Rookie Taylor Elgersma and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the battle of attrition Sunday night.
Sergio Castillo’s 23-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining lifted Winnipeg to a 14-13 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a game that saw both starting quarterbacks knocked out with injuries.
Bombers’ Zach Collaros suffered an upper-body injury early in the second quarter after being sacked by Hamilton’s Reggie Stubblefield, whose arm appeared to contact the quarterback’s head after initially hitting his shoulder.
Collaros, 37, who has a history of concussions, walked off the field but never returned after completing five-of-seven passes for 41 yards with an interception.
Ticats’ quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, 36, was hurt in the third quarter after being sacked by Winnipeg’s Jake Ceresna, who then fell on Mitchell’s left leg. The QB was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance that came onto the field.
Those injuries resulted in Elgersma and Hamilton’s Tre Ford both seeing action, marking the first time since 1969 that two U Sports quarterbacks both attempted a pass in a CFL game.
Ford won the 2021 Hec Crighton Trophy at Waterloo while Elgersma earned the 2024 honour at Laurier.
“Two premier starting quarterbacks going down in the same game is not good for the league,” said Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea. “Hopefully both guys make a speedy recovery, I don’t know anything about either one right now.
“Bo was on a heater and the league needs that and obviously we believe Zach is the best quarterback in the league. When you lose that, the game ends up probably the lowest-scoring game this season I’d imagine.”
It was. The 27 combined points is the lowest so far this season, supplanting Edmonton’s 23-18 victory over Winnipeg last month.
Mitchell, who went 18-of-29 passing for 228 yards and a touchdown before the injury, entered Sunday’s game having completed 68-of-81 passes (CFL-best 84 per cent) for 879 yards with eight TDs and one interception.
“It’s the best I’ve ever seen him play and I think he is/was depending on the situation, poised to have just a monster year. Hopefully he’ll be back but if he’s not then we’re going to have to pick up the pieces,” Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich said.
Ford (three-of-seven passing, 12 yards) and Jake Dolegala (0-for-two) shared starters reps afterwards.
“I told both after Bo went down that they were going to go,” Milanovich said. “There were some plays one of the guys was more familiar with and one wasn’t.
“That was pretty much the function of what was going on there.”
Elgersma finished 11-of-15 passing for 86 yards with a touchdown in his first action this season with Winnipeg (2-2).
But the six-foot-five, 240-pound London, Ont., native got a huge helping hand from running back Brady Oliveira. The CFL’s top player and Canadian ran for 84 yards on 17 carries, with 40 coming on seven straight carries to set up Castillo’s winning boot and cap a 12-play, 54-yard march took 2:46 off the clock.
“Everyone knew we were going to run it and we were still churning out positive yards and positive plays to give Sergio a chance at the end,” Elgersma said.
“That’s all you want, especially as a young quarterback going in there for the first time, having an O-line and [running] back to trust, it’s something that’s super important.”
O’Shea was pleased with what he saw from Elgersma.
“I thought he took care of the football very well, I thought he made good decisions,” he said. “I thought he handled himself very well.
“I thought there were some conditions that happened in the game that can make it even tougher and I thought he battled through it.”
Neither Winnipeg nor Hamilton provided updates on their injured starters after the contest.
The situation looked far worse for Mitchell, who remained on the field for at least 10 minutes and had his left leg stabilized.
The East Division’s top player the last two seasons gave the crowd a thumbs up sign while he was on the stretcher before being loeaded into the ambulance.
Mitchell was limited to six games in 2023, his first season with Hamilton, with a lower leg fracture.
Following an 18-minute delay after Mitchell’s injury, play resumed and Winnipeg, down 13-4, responded.
Trey Vaval’s 46-yard punt return set up Elgersma’s 31-yard TD pass to Ontaria Wilson at 4:10, cutting Hamilton’s lead to 13-11.
Ford appeared to hit Kenny Lawler with a 51-yard TD pass 22 seconds into the fourth but upon review it was ruled incomplete.
Lawler had opened the scoring with a 19-yard TD grab two minutes into the first. It was set up by Destin Talbert’s interception on Winnipeg’s first play from scrimmage.
Marc Liegghio added two field goals and a convert.
Castillo kicked two field goals and a convert for Winnipeg. He also scored a single with a missed 56-yard field goal attempt at 14:23 of the second.
Castillo’s 46-yard field goal at 12:33 pulled Winnipeg to within 7-3. Liegghio restored the seven-point advantage at 6:27 with a 10-yard field goal.
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