You can watch the Ottawa Redblacks battle the Montreal Alouettes Sunday night at 7pm ET\/4pm PT on TSN1\/5, TSN.ca and the TSN App.<\/a><\/p>\nOttawa sent Brown to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this week, finally granting the request he made when Dinwiddie named Maier as QB1 out of training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cDru wasn\u2019t happy and I think everybody knew he wasn\u2019t happy,\u201d said Dinwiddie, Ottawa\u2019s coach and general manager. \u201cThe coach-player communication and relationship obviously was never going to be there after the request, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody around the building was kind of walking on eggshells, and so that\u2019s not there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Redblacks (0-2) sit last in the CFL in average points for and against heading into Sunday\u2019s visit with the Montreal Alouettes (2-1). They\u2019re still in search of their first win under Dinwiddie, who left the Toronto Argonauts last off-season after five years as head coach.<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie had hoped to run with two capable quarterbacks in Maier and Brown until it became clear the latter would not accept a secondary role. He then turned to a veteran he trusts, signing McLeod Bethel-Thompson hours after completing Brown\u2019s trade to the Bombers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to move forward and find an answer and have a plan,\u201d Dinwiddie said in a phone interview. \u201cMcLeod obviously played good football for me, we won games. So that was our answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethel-Thompson and Dinwiddie won a Grey Cup together with the Argos in 2022. Dinwiddie said the 37-year-old will join the Redblacks next week and fill a support role behind Maier, who has yet to find his footing in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
Maier, once a starter for the Calgary Stampeders, signed with the Redblacks last winter after backing up Trevor Harris on the Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
Through two starts in Ottawa, Maier has completed just 61 per cent of his throws for an average of 6.3 yards per attempt \u2014 both CFL lows \u2014 with two touchdown passes and two interceptions as the Redblacks dropped home games to the Argos and Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s obviously super frustrating. I hate losing. I wouldn\u2019t get to this point in my playing career if I accepted losing or felt OK with it,\u201d Maier said over the phone. \u201cI\u2019m doing everything I can to make sure that I can crack the code on some of our shortcomings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maier said Brown\u2019s departure doesn\u2019t change his approach, nor does he expect to be looking over his shoulder once Bethel-Thompson enters the quarterback room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ask any of the nine quarterbacks in the league, they would tell you the same thing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re week to week, month to month, year to year \u2026 there\u2019s no shoulder watching here, man. It\u2019s totally out of my control. I\u2019m just trying to play as well as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie said there are plays Maier should want back but pinned the blame on Ottawa\u2019s offence as a whole. Running back Greg Bell, for example, rushed for only 29 yards against the Argos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough to play quarterback and play at a high level when your teammates aren\u2019t doing their part as well. We gotta run the football to help him out, we gotta stay out of second and long,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just gotta be more efficient, more consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Dinwiddie simplified his playbook to roughly 50 plays this week \u2014 down from his usual 90 \u2014 as the Redblacks look to avoid another losing season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can be a jack of all trades, master of none,\u201d Dinwiddie said. \u201cWe had all this stuff in, but we\u2019re not very good at any of it right now. So let\u2019s find out what we\u2019re good at.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the season goes, as we start playing better, then start adding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even without star receiver Eugene Lewis, on the one-game injured list with a shoulder ailment, the Redblacks will have a chance to break out offensively at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Alouettes\u2019 defence, long considered a strength, has surrendered 89 points through three games. Montreal held a shutout until 29 seconds remained in the first half last week against Edmonton, but ultimately fell 32-29 in overtime, with Elks running back Justin Rankin repeatedly making defenders miss tackles in a leaky second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe beat ourselves,\u201d defensive back Najee Murray said. \u201cThere was even that play with myself. I make that tackle nine times out of ten, don\u2019t miss that tackle. Rankin\u2019s a great player, he\u2019s having a great year. Made me miss. He made us pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make that play, game\u2019s a totally different game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Alouettes will welcome back star linebacker Tyrice Beverette after he missed last week\u2019s contest, but will be without starting cornerbacks Lorenzo Burns (head) and Kabion Ento (hamstring). Don Callis and rookie Faion Hicks will fill in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried about it,\u201d coach Jason Maas said of the defence. \u201cWe have standards on our defence we want to play to every single game \u2026 Every time they touch the ball, you want them to pay for it. They cross that goal line, you want them to pay for it, and that\u2019s what we want to live up to.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2026.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Ryan Dinwiddie said a dark cloud hung over the Ottawa Redblacks after Dru Brown lost the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-765283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765283","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=765283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}