This week is going to test the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the steady-as-she-goes mantra of head coach Mike O'Shea.

Because what they're coming off is not your typical loss.

What happened in Calgary can rip the heart from a team, and the Bombers had been showing plenty of that.

Having a big come-from-behind win in the bag only to allow a team to steal it back in the final 20 seconds can linger.

The what-if's and what-could-I-have done's can haunt. Keep you awake, even.

The loss cost the Bombers any realistic shot at first place.

Will it derail what looked like their most promising campaign in years?

“We're not wounded,” O'Shea insisted as his team returned to practice, Tuesday. “It's no different. It really isn't. They were already on to Edmonton yesterday. As far as I'm concerned, they've moved on.”

That was the theme of the day, actually. Moving on. Flushing it.

So much so, it reminded you of the old line from Hamlet: “Methinks thou doth protest too much.”

Quarterback Matt Nichols must have said half a dozen times he was focused only on the next game against Edmonton, even taking the unusual step of refusing to talk about what happened in Calgary.

“Honestly, I'd rather kind of talk about Edmonton this week,” Nichols responded to the first question about last Saturday.

This was the Bombers' first day of practice this week. Players often agree to dissect the previous game for a couple of days upon returning to work.

Not Nichols. Not this week.

Is it simply too painful?

Defensive end Jamaal Westerman allowed himself a peak back at the horror that unfolded, not just in the first half, when the Bomber defence was gutted and filleted like a Red River catfish, but in the final 20 seconds, when it turned victory into defeat by handing over 40 yards and the winning field goal on three plays.

“From the top, down... we let everybody down,” is how Westerman put it. “We need to keep them out of field goal range. We didn't play up the level we've been playing all year. We didn't play anywhere close to that in the first half.

“As a defensive player, we wear it a little bit more. Because if we could have stopped them and kept them out of field goal range or make the field goal a little longer. You look at those two plays and we're all thinking, 'Ah, maybe could have done this better.' But a loss is a loss.”

I'll respectfully disagree.

Losses like that take an emotional toll. It was like playing two games in one afternoon, and losing both. A blowout, followed by a heartbreaker.

How the Bombers, determined to prove themselves against the cream of the CFL crop, came out of the gate as flat as they did would puzzle Einstein.

O'Shea was no match for the problem, either.

“That's one of those mysterious questions that I don't know if any coach knows the answer to from one week to the next,” the coach said. “But the players know it, too, and to a man they're going to investigate it themselves what they can do differently to make sure they come out faster.”

Sure, the comeback was inspiring, whether or not the Stamps took their cowboy boots off the pedal.

And that's all we'd be talking about, had that last-minute collapse not occurred.

I get the feeling Nichols would have no trouble revisiting it, either, if it had been a win.

How quickly will the Bombers get over it?

We should have our answer early Friday evening.

pfriesen@postmedia.com

Twitter: @friesensunmedia