Redblacks play “complimentary football” as defence picks up offence

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By the way they took the opening kickoff and methodically marched downfield with a seven-play, 73-yard touchdown drive, it looked like the Ottawa Redblacks would put up at least 37 points against the Edmonton Elks for the second game in a row.

Alas, their first trip to the end zone would also be their last at TD Place on Friday night.

It also really didn’t matter.

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The defence allowed a season-low number of points, Lewis Ward became the Canadian Football League’s leading scorer by hitting on four-of-five field goals and, with the 20-14 victory, the Redblacks matched their highest win total in four years with 12 games still to go.

It wasn’t pretty by any means, but at 4-2 Ottawa is just two points behind the division-leading Montreal Alouettes.

Much will still happen, but this isn’t the Redblacks teams we’ve seen compile a 14-54 record since 2019.

Not even close.

“I’m not going to turn my nose up at any win,” said head coach Bob Dyce. “When you look at the CFL standings, it says four wins, two losses, and I’m extremely proud of those guys. Playing a game in such short time  … it’s an extremely tough thing to do, to beat a team back-to-back in the CFL. It’s tough, and this team found a way. You’ve got to find a way.  Was it our cleanest game? No, it wasn’t our cleanest game.

“But when we had to make plays, we made the plays.”

Just five days after throwing for more yards (480) than any quarterback has this season, Dru Brown took a big statistical step backwards, completing 22-of-33 passes for 257 yards and two interceptions, with zero TD tosses.

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He also came three dropped passes and about six inches from having another big night.

There was the first quarter bomb just beyond the reach of a diving Kalil (The Thrill) Pimpleton, and the fourth quarter heave that slipped through the rookie’s grasp when it should been a stroll-in score.

There was also the slightly-high throw to Justin Hardy on a second and goal from the four that Brown hits 19-out-of-20 times he tries it.

“I thought there were some good spurts but obviously, it’d be nice to take care of the ball, myself,” said Brown. “I missed those two throws, and I think if we hit those, we’re in pretty good position.”

Brown refused to blame the short week for the offence being less than sharp.

“It’s part of the gig,” he said. “We sign up for it. We don’t make the schedule. I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue. I think if you look at it, when you play the same team twice, they’re gonna make adjustments, and you don’t know what those adjustments are until you’re in it. But the cool thing is, things were there. And we hit him at times, and then we didn’t, but we never felt like we were uncomfortable with what they came up and did.”

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McLeod Bethel-Thompson, meanwhile, sung a different song. Not on his struggles in throwing for only 206 yards, with a pick and no touchdowns, but for the risk to health factor.

Earlier this season the Elks played the Lions six days their falling to the Argos and lost defensive lineman rookie defensive lineman Antonio Alfano to injury for the season, Bethel-Thompson ranted about the CFL’s “lack of leadership” for scheduling short weeks and was fined an undisclosed amount for his comments.

That didn’t stop him for going off on the league again Friday, after defensive lineman Samuel Acheampong and safety Scott Hutter both went down with lower body injuries and offensive lineman Hunter Steward suffered a head injury.

“I’ll probably get fined for it again and I don’t care,” said the veteran QB. “It’s disgusting. It’s a five-day week and how many career-ending injuries or serious injuries happened tonight? It’s a shame. It’s a travesty. I got fined for protecting my brothers. I got fined for protecting players. We’re on a five-day week against the same team, you couldn’t add two days to it?”

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The Redblacks also lost Tobias Harris, who was carted off the field in the fourth quarter when his leg was twisted when tackled on a punt return.

Harris was having a good night both at his defensive back position and filling in the injured DeVonte Dedmon as a returner, bringing back five punts for 49 yards and two missed field goals for 80 yards.

“I don’t want to speculate,” Dyce said when asked the severity of his injury. “DaVonte went down in practice the other day and it’s not nearly as bad as we thought. So you say a prayer and hope for the best.”

Throughout the week, Pimpleton, who caught five passes for 56 yards, had been practising as returner, a job he had great success with at college.

But Friday night he was back just twice, alongside Adarius Pickett on kick-offs, and neither time the ball went to Pimpleton.

“Khalil is still in the second game,” Dyce said when asked why he chose to go with the return alignments he had. “Everybody thinks you just put a returner back there and he’s just going to catch the ball and run. There’s still so many nuances, and we really wanted him to just focus on offence and take care of that role. We’ll go forward from there. He’s going to continue to grow and grow in that role. Tobias as experienced from last year … just felt that was the better decision.”

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Pickett, meanwhile, had another strong game at his linebacker spot with five defensive tackles, second most after the nine made by cornerback Deandre Lamont, who also made a big diving interception in the fourth quarter.

Asked if he thought he was the best outing for the defence of the season, Pickett chuckled.

“It might be, they didn’t put up a lot of points.,” he said. “At the end of the day, if they’re not scoring, we’re playing good defence.

“It’s a team win, it’s a team effort,” added Pickett.”Last week the offence came out and they dominated. We knew Edmonton was going to adjust. It is tough playing a team back-to-back, and it was going to be a defensive game. And that’s exactly what it was. We stayed in the a whole game and made plays when necessary. Special teams came through a little bit in this game, only missed one field goal, and they’ve been having a helluva season. But it’s a team win.”

Brown had similar thoughts.

“I think if you look at the wins, and how we’re winning, we play complementary football,” he said. “If one unit isn’t playing up to par, the other units, picks them up. Good teams do that regularly.

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“Winning looks different every week. I think it’s important to note that our team, we stay together because we believe in one another. There’s never any animosity towards one of the units when things aren’t going right. When we go two-and-out, or when the defence gives up, whatever, it’s always uplifting and encouragement. I think that’s important.

“We’re excited where we are, and I think we’re pretty excited about where we’re going.”

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