Dru Brown couldn\u2019t contain his big smile as he walked off the field at TD Place Sunday night.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old quarterback engineered an impressive fourth-quarter comeback before leading the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-2) to a 36-34 overtime victory over the winless Ottawa Redblacks.<\/p>\n
Brown, who spent the past two seasons in Ottawa, was traded to Winnipeg last month after he was relegated to backup duties behind Jake Maier.<\/p>\n
Brown downplayed the significance of the game all week, but admitted this particular victory felt a little sweeter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, definitely feels good, but I\u2019m just happy to be where I\u2019m at and appreciate it,\u201d he said. \u201cI appreciate the people here, and I loved my time here, you know, but I\u2019m looking forward to being in Winnipeg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown started slowly on Sunday and with the Redblacks leading 26-9 heading into the fourth quarter, things didn\u2019t look great for Brown or his Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg\u2019s comeback started with a 39-yard Sergio Castillo field goal. Brown then cut the deficit to 26-19 with 7:15 remaining when he connected with Nic Demski for an eight-yard touchdown pass.<\/p>\n
With time winding down, Brown managed to get the Bombers downfield and found Ontaria Wilson on the goal-line for a touchdown to tie the game at 32-32 with 63 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just stay in the fight,\u201d said Brown. \u201cOur offence, our defence and our special teams competed all night, and the offence might have been asleep for the first half, but winning looks different every week, and I just appreciate those guys and how they competed all night and gave us a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown finished the game with two touchdowns and 317 yards passing.<\/p>\n
In overtime, the teams exchanged field goals on each of their first two possessions, forcing them into sudden-death two-point conversions under the CFL\u2019s new overtime rules.<\/p>\n
Ottawa\u2019s Eugene Lewis made an impressive catch under double coverage, but Winnipeg responded with Brown finding Wilson.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg took the lead when Brown found Gavin Cobb in nearly the exact same spot. Ottawa wasn\u2019t able to respond and as a result the Redblacks slip to 0-6.<\/p>\n
Maier had a solid outing for the Redblacks, throwing for 344 yards and one touchdown, but he still hasn\u2019t been able to lead Ottawa to victory and knows many will judge him by his record.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what you sign up for and you mostly ignore it,\u201d admitted Maier. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s the truth. I think you mostly just don\u2019t pay too much attention to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maier admitted the criticism bothered him more when he was younger but now understands it\u2019s part of the game.<\/p>\n
Strangely enough, Brown came to Maier\u2019s defence. The two remain close and talk on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Maier) fought his ass off,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe\u2019s a really good player. He doesn\u2019t get enough credit in my opinion. I know how that can be tough when you play that well and then you don\u2019t get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ottawa heads into a bye week and while he will take some personal time head coach Ryan Dinwiddie knows there\u2019s plenty of work ahead before they face the East Division-leading Montreal Alouettes on July 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a win-loss result business and we\u2019re rebuilding it a bit,\u201d said Dinwiddie. \u201cI know we had high expectations in here and we built a roster we thought we could win with, and we still believe in those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were improvements in Ottawa\u2019s game, but once again they failed to put together a full 60-minute effort. Four dropped interceptions will be something they\u2019ll be sure to think about. Failing to convert on three chances with the ball on the goal line was unacceptable, too.<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie knows things won\u2019t get any easier and players are experiencing frustration, but he\u2019s proud of how they haven\u2019t allowed it to fracture the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve stuck together,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough man. We\u2019re going to search for some answers. We looked at some things from last week and there\u2019s some things we\u2019ll do differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Bombers: Host the Calgary Stampeders on Friday.<\/p>\n
Redblacks: Host the Montreal Alouettes on Friday, July 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dru Brown couldn\u2019t contain his big smile as he walked off the field at TD Place Sunday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-813677","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\/813677","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=813677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}