Maybe it was the rain. Or maybe Bob Dyce’s squad really is as dangerous as they looked in the first 30 minutes of play during Saturday afternoon’s contest in the wet weather at Lansdowne.
Either way, the Ottawa Redblacks washed away the taste of last week’s blowout loss on the West Coast by riding a dominant first-half performance to a 41-27 win over the visiting Toronto Argonauts. The 17,834 members of R-Nation on hand went home happy, as it was the first time in nearly two years that Ottawa has come away from a matchup with the Argos victorious. As a result, the Redblacks remain undefeated at TD Place in 2024.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
1) It was a masterful performance from the 27-year-old Dru Brown. Not only had he beaten last week’s yardage total by half-time but he was surgical in the way he picked apart Toronto’s secondary, spreading the ball around to eight different receivers.
In a game in which the Redblacks rarely ran, Brown was entrusted to make the right reads and deliver the ball quickly to his pass-catchers, which he did time after time. Brown feasted on intermediate passes but didn’t hesitate to stretch the field when opportunities presented themselves.
The California native calmly shredded the Argos by completing 75 percent of his throws for 349 yards and a touchdown. Although it was another game in which he avoided turning the ball over, the only reason the final stat line doesn’t show a blemish in the interception column is because rookie receiver Andre Miller bailed him out by doing a heck of a defensive back impression. The first celebration beer should be on Brown tonight.
2) A week after his worst game as offensive coordinator, Tommy Condell’s attack was back to the form fans in the nation’s capital have come to expect from the unit.
It was clear from the onset of the game that the plan was to eschew the run. In its place, Condell orchestrated a series of plays that resulted in hitch screens, swing passes and intermediate routes — slants, digs, hooks and corners. Normally, you’d want something close to a balanced ratio of run plays to pass plays, but on Saturday afternoon, Condell dialled up 40 pass plays to just 12 handoffs. It worked because a) he trusts his quarterback and b) his quarterback is good enough to pull it off.
The Redblacks finished the game with 19 first downs and 404 yards of total offence. Ottawa converted 10 of their 24 second-down opportunities, good for a 42 percent conversion rate.
With all that said, there is still plenty of room for improvement. The offence struggled in the red zone — going zero-for-two — and aside from a six-play, 71-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter, the unit’s production in the second half was poor. Of their seven possessions over the game’s final 30 minutes, they punted three times, had a turnover on downs, and fumbled at the goal line.
14 points from the defence combined with a couple of huge splash plays from the offence was enough to get the job done on this day, but as the weather gets colder, they’ll need to get the ground game established to prepare for playoff football.
3) In his first CFL start, American running back Khalan Laborn did his best to make fans forget about the recently released Ryquell Armstead. Laborn’s final stats aren’t flashy — just 10 carries for 47 yards — but like Armstead, he appears to be a powerful runner capable of going through opponents and shifty enough to make defenders miss in open space.
His 33-yard rushing touchdown was a thing of beauty. The 25-year-old also factored into the passing game, catching five passes for 30 yards, with 27 of them coming after the catch. He didn’t wear gloves either, which is an old-school throwback this writer can appreciate.
Veteran running back Jamal Morrow was signed this week and briefly featured in the game, recording two carries for seven yards and catching a single pass for six yards. It was interesting that for the first time this season, the Redblacks dressed two true running backs.
4) I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch upon Ryquell Armstead’s surprise release, which caught the fan base off-guard. The front office and coaching staff were clear in their explanation that it wasn’t due to his play but didn’t reveal much more than that, simply stating that everyone tried to make the situation work but it didn’t.
Without speculating too much, it’s fair to say nobody just cuts 907 yards of production from their offence — 623 rushing yards and 284 receiving yards — for no reason, and the fact that no other CFL team has stepped in to sign the newly unemployed back probably tells you all you need to know about the situation.
5) Still missing two starting receivers in Jaelon Acklin and Bralon Addison, it was clear Ottawa made a concerted effort to get the ball to their remaining veteran playmakers, Justin Hardy and Dominique Rhymes. The duo was targeted early and often — by half-time alone, they’d been thrown at a combined 15 times. Those targets resulted in nine catches for 102 yards.
By the end of the contest, Rhymes had been targeted 14 times. The 31-year-old finished with a game-high 10 catches for 138 yards, with three of his receptions moving the chains on second down. He was unlucky not to score, as a perfectly timed punch stripped him of the ball at the goal line late in the fourth quarter. Rhymes also snuffed out any hope of an Argo comeback with a late onside kick recovery.
As for the rest of the receiving corps, Hardy wound up with six catches on nine targets for 57 yards, and two of his receptions kept drives alive. Rookie American Andre Miller made five catches for 95 yards and scored a long touchdown.
ANOTHER ONE FOR THE REDBLACKS!🔥
📺: #CFLGameday on @TSN_Sports, @RDSca
📱: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/RuCjXMJAoi— CFL (@CFL) September 7, 2024
Canadian Nick Mardner, American Eli Stove and fullback Anthony Gosselin each had a reception, for seven, six and ten yards respectively.
