OTTAWA – Quarterback Dustin Crum willed the Ottawa Redblacks to victory Friday night, absorbing hits, breaking tackles and piling up yards. He has the bruises to prove it, too.<\/p>\n
Crum threw for 301 yards and rushed for 69 more with two touchdowns, sparking Ottawa\u2019s 34-33 comeback win over the B.C. Lions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge win for the team for where we\u2019re at right now,\u201d said Crum. The win snapped a two-game losing streak and keeps the Redblacks (4-8) in the hunt for the post-season.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Nathan Rourke had a solid outing for the Lions (5-7) going 22-for-32 for 284 yards, one TD and two interceptions.<\/p>\n
Ottawa seemed headed for another loss but with 33 seconds left Crum hit Kalil Pimpleton for a 52-yard gain before finding Eugene Lewis for a 10-yard touchdown pass. Lewis Ward\u2019s convert completed the comeback stunning the Lions, who took a 27-16 lead into the final quarter.<\/p>\n
After leading for the entire game, the Lions struggled with the sudden turn of events.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, it\u2019s bad,\u201d said Micah Awe. \u201cIt\u2019s bad. I\u2019m not gonna lie, this is probably one of the most emotional losses I\u2019ve been in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awe admitted these kinds of breakdowns are “unacceptable” and the team has to learn from its mistakes. They\u2019ll have little time to think about it as teams square off again next week in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Crum, who was sacked four times, has stepped up in Dru Brown\u2019s absence. The 26-year-old plays with a fearlessness rarely seen and credited his older brother for his tenacity when the two played one-on-one as kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day my career is going to be over one day and I\u2019m going to look back and I\u2019m going to know I gave everything I had, every game, every play for my teammates and the people that come and support us,\u201d said Crum. \u201cThat\u2019s just how I try to play the game. It\u2019s why I love this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teammates admit seeing Crum give his all serves as inspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your quarterback is playing physical like that everybody\u2019s playing physical,\u201d said Lucas Cormier. \u201cYou don\u2019t have a quarterback playing his heart out like that and other guys not \u2026 when you see your quarterback fighting and fighting and fighting it brings everybody up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Redblacks made things difficult for themselves yet again with a subpar first half and trailed 13-3.<\/p>\n
Sean Whyte had 18 and 24-yard field goals and James Butler ran in a five-yard touchdown. Ward connected on a 31-yard field goal for Ottawa\u2019s lone scoring opportunity.<\/p>\n
Momentum briefly shifted Ottawa\u2019s way early in the third quarter when Cormier intercepted, the first of his career, a bobbled pass at B.C.\u2019s five-yard line, setting up a William Stanback touchdown that cut the deficit to three, 13-10.<\/p>\n
The Lions answered right back, when a 24-yard return by Seven McGee set up Nathan Rourke to a wide-open Butler for his second touchdown. Minutes later, McGee stunned the crowd with a 93-yard punt return that made it 27-10. Ottawa responded with a six-play drive capped by a nine-yard Dustin Crum scramble, but Lewis Ward missed the convert.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I thought we had some momentum after the return by Seven, and then they got it right back,\u201d said Lions head coach Buck Pierce. \u201cSo, you know, we need to toughen up in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whyte added a 47-yard field goal to make it 30-16, but the Redblacks continued to rally.<\/p>\n
Ward replied with a 39-yard field goal before Crum muscled his way through traffic for his second rushing touchdown of the night. A successful two-point convert cut the deficit to 30-27 with just over seven minutes to play, but the Lions seemed to be in control when Whyte added a 37-yard kick to make it a six-point game, but as is often the case in the CFL nothing is ever over until it\u2019s over, as was evident with Crum\u2019s performance down the stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean even when it\u2019s two minutes left in a CFL game it\u2019s never over,\u201d said Stanback, who was pleased to get a win over his former team. \u201cSo, you\u2019ve just got to make sure you keep fighting to the end with dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
Lions and Redblacks play again on Friday, Sept. 12, in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA – Quarterback Dustin Crum willed the Ottawa Redblacks to victory Friday night, absorbing hits, breaking tackles and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-123859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}