Winless and reeling on defence, the Ottawa Redblacks host a Winnipeg team that just found its groove \u2014 with or without Zach Collaros under center.<\/p>\n
Game Details<\/p>\n
Odds<\/p>\n
Spread: Winnipeg Blue Bombers -5
\nMoneyline: Ottawa Redblacks +190, Winnipeg Blue Bombers -230
\nOver\/Under: 55<\/p>\n
Ottawa is 1-2-1 against the spread this season with two overs and three unders. Winnipeg sits at 2-2-1 ATS with the same over\/under split, two overs and three unders.<\/p>\n
Overview<\/p>\n
There’s no sugarcoating where the Redblacks are right now. At 0-5, they’re the only winless team left in the league, and last week’s 17-40 blowout loss to Edmonton \u2014 a game where Jake Maier threw four interceptions and the Elks buried them with 24 unanswered fourth-quarter points \u2014 was as ugly as it gets. Ottawa’s minus-58 point differential is by far the worst in the CFL, and the defence has been gutted by injury after injury heading into this one.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg arrives at 3-2 and playing its best football of the season, fresh off a 30-21 statement win over Toronto that head coach Mike O’Shea’s group controlled from wire to wire. But the storyline shifts here: Zach Collaros has landed on six-game injury and Dru Brown is taking the reins full-time. Brown already looked comfortable in his first spot starts, picking apart Toronto’s secondary, and with Trey Vaval’s return game humming and Brady Oliveira still churning out yards on the ground, Winnipeg has more than enough juice to win this on the road even without their starting quarterback.<\/p>\n
This is a big spot for the Redblacks<\/a> to find literally anything \u2014 a lead, a defensive stop, a signature performance from someone on offence \u2014 but the roster crunch is brutal. Ottawa activated Keelan White, Blessman Ta’Ala, Josh Connors, Shakur Brown, Dionte Ruffin and Aaron Casey off various rosters this week just to have bodies, while Nyles Morgan, Jeremy Lucien, Habakkuk Baldonado, Adrian Frye and Cleyon Laing all went down to six-game injury. That’s a defence being pieced together on the fly against a Bombers offence that just dropped 30 on a good Argos team. The edge here goes to Winnipeg, even on the road, even breaking in a new starter under center.<\/p>\n Key Players<\/p>\n Jake Maier<\/a> (Ottawa Redblacks, QB) \u2014 Threw four picks last week against Edmonton and needs to clean it up fast against a defence that will make him pay for mistakes. Keys to the Game<\/p>\n Ottawa has to protect the football \u2014 four picks from Maier last week can’t happen twice in a row against a Bombers defence that’s opportunistic. Injury Report<\/p>\n PlayerTeamStatus<\/p>\n King Ambers (DB)Ottawa RedblacksOut Depth Chart<\/p>\n Ottawa Redblacks<\/a> starters by position, built from the official Week 7 depth chart. Note this is a projected look and may not reflect final gameday decisions given the injury churn.<\/p>\n PositionOttawa Redblacks<\/p>\n QBJake Maier | McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Bryson Barnes Score Prediction<\/p>\n Ottawa Redblacks 25 – Winnipeg Blue Bombers 30. Ottawa’s offence has shown it can move the ball and score points, but a defence missing this many bodies against a Bombers team riding momentum and a red-hot return game makes it tough to see the Redblacks pulling off the upset, even with the number staying respectable behind their own scoring.<\/p>\n CFL Standings<\/a> | Full Schedule<\/a> | League Leaders<\/a><\/p>\n Who takes this one? Drop your prediction in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winless and reeling on defence, the Ottawa Redblacks host a Winnipeg team that just found its groove \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-812356","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\/812356","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=812356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDru Brown<\/a> (Winnipeg Blue Bombers, QB) \u2014 Making his first career start last week look effortless, he’ll now get his first CFL start with Collaros sidelined for the season’s stretch.
\nBrady Oliveira<\/a> (Winnipeg Blue Bombers, RB) \u2014 69 carries for 375 yards on the year, and against a banged-up Ottawa front seven this could be his best matchup yet.
\nKalil Pimpleton<\/a> (Ottawa Redblacks, WR\/RET) \u2014 Ottawa’s top playmaker on both sides of the ball, doubling as a receiver and their return man; he has to be a factor for the offence to have a chance.
\nTrey Vaval<\/a> (Winnipeg Blue Bombers, RET) \u2014 Coming off a franchise-record kick return last week, he’s the kind of explosive weapon that can flip field position on Ottawa in a hurry.<\/p>\n
\nThe Redblacks’ patchwork linebacker corps and secondary need to slow Brady Oliveira and force Dru Brown into obvious passing downs.
\nSpecial teams could decide this one \u2014 Ottawa can’t afford to give Trey Vaval room to work after last week’s franchise-record return against Toronto.<\/p>\n
\nHabakkuk Baldonado (DL)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nGreg Bell (RB)Ottawa RedblacksAvailable
\nEmeric Boutin (FB)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nAaron Casey (LB)Ottawa RedblacksAvailable
\nAdrian Frye (DB)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nAmari Henderson (DB)Ottawa RedblacksQuestionable
\nCleyon Laing (DL)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nJeremy Lucien (DB)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nNick Mardner (WR)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nNyles Morgan (LB)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nDaniel Okpoko (DL)Ottawa RedblacksOut
\nKeelan White (WR)Ottawa RedblacksAvailable<\/p>\n
\nRBGreg Bell | Daniel Adeboboye
\nFBAnthony Gosselin
\nSB\/WRJustin Hardy, Keelan White, Ayden Eberhardt, Eugene Lewis, Kalil Pimpleton
\nLTDino Boyd
\nLGDrew Desjarlais
\nCSean McEwen | Samuel Carson
\nRGGiordano Vaccaro
\nRTZack Pelehos
\nDECharlie Parks, Aidan John | Kemari Munier-Bailey, Michael Wakefield
\nDTJelani Stafford | Blessman Ta’Ala
\nWLBBenjamin Dobson | Brian Cole II, Lucas Cormier, AJ Allen
\nMLBJosh Connors | KJ Cloyd, Aaron Casey
\nSLBMarcus Barnes | CJ Reavis
\nCBShakur Brown, Eric Cumberbatch\/Demerio Houston
\nHBDionte Ruffin, Amari Henderson (GTD)
\nSAlonzo Addae
\nK-PBrett Lauther | Noah Gettman
\nLSPeter Adjey
\nRETKalil Pimpleton, Cade McDonald<\/p>\n