Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

You’ll have to forgive the Montreal Alouettes for feeling like they were the home team on Saturday afternoon.

For the second time this season, OSEG had set up tailgating on the lawn right beside the stadium — just as Montreal does for all of their home games at Percival Molson. Alouettes fans also packed the stands to the point that they were the main reason TD Place had its second-biggest crowd of the season. And of course, the Ottawa Redblacks did their part by rolling over and allowing Montreal to put on a show, dominating Ottawa by a score of 39-28 in a contest that, like last week, never truly felt close.

Here are all my thoughts on the game.

1) Many, myself included, had been hoping to see fourth-year pro Tyrie Adams under centre for quite some time. That opportunity finally came this week, as Dustin Crum was ruled out with a head injury early in the week.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

While Adams was far from perfect, it’s worth bearing in mind that his play should be graded on a curve. The reality is the 28-year-old was making his first start in two and a half years. And as the third (and more often fourth) quarterback on the roster, Adams sometimes went months without any real reps in practice.

That’s why, despite a handful of overthrows and misreads, it was a solid outing by him against a good Montreal defence. Adams finished the game by completing 61 percent of his passes for 286 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions. Of his turnovers, it should be noted that two were on tipped balls.

PICKED OFF!

Najee Murray has his second interception of the ball game!#CFLGameday
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Furthermore, Adams wasn’t always getting a ton of help from teammates. His offensive line struggled mightily to provide him a clean pocket to step up into, and by my count, at least four passes were dropped.

Still, after a shaky start, Adams settled in and seemed to hit a groove once Ottawa started to call plays that moved the pocket — RPOs (Run/Pass Options), rollouts, and bootlegs. By taking advantage of Adam’s mobility, the offence was able to get into a rhythm and put together some good drives. One thing that Adams will need to improve — and something that will happen only with more playing time — is his touch. Adams’ arm is clearly strong, but at times, it seemed like he put a bit too much heat on throws that would’ve benefited from a lighter touch.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

Overall, it was an encouraging performance and ideally leads to another start in the team’s final game of the season in Hamilton.

2) With Adams starting the game, we’ve officially seen four different quarterbacks in Tommy Condell’s offensive system. The main takeaway should be that it doesn’t matter who is under centre, because you’re getting the same thing regardless. From the slow starts — the Redblacks yet again failed to score a point in the first quarter and quickly found themselves trailing by double digits — to the lack of faith in the running game, to play designs that continually have receivers running short of the sticks in second-and-long situations, Condell’s offence has proven thoroughly unproductive.

Against Montreal, Ottawa averaged just 4.7 yards per play and converted only 38 percent of their second-down opportunities. Yet again, the ground game seemed an afterthought, as running backs were handed the ball a total of eight times compared to the 44 pass attempts dialled up. I completely understand that the short passing game can be a substitute (at times) for a rushing attack, but as we’ve seen all season long, the Redblacks don’t stretch the field, which allows opposing defences to squat on the inevitable short routes and swarm to the ball, rendering the endless screens and quick passes to the flats all the more ineffective.

If you’re looking for a silver lining, the Redblacks’ red zone production was good, as the team scored touchdowns on three of their four trips to that area.

3) A combination of a lack of touches and poor offensive line play meant a very quiet day for Ottawa’s running backs. Veteran William Stanback turned seven rushes into 18 yards, averaging just 2.8 per carry. Stanback was somewhat involved in the passing game, snagging three check-downs for 22 yards, with 17 of those coming after the catch.

As for Canadian Daniel Adeboboye, his lone carry went for two yards, but he made four catches for 34 yards (with 24 coming after the catch) and a touchdown. He also made a very heads-up play to snuff out a Montreal fake punt in the second quarter, which led to a turnover on downs.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

4) Nothing demonstrates how much Ottawa’s aerial attack emphasizes quick passes better than the YAC (yards after catch) from this game. Eugene Lewis had five catches for 37 yards and a touchdown, with 18 of those yards coming after the catch.

GENO HAS GOT IT!

Ottawa responds with a touchdown!#CFLGameday
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Kalil Pimpleton’s four grabs went for 39 yards, with 18 coming after the catch. Justin Hardy’s pair of catches were good for 31 yards, with 18 coming after the catch. Canadian rookie Keelan White snagged three passes for 30 yards, with 17 of those coming after the ball was in his hands. Fullback Anthony Gosselin made one reception for 15 yards, with 11 coming after the catch. Only Bralon Addison had less than 50% of his yards come in the air, as his five receptions were good for 78 yards, with just 25 coming after the catch.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

This tells us that the ball is being thrown incredibly quickly, well before any kind of long-developing or deeper routes can be run. Some of those passes can be attributed to wanting to get rid of the ball before pressure gets home, but more of it is due to exactly how Ottawa’s offensive scheme functions.

Through 17 games, it’s safe to say that scheme hasn’t borne much — if any — fruit.

