Thousands of people showed up for the Ottawa Redblacks’ biggest game of the season on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Lansdowne. Unfortunately, the men on the Redblacks’ roster could not be counted among them.
Bob Dyce’s team came out flat, played uninspired football and gave those members of R-Nation at TD Place more to groan about than applaud as the visiting Montreal Alouettes trounced the Redblacks by a score of 32-15.
Here are all my thoughts on the game.
1) There are not many games you can point to this season where rookie quarterback Dustin Crum negatively impacted his team’s win probability, but there’s no getting around the fact that his mistakes against the Alouettes were wretched.
The fumble returned for a touchdown was bad, and the two red-zone interceptions were killer, especially since one was returned the length of the field for a pick-six. Tally that up and you’ve got a 28-point swing (14 points Ottawa didn’t score, 14 Montreal did).
Crum had throws that sailed high or wide, never pushed the ball deep and, as has been the case many times this year, he repeatedly held onto the ball too long in the face of pressure. The 24-year-old’s stats don’t read terribly — a 74 percent completion rate for 247 yards and the above-mentioned turnovers — but they also aren’t the kind of numbers that will notch m(any) wins.
As much as Crum wears this loss, let’s not forget his teammates didn’t do much to help him out and he was hung out to dry by inadequate play-calling. Speaking of that…
2) On paper, the final stats say Khari Jones’ offence had a good night. On the field, it stunk, hamstrung by an inability (or unwillingness) to stretch the field and wholly unable to counter Montreal’s relentless pass rush.
The Alouettes blitzed early and often, and instead of moving the pocket, calling screens, draws, using play-action, or going no-huddle, Jones handed his top running back the ball exactly seven times and seemed content to have his quarterback throw predictable outs to the sideline short of the sticks all game long.
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!?
📺 #CFLGameday on @TSN_Sports, RDS
📲 Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/6bAqJSIWAR— CFL (@CFL) September 30, 2023
Ottawa finished the night with 373 yards of offence, but 163 of those yards came with the game well out of reach, on the Redblacks’ final three possessions late in the fourth quarter. That means Ottawa’s other 12 drives generated just 210 yards. That’s far from ideal when you’re trying to keep faint playoff hopes alive.
3) Devonte Williams wasn’t given many opportunities to run the ball, and when he did, he averaged only 3.6 yards per carry. The second-year pro was slightly more effective in the passing game, catching eight checkdowns for 66 yards, with 57 of them coming after the catch.
As well as he’s played in recent weeks — both with the ball in his hand and as a blocker — Williams struggled at times in helping with blitz pickup against the Alouettes. As a result of his pass protection issues, the Redblacks were often forced to keep a receiver in tight to help out as an extra blocker, which in turn, hampered their passing attack.
4) It might have only been his fourth game of the season, but Bralon Addison was Ottawa’s most noticeable receiver (in a positive way), by a long shot. His seven catches were good for 94 yards and the 29-year-old is one of the few receivers on the team who seems to regularly create separation. Justin Hardy was also productive, making four catches for 45 yards, and would’ve done more had a few of the passes sent his way not been so wildly off target.
As for the rest of the receiving corps, despite being brought in as a deep threat, Shaq Evans’ skills continue to be wasted on outs at the sticks. Speaking of wasting talent, where’s the Jaelon Acklin that’s capable of singlehandedly taking over games? It feels like forever since he’s made an impact play. Acklin has exactly one touchdown to his credit through 15 games and hasn’t made a catch of more than 20 yards since mid-August.
5) If you want positives in how the Redblacks’ offensive line played against the Alouettes, the good thing is that they only gave up five sacks, not six, and allowed immediate pressure in Crum’s face every other pass play, not each and every single one.
In all seriousness, this was perhaps the unit’s worst performance of the season and shows just how valuable left guard Drew Desjarlais is to this team. With the prized free agent signing now on the six-game injured list, veteran Hunter Stewart drew in to replace him. While Hunter wasn’t at his best, neither was anyone else up front.
Dance dance revolution 🕺
📺 #CFLGameday on @TSN_Sports, RDS
📲 Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/iBpxywuGhQ— CFL (@CFL) September 30, 2023
Ottawa’s offensive line not only failed in pass pro, but they were manhandled in the trenches by Montreal’s front seven in the ground game too. Film study on Monday won’t be fun.
6) Barron Miles’s defence wasn’t flashy against the Alouettes, but holding your opponent to 178 passing yards — and just 275 offensive yards in total — should be a winning effort. Of Montreal’s 12 drives, only three resulted in points. In fact, over the game’s final 30 minutes, Montreal’s five drives went for 1, 1, 7, 18 and 10 yards.
Unfortunately when you fail to record a turnover and your offence has six — three fumbles, two interceptions and a turnover on downs — your odds of winning the game plummet.
A couple of strong individual efforts stood out, with defensive back Damon Webb making six tackles, defensive lineman Michael Wakefield notching four tackles and a sack, and Cleyon Laing registering three tackles and a quarterback takedown.
