Redblacks blown-out by B.C. Lions in Touchdown Pacific (& 14 other thoughts)

By
Santino Filoso
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Photo courtesy: Kevin Light/B.C. Lions

R-Nation won’t have the fondest memories of Touchdown Pacific. Not only did their team’s six-game undefeated streak come to an end but in the first-ever game on Vancouver Island, the Ottawa Redblacks were hammered by a score of 38-12 by the “home” B.C. Lions.

Some might chalk the loss up to Nathan Rourke finally finding his game, which was undeniably a factor, but Ottawa did plenty to shoot themselves in the foot too.

Here are all my thoughts on the game.

1) A week after shredding the Lions’ secondary to the tune of 390 yards and three touchdowns, quarterback Dru Brown had a much different experience in Victoria. His pedestrian numbers — 64 percent passing for 206 yards and a touchdown — weren’t because he was bad, but rather because he didn’t get much help from those around him. Brown and, by extension, the offence as a whole never got into a rhythm.

His offensive coordinator called a poor game, his offensive line repeatedly failed to provide a clean pocket for him to step up into, and his receivers had multiple drops. But of course, the Lions deserve credit for the way their secondary played. Their coverage was smothering, as evidenced by the eight passes that were knocked down.

I fully expect the 27-year-old to rebound with a strong performance next week against the Argos.

2) So far this season, offensive coordinator Tommy Condell has been excellent. He’s been able to exploit weaknesses in opposing defences while tailoring his play-calling to maximize the skillsets of the players at his disposal. That’s why it was so surprising to see him fail to put the Redblacks’ offence in a position to be successful against the Lions.

In a game in which Ottawa’s offensive line was being manhandled, Condell insisted on calling long-developing pass plays and trying to use play-action. That led to his quarterback constantly being under siege when he attempted to throw. Furthermore, given how much both tackles were struggling in pass protection, it was odd not to see more being done to help them out. Where was the misdirection, screens, shifting pockets, or extra blocker to make their lives a bit easier?

The Redblacks mustered just 14 first downs and 247 yards of total offence. They averaged a measly 4.2 yards on first down and 3.6 on second down, which is why they converted just five of 24 second down opportunities. Of Ottawa’s 13 possessions, only three resulted in points and eight generated less than 20 yards.

The game film from this performance will definitely be one to watch once, then burn.

3) Getting away from the run game when being down multiple scores is somewhat understandable but part of why the offence struggled is that even before things got out of hand, Ottawa didn’t call many runs.

Running back Ryquell Armstead never had a chance to truly impact the game given that he was handed the ball just three times in the first half and only four times in the second half.

Armstead finished the night with seven carries for 24 yards and two catches for 17 yards. Given that his punishing style can wear defences down, he’s someone who you would ideally like to see get 10 to 15 touches a game.

The other thing that stood out was that roughly half of the times Armstead got the ball were on pitch/toss plays. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but given his five-foot-11, 220-pound frame and strength, wouldn’t you want to see him running north and powering through arm tackles instead of banking on his speed to outrun defenders to the corner?

4) With Jaelon Acklin and Bralon Addison both landing on the six-game injured list, American rookies Eli Stove and Andre Miller got their first taste of CFL action. Of the two, it was Stove who impressed. The 26-year-old Auburn product turned a game-high nine targets into eight catches for 73 yards, with 41 of those yards coming after the catch.

Miller on the other hand managed just one catch for 14 yards on five targets and dropped a sure-fire touchdown in the fourth quarter by mistiming his jump.

As for the rest of the receiving corps, those hoping to see Canadian rookie Nick Mardner build off of last week’s two-touchdown, 95-yard performance were disappointed. While he should’ve seen more targets with the team down two starting receivers, the second-overall pick in the 2024 CFL draft saw only one pass head his way, which resulted in an eight-yard gain.

Justin Hardy didn’t see his first target until the final two minutes of the first half and finished the game with four catches for 49 yards. He also had an uncharacteristic drop. Dominique Rhymes scored his first touchdown of the season and had four catches for 46 yards. He also had a drop. Finally, Canadian fullback/receiver Marco Dubois caught a pass on a fake punt for a gain of 27 yards.