5) With the injuries on the offensive line, Ottawa was always in tough against a strong Alouettes’ front seven. With that said, it doesn’t excuse how much the Redblacks’ big men up front struggled to pick up twists and stunts. Too often, a three or four-man rush was able to collapse the pocket. Multiple times, a blitzing defender was untouched and delivered a huge shot on Adams moments after he fielded the snap.

Mustafa Johnson comes up big with the sack! #CFLGameday
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In addition to their struggles in pass protection, Ottawa’s offensive line only mustered 3.2 yards per rush. Obviously, not having Drew Desjarlais (among other regular starters) was a factor, but the group simply needs to be better. Again, if you’re looking for a silver lining, the reps that 2025 second-round pick Sam Carson is getting at left guard should help speed up his development.

6) Outside of a few spark plugs (whom I’ll highlight in a minute), Ottawa’s defence didn’t look overly interested or engaged for long stretches of the game. For much of the 60 minutes, William Fields’ unit lacked energy. Let’s get the negatives out of the way before shouting out those who did come to play.

For the second week in a row, Alouettes’ quarterback Davis Alexander shredded Ottawa’s zone looks, completing 68 percent of his passes and hitting a number of explosive plays. Despite being sacked three times and facing somewhat consistent pocket pressure, Alexander’s big day was possible because his receivers were running wide open. So open that Montreal averaged 10.5 yards per pass.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

Even that stat doesn’t tell the real story, but what does is that the Alouettes’ two leading receivers — Austin Mack and Tyler Snead — averaged 21.6 and 16.3 yards per catch, respectively. Montreal receivers routinely caught the ball without an Ottawa defender in the same area code. As for contested catches, forget it.

In terms of positives, defensive end Bryce Carter was a beast, notching seven tackles, two sacks, and a handful of other pressures that rushed throws. Linebacker Adarius Pickett made four tackles, had a knockdown, and, as R-Nation has come to appreciate, was constantly around the ball. Signed two weeks ago, Jonathan Jones — the former Argo and Blue Bomber — worked in as part of the rotation at linebacker and produced five tackles and a sack.

Defensive back Adrian Frye made five tackles and beautifully recovered an onside kick. Canadian defensive tackle Muftah Ageli, Ottawa’s fourth-round pick in the 2025 CFL draft, chipped in with three tackles.

7) It’s fair to say Lewis Ward has struggled mightily in 2025. With that said, you’d never know it from how he kicked against Montreal. After connecting on just 50 percent of his attempts over the last three games, Ward was two-of-two on Saturday afternoon, splitting the uprights from 45 and 46 yards out. He was also good on both conversions and bounced a perfect onside kick attempt that Ottawa recovered.

For the second week in a row, punter Richie Leone had a kick blocked thanks to another breakdown in protection. When he was able to get his punts off, Leone averaged nearly 40 yards per kick. In terms of kick coverage, it was a full team effort in corralling Montreal’s returners, as seven different Redblacks made a special teams tackle.

In his first game action in a month, DeVonte Dedmon was his usual shifty self, breaking a number of long kickoffs as he averaged 31 yards per return, with a long of 46 yards. Due to injuries and limited playing time due to roster management, Dedmon has had a relatively quiet season, but yesterday’s performance shows that he’s still more than capable of gifting his team excellent field position when given the opportunity to do so.

Devonte Dedmon turns on the jets! #CFLGameday
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8) On one hand, it was great seeing a crowd of 20,897 pack TD Place. Aside from the ugly visuals of hundreds of empty seats and poorly filled sections, games at Lansdowne this season haven’t had the atmosphere the league has come to expect from Ottawa since pro football returned to the nation’s capital in 2014.

On the other hand, the only reason the crowd was that big and rowdy was because of the heavy presence of Montreal fans. In addition to the team organizing buses that brought hundreds of fans to the game, the Alouettes had plenty of other supporters who made their own way to TD Place.

The result was an animated crowd that drowned out those brave members of R-Nation who subjected themselves to another loss. The blaring of horns that are typically limited to Percival Molson were a constant during Ottawa’s offensive possessions, and there were frequent “Ole” chants following positive Alouettes plays.

I’m sure the influx of visiting fans was great for the franchise’s bottom line, but for R-Nation, it was another humiliation in a season that’s already had its fair share of lowlights.

A year after posting a franchise-best 7-1-1 record at TD Place, the 2025 Redblacks finished their home schedule by going 2-7 at Lansdowne.

9) With the loss, Bob Dyce’s squad falls to 4-13 and has now dropped 11 games in a row to their French rivals.

The Redblacks close out the 2025 season on Friday night in Hamilton, but even a win won’t change where they’ll be selecting in the 2026 CFL draft. Although the Toronto Argonauts finished out their season with a loss to Calgary to finish 5-13, by losing to Montreal, Ottawa locked up the first overall pick due to the Argos’ point differential in their season series with the Redblacks.

With nothing at stake in the standings or in terms of the draft, R-Nation will be looking to see which young players continue to grow, and which veterans play hard, as they make their final case for being a part of the 2026 team.