Rookie quarterback Bryson Barnes led the Ottawa Redblacks to a 40-39 victory over the Toronto Argonauts on Friday in his first CFL start, snapping the team\u2019s 22-game losing skid.<\/p>\n
It was Ottawa\u2019s first victory this season and first at home since Sept. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n
Barnes completed 27 of 37 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns to Ayden Eberhardt for the Redblacks (1-16).<\/p>\n
Nick Arbuckle led the way for the Argonauts (9-8) going 26-for-34 for 305 yards, two TDs and one interception after Chad Kelly left the game midway through the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Kelly was apparently hurt after he was brought down by Ottawa defensive end Luiji Vilain.<\/p>\n
Toronto took a 39-33 lead with 30 seconds left to play but Barnes was poised, putting together a three-play drive and connected with Eberhardt for a 24-yard touchdown to tie the game. Paul Geelen gave Ottawa the lead with the convert with six seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
It was a shocking end to a back-and-forth final quarter.<\/p>\n
With time winding down and Ottawa leading 33-31, Khazir Brown intercepted Arbuckle to regain possession at the Ottawa 27. The Redblacks were unable to capitalize and had to punt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the following drive, the Argos got downfield and Isaiah Smith ran in a four-yard touchdown and added the two-point conversion to take a 39-33 lead with 30 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
Ottawa took a 33-24 lead on Barnes’s first CFL touchdown pass, to Eberhardt, but Arbuckle answered right back with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Mital with three minutes remaining to pull Toronto within two, 33-31.<\/p>\n
The third quarter saw Arbuckle put together an impressive 3:30 drive that culminated with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Mital and a two-point conversion to tie things 24-24. Paul Geelen put Ottawa back in front with a 51-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
The Redblacks overcame a disastrous start to take a 23-16 lead at the half.<\/p>\n
Ottawa went two-and-out on their first possession, with Barnes taking a sack before Derek Slywka blocked the ensuing punt and Ethan John returned it 16 yards for a Toronto touchdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barnes was unfazed and responded with a seven-play, 66-yard drive and Daniel Adeboboye ran in a one-yard touchdown. Ottawa added a 20-yard field goal to take a 10-6 first-quarter lead.<\/p>\n
Toronto regained the lead with Arbuckle under centre. Arbuckle put together an eight-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Cam Porter\u2019s one-yard touchdown run before Ottawa tied the game 13-13 on a 40-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
The Argonauts were back in front on Lirim Hajrullahu\u2019s 43-yard field goal, but Barnes answered right back and had Ottawa back in the red zone setting up Adeboboye\u2019s second touchdown of the half, a three-yard run after he found an open lane. Ottawa closed out the half with a 53-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
Toronto: Hosts the Montreal Alouettes on Oct. 23.<\/p>\n
Ottawa: Visits the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Oct. 24 to close out the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rookie quarterback Bryson Barnes led the Ottawa Redblacks to a 40-39 victory over the Toronto Argonauts on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-936050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936050","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=936050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}