7) Given his background before becoming head coach, it’s still difficult to understand how a Bob Dyce-coached team has regressed so much on special teams. Ottawa used to boast of being one of the most complete units in the league. Nowadays it seems like every other week a new returner rips off chunks of yardage against them.
This week saw Richie Leone’s punts sail roughly 45 yards per kick, but the average field positional flip was just 30.7 yards thanks to poor kick coverage. Playing in his first CFL game, rookie James Letcher Jr. averaged 17.5 yards per punt return and 34.5 yards per kickoff return.
Combine leaky coverage, with a blatantly telegraphed failed fake punt in the second quarter and a promising Brandin Dandridge return thwarted by a stumbling holder’s leg, and all in all it was an awful night for Ottawa’s special teams unit.
8) Hat tip to the Alouettes for the play of the game.
One of the strangest plays you'll ever see, an Onside Punt 😆pic.twitter.com/3XMHStRoUZ
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 30, 2023
This is what excellent coaching looks like. By knowing the rule book and exploiting it, Montreal’s staff was able to turn a negative situation — second-and-18 — into a fresh set of downs with minimal effort. Didn’t hurt that Ottawa’s defence failed to have absolutely anyone within a CN Tower’s length of the running back. Seriously, how did nobody follow him into the flats?
On another note, the CFL continues to be terrible at marketing its product. I’ve spilled a lot of ink raging at the fact that the league’s official social media accounts suck at cutting and sharing important or fun plays, and that is on full display with this onside “punt”.
It took until the fourth quarter for them to share this very play, which occurred in the second quarter. You might not think that matters but compare the views the league’s tweet has to the 685,700 views (at the time of me typing this) of the tweet by a random fan who shared it shortly after it took place. Those are hundreds of thousands of impressions the league didn’t get because I guess whoever runs their social media account was busy watching the other CFL game instead. Oh wait…
9) Officially 20,464 tickets were sold to this game, but it was quite clear thousands of those people couldn’t be bothered to actually attend the game. And yet despite that fact, somehow the concessions on the North Side of the stadium all ran out of food well before the middle of half-time. How does that happen?
Given how poorly the team has performed in recent years at TD Place — Ottawa is 3-5 at home this season and that’s more home wins than they managed in 2019, 2021 and 2022 combined — OSEG needs to be nailing the game-day fan experience. Having hungry fans in the stands because the right amount of food wasn’t prepared or ordered is unacceptable. Apathy is setting in with a segment of R-Nation. 17 straight home losses to Eastern opponents is a stain on the city and the franchise. People aren’t wondering if Ottawa will lose, they’re wondering how.
🤷🏻♂️ #RNation pic.twitter.com/UjOGR9D3fH
— Paolo | @DefendTheR (@DefendTheR) September 30, 2023
With another season outside of the playoffs all but assured, the organization needs to take a serious and honest look at the state of the franchise this off-season and come up with concrete action plans because something needs to be done to provide a jolt of hope to fans.
10) I loved seeing the various things the Redblacks did as a part of their Truth and Reconciliation efforts. From the orange warm-up jerseys to the drumming, to the traditional dancing and throat singing, to the Indigenized logo sold on some merch, it certainly didn’t feel like the organization was just going through the motions.
“It represents direction, unity, elements of the culture, and all of the races. It’s everything that we hold value for.” – Mike Ivall (@ArgoFluffy)
📝: A logo for everyone: behind Mike Ivall’s Indigenous REDBLACKS logo#ALLIN | 🔗: https://t.co/uVkogRIHeS pic.twitter.com/gM5zS2CCOr
— Ottawa REDBLACKS (@REDBLACKS) September 27, 2023
With that said, next year it would be nice to see the Indigenous logo actually used as a helmet decal for the game, and also to have it available on more merch than just a toque or hat.
11) In his post-game interview, head coach Bob Dyce admitted that his team’s compete level wasn’t where he needed it to be and although some fans might be upset by the comments, I welcome them. Too often this season there’s been a refusal, at least publicly, to admit things that have been obvious to the fans. Good on Dyce for owning the fact that his team came out flat.
While some of the blame for that falls on Dyce and his staff, an equal measure of blame goes to the players themselves. At the end of the day, they are professionals fighting to ensure their final three games of the season have meaning. The fact that they need help being motivated for such a contest speaks volumes about those on the team who have seemingly checked out on the season.
After battling most of the season, being in nearly every game at the end, in their biggest game of the year, the Redblacks had little to no fight.
12) With the loss, the Redblacks’ record falls to 4-11 and the team is all but assured of failing to qualify for post-season play. As a result of Montreal and Hamilton’s wins, the only tiny possibility Ottawa makes the playoffs is via a Western crossover. The Redblacks would need to win out and have Saskatchewan lose their remaining three games. They would also need help in the form of both Edmonton and Calgary losing a couple of their final games as well.
Up next for the Redblacks is a visit to Montreal on Thanksgiving Monday for an afternoon game at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.
