Five costly plays: Calgary Stampeders drop CFL home opener to walk-off Winnipeg winner

Photo: Blair Takahashi/COACHTAK/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

Long-time readers will know that I will typically sit down and wax poetic about thoughts that swirl around my ADHD addled brain after every game. For 2026, I want to try something new.

The adage in football is that five plays can win or lose you a football game in any given week. So, if you will indulge me, I’d like to present the five plays that cost Calgary the win against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who kicked a field goal as time expired to take a two-point lead and dash the hopes of the smallest home-opener crowd since before the years on the calendar started with a two.

No. 5) Calgary scores a rushing touchdown — 1:04 remaining in Q4

When Calgary took the ball at their own six-yard line with just under four minutes remaining and trailing by six, you knew they would need some magic to regain the lead they had lost a few plays earlier.

Cue Vernon Adams Jr.’s music.

The second-year Stampeders QB came onto the field and was promptly sacked on the one-yard line to begin what was a phenomenal 104-yard drive for a touchdown that featured 15 plays, including eight first downs, a third-down conversion and a spectacular grab from Erik Brooks to get the Stampeders in the shadow of the goal line.

From there, after a beautiful play-fake, and Adams Jr. ran it into the end zone for a four-yard rushing touchdown. Those who were in attendance immediately got nervous, because it happened with just more than a minute remaining and only put the Stampeders ahead by a single point once the touchdown was converted.

A brilliant 15-play drive, perhaps the best of Adams’ tenure in Calgary, needed to be at least two plays longer to take more time away from Zach Collaros and the Bombers’ offence.

No. 4) McAtamney misses from 45 yards — 3:08 remaining in Q3

It must be tough for rookie American kicker Jude McAtamney, who stepped into a figuratively huge pair of shoes for this Week 1 contest.

Before this game, Rene Paredes had been the starting kicker in every game since Week 2 of the 2011 season, a stretch of 247 straight games without being injured, 10 shy of the Stampeders all-time ironman streak held by Mark McLaughlin.

During the streak, Paredes has had some of the greatest kicking seasons of all time, and is a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

I’m not sure if any of that was in the head of McAtamney when he stepped up to kick his first official field goal in the third quarter, but he drove the ball wide. The Bombers were able to get the ball out of the end zone to prevent Calgary from capitalizing on an interception in Winnipeg territory to start the drive.

It was a challenging kick in difficult and swirling wind conditions to be sure, but when you lose by two, a three-point error looms large.

The young kicker, who comes in with five games of NFL experience as a member of the New York Giants, did make all of his converts in the game, including the final one that gave Calgary the lead with a minute left.

All the kicks he made were towards the south goalposts; his lone miss was facing the other direction.

No. 3) McAllister takes a knee times three — 7:18 left in Q3

Recent rule changes in the CFL make a rouge substantially rarer than in previous years, as now any ball that rolls or bounces out of the end zone is no longer awarded a single point.

That makes it all the more maddening to see the Bombers scoring three rouges on kickoffs in the game, totalling three points. Yes, I am aware I am breaking the rules of this concept in the first article I am writing it in, but you will have to forgive me.

The final time it happened was midway through the third quarter, but it effectively made every Bombers touchdown worth eight points instead of seven and could also be pointed to as the reason behind a two-point loss.

Oddly enough, all three balls managed to stay relatively close to where they landed, and had no chance of going out of bounds.

After the game, Tyreik Mcallister told the local radio broadcaster that he was following instructions on which kicks to field and which to let go, but the results remain the same.

No. 2) McAtamney sends it through — 1:04 left in Q4

Whether it was an unlucky bounce or an incredible display of skill by Bombers’ kickoff man Sergio Castillo, while Winnipeg kicks hit and stuck, the kick from McAtamney bounced in almost the same place and rolled through the end zone, putting the visiting team on the 40-yard line.

Had the rookie kicker been able to keep it out of the end zone, it would have forced a return, and there is no telling where that play may have finished.

As it was, the Bombers were that much closer to the field goal they needed to win the game.

No. 1) Collaros finds Wilson — 1:04 left in Q4

The Stampeders had largely kept Collaros in check through the game; he had under 200 total passing yards through the first 58:56 of the contest. But it was when it counted most that the two-time MOP showed why he was on the TSN top 50 players list.

Calmly dropping back and completing his longest pass of the day for 27 yards to Ontaria Wilson, Collaros immediately put his team in a position to win the game on the final play. It’s the kind of play that fans across the league have become accustomed to seeing from the Bombers’ pivot over the last half decade or so, while piloting one of the league’s best teams.

The Blue Bombers had a few rushing attempts following, but didn’t need the yardage and were simply killing clock before Castillo walked it off from 37 yards out.

Bye bye bye

The Stampeders are off next week before returning to host the reigning Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday, June 20 at 7 p.m. ET.

Ryan Ballantine is a lifelong Stamps fan and host of the Go Stamps Go Show Podcast. He has been covering the team since 2008.