TORONTO \u2014 Good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Redblacks, of course, belong in the latter category.<\/p>\n
Instead of ending the longest losing streak in the CFL\u2019s modern era on a day their opponents appeared poised to stumble, the Redblacks dropped an unfathomable 18th game in a row in heartbreaking fashion.<\/p>\n
Lirim Hajrullahu\u2019s walk-off 29-yard field goal gave the Toronto Argonauts a 26-23 win over the Redblacks on Saturday, pushing Ottawa (0-12) within six losses of the CFL\u2019s first 0-18 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your backs are against the wall like this, there’s no moral victories,\u201d said veteran quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who sparked the Redblacks in relief but couldn\u2019t get his team in the end zone when the visitors desperately needed to late in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don’t get that zero, that goose egg off the board, it means nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethel-Thompson, who replaced an ineffective Jake Maier midway through the second quarter, led the Redblacks on two touchdown drives and finally gave Ottawa some semblance of a down-field passing attack.<\/p>\n
But the Redblacks settled for a short field goal to tie it on their penultimate drive following an 88-yard Kalil Pimpleton punt return. Then, after the Redblacks forced an Argos two-and-out, Bethel-Thompson took a costly sack with the visitors near midfield to end Ottawa\u2019s final march without points.<\/p>\n
That gave the ball back to Argos star QB Chad Kelly, who mostly had his way with an overmatched Ottawa defence, apart from his league-leading 19th and 20th interceptions in the first half. Kelly finished 35-for-42 for 443 yards passing, orchestrating a calm, precise final drive to win a second game in six days for the Argos (7-6).<\/p>\n
Toronto\u2019s magic number to clinch a playoff spot is two \u2014 either Argos wins or Hamilton Tiger-Cats losses.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely another tough loss,\u201d Bethel-Thompson, a former Argos starter with two Grey Cup rings, said. \u201cTo have those last two drives, first and 10 in the red zone and come away with three and then first and 10 to win the game, two and out and take the sack. Very, very frustrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game can be very cruel sometimes and that’s a very cruel ending to what could have been something very promising. Just disappointed that I played my role in the trials and tribulations of this tough season. It’s another tough chapter. I’ve been through a lot of tough times and there’s another one right in front of your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a good chunk of the afternoon, it looked like it was going to be a sweet return for Bethel-Thompson and Ryan Dinwiddie.<\/p>\n
The Redblacks head coach guided the Argos to two Grey Cups (including one with Bethel-Thompson) before taking the dual role of GM\/head coach in Ottawa last off-season.<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie finally replaced Jake Maier, who has started all 12 games this season, with Bethel-Thompson after the starter missed some easy throws and settled for too many checkdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn’t feel like Jake was in the right groove,\u201d Dinwiddie said. \u201cI went with Mac. He gave us some juice but at the end we can’t take that sack when we’re in field-goal range. It’s the CFL, you’ve just got to throw the ball across the line of scrimmage. We have to have that in the back of our mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when they do good things, the Redblacks sometimes can\u2019t get out of their own way.<\/p>\n
For example, defensive back King Ambers picked off Kelly twice. But instead of taking a knee in the end zone to get the ball to the 30-yard line on the second interception, Ambers tried to race out and was tackled at the two. That led to an Argos field goal on Toronto\u2019s next drive.<\/p>\n
“Those are the costly mistakes that are costing us this week,\u201d Dinwiddie said. \u201cKing gets the one pick, great play. You know, stay in the end zone. You\u2019re not giving up a single, you\u2019re not a return guy \u2026 Just things like that. We preach it, preach it. Maybe we’re going to have to give them a written test of situations and have the guys bring it into us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie wouldn\u2019t name a starting quarterback for next Saturday in Calgary, but it would be surprising if Bethel-Thompson doesn\u2019t get another chance, considering it just hasn\u2019t worked with Maier at the helm.<\/p>\n
At 38, Bethel-Thompson probably isn\u2019t the long-term answer for a Redblacks team that has misfired at the most important position on the field since 2019. But that\u2019s a problem for the off-season. In the next six games, the Redblacks simply need one win to avoid embarrassing history.<\/p>\n
What would a single victory mean?<\/p>\n
“Everything, man,\u201d Bethel-Thompson said. \u201cJust to get the weight off our shoulders. Just to stop talking about us, everyone’s adding more weight to it. We feel that, we’re humans. Just get the goose egg off our shoulders and not be some stupid mark in the long history of this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose. The Ottawa Redblacks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-893849","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\/893849","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=893849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}