The Ottawa Redblacks took a different route, but wound up at the same destination on Friday night.
Against the defending Grey Cup champs, they started well and survived some hiccups along the way, but in the end, they went down to defeat for the fourth straight time, extending their losing streak to an even 10 games dating back to last season.
The 27-22 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in front of 15,154 fans at TD Place, leaves the Redblacks with an 0-4 record and facing a short turnaround, as they kick off Week 6 in the CFL with a Thursday night game in Edmonton against the undefeated Elks.
Sitting in an all-too-familiar spot in the East Division basement, Ottawa is already four points behind the third place Argos, and Toronto currently owns the season series between the two teams.
“We’re in quicksand,” said head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. “It’s a long race, but we’re far behind. Hopefully, we can get it going and be a four-by-one relay team, but we’re in a tough spot right now. We’ve got to get a win, find a way to win, do the little things it takes to win, and get some momentum going. I think a win would do a lot for that locker room.
“We’ve got potential. You can see we’ve been in every game, but we’re not playing good enough to win.”
While dismal, the attendance was a season-high through three home games for the Redblacks.
The drought, meanwhile, is approaching a franchise record.
The Redblacks, whose last victory was a 34-33 squeaker at home over the B.C. Lions on Sept. 5, are on the verge of establishing a new mark of futility.
The club dropped 11 straight games in 2019.
Same old tune
The Redblacks had their best start of the season, thanks to an interception on the night’s second play from scrimmage by former Roughrider A.J. Allen, rookie receiver Cade McDonald’s first CFL touchdown, and a 32-yard field goal by Brett Lauther, another ex-‘Rider, who is now 13-of-13 on three-point attempts.
Not only did they hold the first lead after one quarter for the first time, but the 10-0 head start represented the first time they’ve reached double digits in the opening 15 minutes of play.
From there, they slowly crumbled, but still had a chance to pull off a late game vicotry.
Trailing by 11 heading into the fourth quarter, Redblacks quarterback Jake Maier connected on a 34-yard pass to Geno Lewis that put the ball on the Saskatchewan one, and after some stumbling and bumbling by the home team, short-yardage QB Bryson Barnes scored his first CFL touchdown.
But when a two-point conversion attempt failed, the Redblacks remained behind by five points instead of three.
Maier got the ball back later in the game, but on a third-and-one gamble just outside the Roughriders’ 15 with about two and a half minutes to go, they failed to move the chains.
It was the sixth such gamble Ottawa has failed to convert this season.
“We’re just finding ways to hurt ourselves,” Dinwiddie said of the team’s ineptness when it comes to continuing drives by picking up a simple yard.
Confounding is why the Redblacks, along with other teams, sometimes opt to line up in shotgun on third-and-ones, which they turn into third-and-fours by the formation.
“The mentality is we’ve got to move the ball,” Dinwiddie said in explanation while pinning some of the responsibility on Anthony Gosselin, the team’s longest-serving veteran. “Goose had a tough day at the office, and you’ve got to count on your fullbacks to come in there and help you move the ball and take hits off your receivers.”
Dinwiddie was most miffed at the penalties taken by his team.
Not so much the number, as it was a relatively clean game played by both the Redblacks (flagged six times for 37 yards) and by the Roughriders (two for seven), but the manner.
“You can’t practice not taking penalties, right?” he said. “It’s just beyond me, some of the stuff did.
“We talked about special teams, and how we’ve got to make sure we don’t give them any big returns, and they take one to the house,” he added of a 101-yard touchdown scored by Mathew Sexton (who was cut by the Redblacks in the off-season and was making his CFL debut) for a third-quarter score that gave the Roughriders their first lead and arguably was the turning point of the game. “We get some momentum going, and we fumble the ball on the punt return.
“We’re up 10-0, and we found a way to get them back in the game. (The wounds) were self-inflicted. The penalties are beyond me. Like, on one of our punt returns, we had a guy tackle a guy. This ain’t WWE, you know what I mean? That is just beyond me.
“So, we gotta look at it. I told those guys they’ve got to look in the mirror a little bit. We preach (not taking penalties) all the time. They’re on the field; they’ve got to make sure they understand that.
“Our FBI, football intelligence, ain’t there yet. We’ve been in every game, but you know, we’re our worst enemy right now.”
Is Maier running out of rope?
The Redblacks’ most important player didn’t have a horrible night.
Maier completed 23-of-30 for 259 yards and a touchdown and didn’t throw an interception for better numbers than Trevor Harris (18-of-31 for 243, two touchdowns and a pick), and the Roughriders’ smooth, 40-year-old threw for more than 400 yards in two of his first three games this season.
But with veteran McLeod Bethel-Thompson getting more comfortable with the offence this week and some sort of spark needed on a team that has averaged slightly more than 25 points a game (including a special teams touchdown), Dinwiddie didn’t exactly give Maier a vote of confidence.
“There were a few plays that we’ve got to have better play at the quarterback position,” said Dinwiddie.
Asked to self-evaluate, Maier said: I felt like I was seeing it pretty well tonight. Maybe (want) a couple throws back, but other than that, I felt pretty good about the pass game and how we were playing, for the most part.”
He also acknowledged the urgency of the situation for the Redblacks.
“The whole ‘it’s a long season’ kind of attitude towards things, like, ‘hey, you got time, you got this, you get that’ … I’m trying not to subscribe to that, really,” said Maier. “I think we’re in a mode now where it’s like, just treat every game like a one-game season, in terms of the way you prepare and the way that you approach the week. And then when you show up on game day, it’s a one-game sprint for us to win a ball game. We can’t ever live in a world where it’s like, ‘oh, it’s okay to win this game or drop this game or this or that.’ We don’t have that luxury. With how competitive the CFL is, I don’t know if any team really has that luxury. I mean, you can ask (the Roughriders); they were pretty desperate to get that win tonight, right? I just think we’re in a one-game season every week, and I think that’s the amount of energy and emotional energy we should put towards this. If we do that, then at least we can say we give it literally everything we have to win a football game.”
The good, ugly, and bad
The Ottawa defence played well, limiting a Roughriders team that had been averaging 34 points a game to just 20.
American rookie Noah Gettman continued booming balls, averaging 57.4 yards on five punts, but he’ll be embarrassed watching replays of his effort, or lack thereof, in trying to stop Sexton’s TD return.
Meanwhile, the Redblacks are coming up lame in their attempt to establish a running game
Former all-star Greg Bell had his most productive game of three for the Redblacks, with nine carries for 45 yards. But he averaged just three yards on eight carries, discounting a fourth-quarter burst up the middle deep in Ottawa territory.
Also of concern is the injury situation.
Defensive back Bennett Williams, who has been enjoying a good start to the season, suffered what was believed to be an Achilles injury in the third quarter.
“That’s unfortunate … he’s a competitor,” said Dinwiddie, who also mentioned Canadian linebacker Michael Brodrique and Canadian safety Scott Hutter on what’s going to be a “bigger injury report than normal” this week.
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