 5) That was about as poor a performance from the offensive line as we’ve seen this season. A week after missing a game because of an elbow injury, Dariusz Bladek returned at right guard, which shifted Jacob Ruby to the sixth offensive lineman role.

Tackles Dino Boyd and Zack Pelehos both struggled mightily. Mathieu Betts notching a sack will get the headlines, but it wasn’t just him. Julian Falaniko was also a menace coming off the edge.

Things weren’t any better in the interior of the offensive line either. Lions’ defensive tackles Christian Covington, Jonah Tavai and Josh Banks repeatedly collapsed the pocket from the middle of the trenches, leaving nowhere for Dru Brown to step up into.

Not only did the group give up four sacks, but there were plenty of other plays were Brown was pressured into throwing early or hit as he threw. And as bad as the group was in pass protection, they were even worse at running the ball. Ottawa averaged just 2.8 yards per rush and finished the game with 44 yards on the ground. Even quarterback sneaks were a struggle, with the team barely converting some of them.

Given how centre Eric Starczala struggled to set the anchor in the middle of the line, one has to wonder if we see Cyrille Hogan-Saindon back in the lineup next week.

6) It was an ugly game for Barron Miles’ defence but the funny thing is, in the first half they just missed multiple opportunities to change their fate. The Lions scored 31 points over the game’s opening 30 minutes, but Ottawa was incredibly close to flipping the script.

Three times on second down, Redblack defenders had opportunities to sack quarterback Nathan Rourke and stop drives. All three times Rourke wiggled his way out of it and B.C. went on to score touchdowns. Defensive back Alijah McGhee also got his hands on a pass that should’ve been intercepted but was instead caught for a big gain.

Overall though, Ottawa failed to pressure Rourke with any kind of frequency, which led to the Lions racking up 29 first downs and 444 yards of offence. Losing defensive end Bryce Carter early on certainly didn’t help things, but it was a collective failure from the unit. Most startlingly, B.C. converted a whopping 70 percent of their second down opportunities. The Redblacks simply couldn’t get off the field and when the Lions got into scoring position, they made the most of it, scoring on four of five trips to the red zone.

In terms of players who stood out for the right reasons, linebacker Frankie Griffin made ten tackles, with one being for a loss. Defensive back Damon Webb continued his strong season, making five tackles, snagging an interception and knocking down another pass. Defensive end Lorenzo Mauldin made four tackles and forced a fumble, but Ottawa failed to recover it.

In terms of players who stood out for the wrong reasons, take your pick of pretty much anyone else in the secondary. Brandin Dandridge was flagged for a horse collar tackle and beaten deep multiple times. So were Ty Cranston and Deandre Lamont. The latter also missed a couple of open-field tackles, one of which resulted in a touchdown.

7) If you ignore the flags, it was a solid outing from Ottawa’s special teams. Lewis Ward nailed two long field goals from 53 and 45 yards out, and Richie Leone smashed seven punts for an average of 47.6 yards per kick, including a monstrous 73-yarder. Unfortunately, his efforts were wasted due to a combination of poor kick coverage and penalties, which led to an average field flip of just 33.3 yards per punt. Shoutout to backup linebacker Silas Stewart for his two crushing special teams tackles.

Leone also deserves props for his perfectly executed fake punt. His sidearm pass hit Dubois in stride and led to a huge gain that should’ve sparked the offence.

8) As for the rest of the special teams, returner DeVonte Dedmon was once again a one-man wrecking crew in terms of flipping field position. He averaged 28.3 yards per kickoff return and had a 54-yarder that was nearly a house call. He had another 63-yard return wiped out by a phantom holding call on fullback Anthony Gosselin. He also took a missed field goal back 73 yards before being caught from behind. You’d think after gifting his offence such good field position Ottawa would’ve put points on the board, but you’d be wrong. Both huge returns resulted in zero points.

