The defending Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts are back in the win column, earning their first home victory of the season with a 31-17 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday night at BMO Field.
The Argos had to wait til Week 8 for their 111th Grey Cup rematch stage, and they delivered a similar result in the wet weather, piling up points and making key defensive plays to improve to 2-5 and secure their third straight regular-season win over Winnipeg, a feat they hadn’t accomplished since 2015.
Argos pivot and 2024 Grey Cup MVP Nick Arbuckle led the charge, completing 22 of his 31 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns – his first game this season without an interception.
Damonte Coxie racked up a season-high 145 receiving yards and a touchdown on six catches, leading an Argos receiver room that also saw DaVaris Daniels and David Ungerer III surpass the 60-yard mark.
Zach Collaros played two quarters before being sidelined once again with the injury he sustained in Winnipeg’s Week 7 matchup against the Calgary Stampeders. The veteran quarterback went five-for-10 for 79 yards, throwing two interceptions before Chris Streveler took over in the second half. Streveler completed 11 of his 18 throws for 148 yards and a touchdown in relief, adding 16 yards on the ground.
Jerreth Sterns had 72 yards on four receptions, and Brady Oliveira had 82 on 13 carries, but it wasn’t enough as the Bombers suffered their third straight loss and dropped to 3-3.
The Bombers’ offence felt the absence of four-time Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Stanley Bryant almost immediately. On second-and-nine, Collaros dropped back for his first pass of the game and was sacked by Aaron Casey — a troubling start for a Winnipeg team that allowed 12 combined sacks in its last two meetings with Toronto.
Despite soggy field conditions, the Argos opened with some aggressive trickery. Arbuckle pitched to return specialist Janarion Grant, who rolled out and lofted a 41-yard pass through Evan Holm’s hands and into the bucket for Coxie.
Coxie – who entered Week 8 with the second-most receptions over 30 yards (6) – added another on the Argos’ opening drive. He got his defender to bite on a slant-and-go, hauled in a 33-yard pass from Arbuckle, and walked into the end zone. Lirim Hajrullahu missed the extra point, keeping it 6-0.
The rain picked up as the Bombers regained possession, prompting a heavier dose of Oliveira. The 2024 Most Outstanding Player carried four times for 28 yards to set up Collaros, but Keric Wheatfall couldn’t reel in the end-zone shot. Sergio Castillo connected on a 39-yard field goal to get Winnipeg on the board.
Tony Jones’ second-down sack helped the Bombers get the ball back quickly, but the Argos flipped the field when Trey Vaval lost the handle on a slippery punt. Brandon Calver recovered at the Winnipeg 30, but Toronto would settle for a 32-yard field goal from Hajrullahu to go up 9-3.
The conditions caught up with the Bombers once again on a fumbled snap that pushed them back before a punt, but it was the Argos who slipped next. Khalan Laborn mishandled an exchange with Arbuckle, and James Vaughters returned the loose ball 29 yards for a touchdown. Castillo added the conversion to make it 10-9, Winnipeg’s first lead of the game.
The Bombers’ defence closed out the first with sacks from Vaughters and Jones, but the Argos kept the drive alive into the second. Coxie set the tone with a 27-yard grab to get Toronto to midfield, Dejon Brissett mixed in a clutch 30-yard catch-and-run on second-and-long, and Daniels finished it off – left wide open after a miscommunication in Winnipeg’s coverage. Hajrullahu’s extra point made it 16-10.
The Boatmen tried to build on their passing success with a spark on the ground. Laborn broke free for 30 yards – surpassing his previous season-long of four yards – to help Toronto work its way to the Bombers’ red zone. Despite entering Week 8 with a scorching red-zone touchdown rate of 73 per cent, the Argos had to settle for a 22-yard Hajrullahu chip shot.
Soon after, the Argos got another chance. Collaros targeted Sterns on the first play, but Cameron Judge made a heads‑up pick at Winnipeg’s 33. Two straight incompletions from Arbuckle brought on Hajrullahu and the field‑goal unit, and his kick extended Toronto’s lead to 22-10.
Looking to put the interception behind him, Collaros unloaded a bomb to Nic Demski, who had to slam the brakes to track down and secure the 46-yard gain. Collaros tried to follow up, but his pass was broken up by Wynton McManis and deflected off his helmet into the arms of an opportunistic Benjie Franklin – the quarterback’s sixth interception in his last three games.
The Argos closed out the half with an 11-play, 96-yard drive that drained the clock and averaged nearly nine yards per play. After a shot to Coxie in the short corner of the end zone fell incomplete, Hajrullahu tacked on a field goal as time expired to stretch Toronto’s halftime lead to 15 points.
The Argos continued to roll in the third. Arbuckle connected with Ungerer III, Coxie, and Kevin Mital for completions of over 10 yards, but Willie Jefferson stepped up in the red zone, making back-to-back plays to hold Toronto to another chip shot from Hajrullahu.
Streveler – making his second-straight relief appearance for the injured Collaros – ran into similar trouble. His first series ended in a two-and-out, and the Bombers would turn it over on downs after Mital snuffed out their fake punt attempt.
In his next series, Streveler operated more conservatively, avoiding pressure by leaning on short routes and steady gains from Oliveira. The Bombers strung together an 11-play drive that included three second-and-long conversions and a third-down gamble. Streveler capped it by breaking the pattern, floating a deep ball over multiple defenders to Demski for the touchdown. Castillo nailed the convert for Winnipeg’s first and only offensive major of the game.
Eager to respond, Toronto put together a long drive of its own to start the fourth quarter. Their 10-play crawl took six minutes off the clock, and Hajrullahu would close the drive with his sixth field goal of the game to reclaim a two-possession lead.
The long layoff seemed to stall the Bombers’ momentum, as they turned it over on downs twice and fumbled once down the stretch before eventually accepting the loss.
With the first leg in the books, the Argos and Bombers head west to Princess Auto Stadium to wrap up the home-and-home on August 1 in Week 9.
