REDBLACKS NOTES: QB Dru Brown raises game, voice

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Dru Brown was sipping a cold beer at his locker room stall when members of the media stopped by after he had just finished leading the Ottawa Redblacks to a slump-busting win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in their regular-season finale last week.

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“Taste good after a game like that?” he was asked.

“A cold beer always tastes good,” Brown replied.

True enough, but none of us had remembered seeing him have one during post-game interviews.

Turns out that wasn’t the only uncharacteristic moment that night for Brown, who passed for 445 yards and three touchdowns in the much-needed 37-31 victory.

“Dru showed me something that I hadn’t seen from him,” injured teammate Adarius Pickett said. “He showed some fire. He showed the passion.

“Dru is real quiet, but, coming into the locker room, he was screaming, ‘Let’s go!’ He was fired up. I think that was good to see. I think that’s infectious. I think that’s why the offence has been playing the way it’s been playing. We saw Dru scramble last week to get some (11) yards, so he’s playing a different style of football right now.”

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The Redblacks might tell you differently, but Brown has exceeded expectations in his first-year as a No. 1 quarterback in the Canadian Football League.

After a 9-8-1 season that brought them to the playoffs for the first time since 2018, the Redblacks surely wouldn’t be where they are without him.

In games Brown has started and finished, Ottawa was 8-3.

Despite injuries that kept him out of two games completely and limited him to just 31 throws in three others, he finished third in the nine-team league in passing with 3,959 yards.

Only Bo Levi Mitchell, who set a Tiger-Cats franchise record with 5,451 yards, and Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros (4,336) had more.

(Wonder if the Blue Bombers are thinking they traded the wrong guy when they moved the 27-year-old Brown and kept Collaros, who will turn 37 next season.)

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And, with 845 yards passing, seven touchdowns and two interceptions in Brown’s last two games, no QB enters the playoffs anywhere near as hot.

(Mitchell had 875 yards, six TD passes and two picks in his final two games, but he’s not going to the playoffs.)

Brown’s leadership qualities have been evident since he arrived in Ottawa, but until now he wasn’t the vocal type.

Why the change?

“I just think that it takes me a while to kind of get comfortable with my teammates,” Brown said Friday after practice — which was witnessed by his wife, his mom and his dog — and before the Redblacks charter flight to Toronto. “It’s obviously my first year here, and you’re trying to create relationships with people. I’ve never been a fan of people that come in and start hooting and hollering, you know?

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“It was spontaneous. I have a lot of passion for what we do, and how much time and effort it takes, and it just kind of came out.”

Might it come out again as he continues to grow as a leader?

“No doubt,” Brown said. “I think, with leadership, there are many ways to do it, and it’s also constantly evolving and growing. And kind what you feel and what you discern needs to be either done or said.”

What needs to be done now is for Brown to take another step on his way to becoming what he can become — and that’s the best quarterback in the CFL — by giving the Redblacks the first playoff road win in franchise history.

Expect him to be very fired up if he does.

PROTEIN POWER: Key for the Redblacks on Saturday will be to keep Brown clean. That won’t be easy. The Argos led the CFL with 48 sacks. Jake Ceresna, Ralph Holley, Robbie Smith, Folarin Orimolade and Derek Parish all had six or more. “They’re all talented guys, and they all play right to the whistle,” said Jacob Ruby, who is responsible for Brown’s blind side as the Redblacks’ left tackle. “They have a lot of second-effort sacks where they just keep going and going and either fall off into something or beat someone late. You can’t relax when you’re going against them. They’re talented and their effort level is extremely high.” Does Ruby, who took over at left tackle when American Dino Boyd suffered a season-ending injury in Week 14,  feel extra pressure going into a playoff game against a group like that? “No, he said. “We’re lining up and playing football.” But before that was Friday’s pre-game meal. “We usually switch it up in Toronto,” said Ruby, a 6-6, 319-pounder. “We’re going to Morton’s Steakhouse.” Because it’s playoffs? “That’s right,” he said. Good thing for per diem. “I wouldn’t go there otherwise,” Ruby cracked.

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SPECIAL EFFORT: Also threatening to the existence of the 2024 Redblacks will be the Argos’ Janarion Grant, who led the league with almost 2,000 return yards and scored three TDs off kicks and another off a punt. To limit the damage he does, Redbacks head coach Bob Dyce says, “You have to be fast, you have to be disciplined,” but he does not plan on kicking the ball away from Grant. “I believe in my guys,” Dyce reasoned. “We are what I consider a very good group, and, if we do what we need to do, I don’t see any reason that you need to kick away from somebody like that.” One member of that group is James Peter, the former Ottawa Gee-Gee linebacker who does a fine job on Redblacks special teams. About Grant, Peter said: “He’s a great player, but I put in the work to get this opportunity and to play here, right? I’m going against a talented person, but I’m talented as well. I don’t have any pressure or fear of Grant. Respect to his game, but I’ve got to play my game.” Peter also pointed out that he practised against DeVonte Dedmon and the explosive Kalil (The Thrill) Pimpleton. “I feel like Dedmon honestly is the best out there, so playing against him and Pimp on a daily basis, I feel like I prime myself to go against a guy like Grant,” he said.

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GOING DEEP: Home teams have won seven of the past eight CFL playoff games … An Ottawa team hasn’t beaten the Argos in the playoffs since 1977, but that sounds worse than it is. Only twice since then (1982 and 1990) has there been an Ottawa-Toronto post-season showdown … This is the 16th year since 1919 that Ottawa and Toronto have faced each other in the playoffs. Ottawa is 8-7 … During that doesn’t include 10 years before that when teams played two-game total-points sets and five single-game playoff games. In the 25 total games, Ottawa is 14-11 … Only one of six writers at CFL.ca (Kristina Costabile) is predicting the Redblacks to defeat the Argos.

dbrennan@postmedia.com

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