Things went from bad to worse when Dedmon was injured while running with the ball on offence. It is the second time this season that Ottawa’s dangerous returner has been hurt while rushing the ball. Given how little the Redblacks were handing off the ball to Armstead – their running back, I struggle to comprehend the risk/reward benefit of giving Dedmon touches when down three scores. Dedmon hurt his hand, landing on it while being tackled, and R-Nation will be left keeping their fingers crossed that like the last time he was hurt on offence, the speedster won’t miss more than a game or two.

Speaking of risking players out of position, consider this my weekly rant that using Adarius Pickett as a kickoff returner is asking for trouble. Once again, Pickett returned a kickoff and once again Ottawa fans held their breath.

When Dedmon left the game, Dandridge took over punt return duties, which is also a bit of a head-scratcher. I get he has experience doing it but he also got hurt doing it last season. Why risk a defensive starter when the game was long out of reach? Especially given that the team had two American rookie receivers dressed, both of whom would have been looking to impress with a pair of veteran receivers added to the practice squad this week in Maurice Ffrench and Rasheed Bailey. Why not let Miller or Stove return kicks and further their case that they should continue to start?

9) Need to take a moment to give props to Marco Dubois for his incredible effort in stopping a certain punt return touchdown. It’s not every day you see a six-foot-five, 227-pounder make up a five-yard gap to chase down and tackle a five-foot-nine, 170-pound speedster, but that’s exactly what Dubois did.

In six seasons with the Redblacks, the 29-year-old has been largely ignored in terms of being used on offence, with just 19 catches in 56 career games. On a night when his athleticism was on full display — both with the punt fake and in chasing down Terry Williams — you wonder if he could carve out at least a small role on offence.

10) Penalties were not the reason Ottawa lost this game, but they were certainly a factor. Dyce’s squad was sloppy, but it was still shocking to see just how imbalanced the calls were in B.C.’s favour. By the middle of the fourth quarter, Ottawa had been flagged ten times to exactly once for the Lions.

By the final whistle, the Redblacks had been flagged a dozen times. Four times on offence, three on defence and five times on special teams. The Lions were flagged a total of four times. Once on offence, three times on defence — each time for objectionable conduct — and zero times on special teams.

In a sport where the referees could probably call a penalty on any given play, it’s rare to see such a discrepancy between the two teams.

11) Touchdown Pacific was wonderful. The venue was beautiful, and it made for great TV when TSN’s broadcast wasn’t chugging along like dial-up internet in the early 2000s.

Although I understand the logic of throwing the event on Labour Day weekend with two teams otherwise not involved in the Labour Day traditions, I do think having it on such a marquee weekend overshadows it to some degree. Personally, I’d love to see Touchdown Pacific become an annual event, but not on this particular weekend.

12) With CFL games on both the East and West Coast under its belt, the next logical step is for the league to do a Touchdown Arctic, right? Who wouldn’t love to see a game in Whitehorse or Yellowknife? From coast to coast to coast to coast, eh?

13) It was pretty weird to see the Lions opt for their black home uniforms on a sunny afternoon game when they knew they were on the sideline that would be in the sun for the whole game. It seemed like a distinct lack of planning to me and I wonder whether the dark uniforms and heat were a factor for the numerous Lions who went down with cramps.

In the NFL you see the Florida teams constantly using white at home in order to put visiting teams at a disadvantage. If the Lions play in Victoria again, I bet they use their fog greys.

14) With the loss, Ottawa’s record drops to 7-3-1. If the Argos win on Monday, as most people expect them to, Toronto would be just half a game back of second place. That makes next Saturday’s contest at TD Place all the more meaningful.

The Redblacks were never going undefeated for the rest of the season and having to go on the road for a special game like Touchdown Pacific to play the same team they beat the week before was always a tall task. Fans will be less annoyed with the loss itself and more in the manner in which it happened.

If Ottawa is going to get back on track next week against Toronto, they’ll need to make sure they aren’t beating themselves.

Santino Filoso
Santino Filoso
Santino Filoso is originally from Ottawa and has written about the Redblacks since 2013. He is the only CFL writer currently living in Brazil (as far as we know).

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