Grey Cup 111 Preview: Argonauts and Blue Bombers set to clash in Vancouver
Players to watch, head-to-head results and more ahead of Sunday's big game!
The 111th Grey Cup goes down on Sunday, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts set to battle it out at Vancouver’s BC Place. It is a rematch of Grey Cup 109, as the two teams meet a few days shy of two years since the Argos won 24-23 at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium.
An incredible era of Bombers dominance in the west continues as well, with Mike O'Shea’s team qualifying for a fifth Grey Cup in a row — winning the first two in 2019 and 2021 on either side of the cancelled 2020 season, before losing the last two. Ryan Dinwiddie’s Argos have won the Grey Cup a record 18 times in their storied history and will be looking to continue their undefeated record against the Winnipeggers this season.
Here’s more of what you need to know ahead of Sunday’s championship game.
How They Got Here
After a slow start to the year, which included four straight losses to open the season and just two wins in their first eight games, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers had a great second half to fly into the playoffs. Nine wins from their remaining ten regular season games saw them top the west with an 11-7 record, second only to Montreal’s 12-5-1 in the east. Their only loss since the start of August came against the Argonauts, on October 11 in Manitoba.
They had a bye in the first round of the playoffs, before taking on the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West Final, beating them 38–22 at Princess Auto Stadium to get back to the Grey Cup for the fifth season in a row.
Toronto, meanwhile, have head a solid but inconsistent campaign. After dominating the regular season for a 16-2 record a year ago, the Argonauts regressed slightly to 10-8, good for second in the east. Their best stretch of the year came at the right time, in late September and early October, where they picked up three straight wins against good teams — first the Alouettes, then the Blue Bombers, followed by the Ottawa Redblacks.
The Argos also beat the Redblacks in a high-scoring East Semi-Final, defeating them 58–38 at BMO Field. They followed that up with a 30–28 victory over Montreal at Molson Stadium in the East Final, returning to the Grey Cup for the 25th time in team history.
Quarterback Profiles
The Blue Bombers will be led into this game by arguably the best quarterback in the league over the past five years, Zach Collaros. The 36-year-old has been in the league since 2012, when he won his first Grey Cup as a member of Sunday’s opponents. After bouncing around between several teams he finally settled in Winnipeg in 2019, and has gone on to appear in every Grey Cup since then.
The Bombers won the championship in 2019 and 2021 (the 2020 season was not played due to the pandemic), with Collaros winning the Grey Cup MVP in 2021. Grey Cup appearances followed in 2022 and 2023, but on both occasions the team lost after giving up crucial points in the fourth quarter. He will look to bring the title back to Winnipeg on Sunday, before the city is due to host the championship game next November.
In the double blue corner, backup quarterback Nick Arbuckle will take the reigns of the Argonauts offence, after starter Chad Kelly fractured his right tibia and fibula in the East Final victory over Montreal. Arbuckle, 31, has also been a CFL journeyman over the past several years, and won a Grey Cup as a member of the Calgary Stampeders in 2018. He was weeks away from retirement earlier this year to pursue coaching in high school football before he got a call from the Argos to return the team and fight for a spot in training camp, and is now set for the biggest game and opportunity of his career.
This will be Arbuckle’s first playoff start, after a year where he made 18 appearances, completing 65 of 100 passes for 799 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. He won his only start of the season, against the Stampeders in August, while one of his standout games came in a 31-30 loss on the final day of the regular season, where he completed 23 of 32 passes for 378 yards and two touchdowns against the Edmonton Elks.
Key Players
Blue Bombers: Brady Oliveira
On Thursday night, Winnipeg native Brady Oliveira was just the fourth Canadian in CFL history to win the George Reed Most Outstanding Player award, after another standout season at running back with his hometown team. Oliveira also took home the Most Outstanding Canadian award for the second year in a row after a season where he led the league with 1,353 rushing yards on 239 carries and adding another 476 receiving yards.
He and Zach Collaros have had plenty of success over their years together, including a pair of Grey Cups, and will be looking to add another on Sunday.
Argonauts: Janarion Grant
Receiver and kick return specialist Janarion Grant knows all about playing in Grey Cup — having won a pair of them with the Blue Bombers in those 2019 and 2021 seasons and playing (but losing) them with Winnipeg in 2022 and 2023. This year he signed for the Toronto Argonauts as a free agent, where he has continued to be one of the league’s best, and just last week returned a punt for a touchdown in the East Final. He led the league in punt return yards this season with 989, and was fourth in kickoff return yards (1,000).
He is a legitimate threat every single time he touches the football, and described his playing style best on Thursday night at the CFL Awards after picking up the Most Outstanding Special Teams Player award: “Dangerous. Free. That’s how I’d describe it. Just playing for the love of the game.”
Head-To-Head Results This Season
Saturday, July 27 (BMO Field, Toronto): Argonauts win 16–14 in overtime
Friday, October 11 (Princess Auto Stadium, Winnipeg): Argonauts win 14–11
Key Quotes
Nick Arbuckle, Argonauts quarterback:
“It’s another big piece of adversity. Adversity is something that’s kind of shaped my career, shaped my life since I was a young kid. (I was) a backup quarterback all through high school. My first and only start in my entire high school varsity career was in the semi-finals in the playoffs. They called on me in a big rematch against our big rival that beat us earlier in the season.
“Then I go on to play junior college football because I don’t have film and I don’t have offers. I’ve always kind of been overlooked and have worked through many situations all through my CFL career that have helped prepare me mentally and emotionally to take on any challenge and just be ready for whatever opportunity and whatever moment comes. You never know when it’s going to come.”
Kenny Lawler, Blue Bombers wide receiver:
“There’s a special feeling in the air. The guys, we’ve been through a lot. We’ve overcame a lot, whether it was injuries at the beginning of the season to the adversity we had then. So, to get to this point is a great feeling because of the sacrifices we’ve all made as teammates, the roles we’ve had as teammates, and we just continued to put one foot forward after another. We put the team first.
“To just get to the playoffs is a special thing because not everyone gets that opportunity in their professional careers. Locking up the first seed isn’t easy to do, either. So, we honour that, and we honour our teammates by putting in as much work as possible.”
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