off the upright from 48 within the fourth.

He was out-kicked by his counterpart, former Bomber Lirim Hajrullahu, who was two-for-two, together with a 44-yarder.

EARLY STATEMENT

The Argos took the ball on their opening possession and jammed it down the Bombers’ throats, driving 72 yards on seven performs — aided by a Jake Thomas roughing name — and capping it with a 13-yard Chad Kelly landing move to Dave Ungerer.

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The Winnipeg offence didn’t precisely reply, going two-and-out for a second straight time.

So the particular groups took it upon themselves to reverse the tide.

Brian Cole slammed right into a stumbling Janarion Grant on the Toronto punt return, jarring the ball unfastened and recovering it on the Argos 9.

A play later, the Bombers had it on the one. Automated, proper?

Nope.

The Argos stuffed two Terry Wilson quarterback sneaks and made an announcement on the similar time: They weren’t going to be pushed round within the trenches.

“You’ve bought to attain there,” Collaros stated. “Our particular groups did an ideal job… punched it out in opposition to arguably the very best returner within the historical past of the CFL. You’ve bought to complete these drives. You must rating factors there, and we didn’t.”

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The subsequent time Winnipeg had a 3rd and brief (one and a half yards), O’Shea elected to punt.

BOO-BIRDS MAKE RARE APPEARANCE

Collaros had bother discovering receivers down subject shortly, and located himself underneath stress when he didn’t.

Sacked 5 occasions within the first half, his finest play within the opening half-hour was a 49-yard strike to Lawler. On one other tried deep ball, he missed an open Nic Demski.

The Bombers’ meager first-half output — 82 yards passing, 97 in web offence, a 13-4 deficit — produced greater than a smattering of boos as they left the sphere for half-time, the primary time that’s occurred shortly.

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O’Shea says he didn’t hear it. He was too busy desirous about issues to handle in the course of the break.

“You’ve bought to offer some credit score to the opposition,” the coach stated. “We didn’t simply cease ourselves. We’ve bought nice followers. 4 straight sellouts. They’re very smart. They all the time give the whole lot they’ve bought for us.”

Collaros lastly put collectively a smart-looking drive to begin the second half, however he was pressured once more and coughed up the ball.

Kelly promptly drove the Argos down the sphere, and simply when it appeared they’d put a stranglehold on the sport, the Winnipeg defence shut the door on their very own one-yard line.

It was linebacker Shayne Gauthier who mauled Kelly, forcing a turnover on downs and retaining his workforce inside putting distance, down 9 going into the fourth quarter.

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On this evening, that was an excessive amount of.

BLESSING IN DISGUISE?

Fortunate Whitehead tried to discover a silver lining within the loss.

“Possibly it’s wanted,” the receiver/returner stated. “We’ve been on a highly regarded streak. It clearly can’t occur within the playoffs, proper? So possibly we would have liked that, simply to return to the drafting board, everyone regroup, take time to simply take a step again from soccer.”

If the Bombers must win in Montreal to get high spot, Whitehead sees a profit in that, too: not less than they gained’t have 4 weeks between significant video games.

“Completely. You need to play that final sport feeling good about going into the playoffs. It’s going to be a giant emphasis… we’ve bought to begin quick. We are able to’t have all these errors early on and attempt to play catch-up on the finish.”

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