It's kinda nuts that a team can win back to back Grey Cups in a 5 year span and somehow be labelled as generational chokers. And yet it's not entirely wrong.
Make no bones about it, regardless of what they do in 2025; the window for this team has now closed. You can outrun father time for a while (shit i thought they were pushing it this year) but it comes for us all eventually. Collaros was showing signs of decline and outside of one good game against Edmonton, he really wasn't it. Neufeld is washed, Bryant's decline has been more graceful, but even still he's showing signs of age. Bighill is beyond fried physically, yet he'll be back in 2025 and O'Shea will probably hand him his starting spot back. Willie Jefferson is really the only guy to defy it, at least for now.
If it was just a Collaros that was declining you could absolutely roll with a quick retool. But when it's that many guys, and many of which are in key positions that are hard to replace? Forget about it.
The coaching staff also deserves a heaping plate o' scorn for how the game played out.
If i didn't know any better, i'd swear to god i was watching a f***ing Miami Dolphins game for how flagrantly they ignored the run when it showed signs of cooking. Brady Oliveria won MOP for a reason. Use him. Instead Buck Pierce decides to jack up the ball on deep shots all game when a) The Argos defense is pretty good downfield and b) your QB has been quite frankly awful for most of the season.
O'Shea let his loyalty get the better of him. Collaros screws up his hand late. You watch him on the sideline and can willingly see he cannot grip the ball. Instead of putting in the admitted raw, but healthy backup you decide "screw it, put a glove on and work through even though you never wear one so it doesn't do squat" Like what?
Maddening and probably the biggest sting of the three losses. Just awful all around.