6) A week after being a serious liability, the Redblacks’ offensive line was once again the foundation of their offensive success, keeping their quarterback clean all 40 times he dropped back to pass. Holding Toronto without a sack is impressive given that coming into the game, the Argos had notched the second-most sacks in the league this season.
But, as has frequently been the case this season, the big men up front struggled mightily to open lanes in the ground game. At this point, the team has used a handful of different players at running back, so it’s clear the issue is a structural one — or rather, that it lies with the offensive line itself as opposed to those taking the handoffs.
Against Toronto, the Redblacks mustered just 59 rushing yards. The 3.9 yards per carry is inflated too, as when you subtract Laborn’s 33-yard touchdown run, the other 14 carries resulted in an average of just 1.8 yards per rushing attempt. That simply won’t cut it most nights.
It was concerning to see right tackle Zack Pelehos go down holding his left leg in the third quarter, although veteran Jacob Ruby stepped in flawlessly, as he already has multiple times this season.
7) The final yardage totals aren’t pretty, but defensive coordinator Barron Miles shouldn’t mind too much. Even if Toronto finished with 26 first downs, 494 yards of offence and went three-of-five in the red zone, the reality is much of their production came after the game was well out of reach. When you’re sitting on a 31-3 lead at half-time, it’s natural for the defence to take their foot off the gas.
The true story of the game is that the Redblacks’ defence was relentless in getting after the quarterback, as evidenced by their six sacks and countless other pressures, and opportunistic in coming up with big plays, as demonstrated by four interceptions and the three turnovers on downs they forced.
Defensive back Alijah McGhee led the way with eleven tackles and an interception. He would’ve had a second pick if not for being tackled while breaking on an errant fourth-quarter throw. Speaking of interceptions, Damon Webb was the hero of the day, snagging a pair of pick-sixes. Not only was it the first time in franchise history that two interceptions were returned for scores by the same player but by achieving the feat, Webb became just the eighth player in CFL history to record such a performance. For that reason alone, I have to share both picks.
DAMON WEBB PICK 6!🏠
📺: #CFLGameday on @TSN_Sports, @RDSca
📱: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/aWZn3enjPP— CFL (@CFL) September 7, 2024
Beautiful.
SO NICE, HE DID IT TWICE!
Damon Webb has his second pick 6 of the game.😤
📺: #CFLGameday on @TSN_Sports, @RDSca
📱: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/25dcnHqmDq— CFL (@CFL) September 7, 2024
In terms of other standout defensive performances, Brandin Dandridge made seven tackles and had an interception of his own, while Deandre Lamont had five tackles and a pair of knockdowns.
The entire defensive line deserves a shoutout as well for how they got after Chad Kelly. Veterans Lorenzo Mauldin, Kene Onyeka and Michael Wakefield all recorded sacks. For the latter, it was his sixth sack of the season, which ties his career high for a single campaign. The development of second-year pro Aidan John continues to be impressive. The Halifax native is quickly developing into an important piece of the pass rush rotation and against the Argos, he got his first career sack to go along with a handful of pressures.
Finally, backup defensive back Bennett Williams should’ve had a pick when he let (another) bad throw by Kelly slip right through his fingers and finished with three tackles and a sack in rotational duty.
8) The second-leading scorer in Ottawa history with 855 points to his credit was yet again perfect. Lewis Ward nailed field goal attempts from 37, 20, 51 and 24 yards out, heavy rain be damned. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I hope R-Nation appreciates watching history every week when Ward kicks.
Lewis Ward extends Ottawa’s lead with a 51-yard FG!
📺: #CFLGameday on @TSN_Sports, @RDSca
📱: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/FAU21uuF0n— CFL (@CFL) September 7, 2024
Punter Richie Leone hit six kicks for 282 yards, but averaged a net field flip of just 29.5 yards per punt thanks to some uncharacteristically porous kick coverage that allowed Toronto’s Janarion Grant to average 13 yards per return. In terms of special teams tackles, linebacker Gary Johnson Jr. led the way with three.
Ottawa split return duties between Dandridge, who averaged 8.4 yards per punt return, and the newly signed Morrow, who had a kickoff return of 29 yards, although he was shaken up on the play.
9) A week after being flagged a dozen times for breaking seemingly every rule in the book, Dyce’s squad played a much cleaner game, drawing the ire of the refs just four times. Not beating yourself makes playing football easier, who knew?
10) Given that it was the first afternoon home game of the season, an attendance of just 17,834 seems low, but the rain clearly impacted the walk-up crowd. Unfortunately, as good as the Redblacks have been this season and despite playing an entertaining brand of football in all three phases of the game, R-Nation has been slow to forgive and forget the poor performances of 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Just in 2024 alone, Ottawa has more wins at home (six) than they had across all of those seasons combined, where they went 5-29 at Lansdowne. At this point, OSEG has to be hoping that the team can quickly guarantee a home playoff date, so they can begin focusing their efforts on ensuring a sold-out crowd for their return to post-season action.
11) With the win, the Redblacks did themselves a number of favours. Not only did they improve their record to 8-3-1, but they also crept a bit closer to the first-place Alouettes (as things stand they’re three points back), and put more distance between themselves and the Argos, now up five points on Toronto.
It was a statement win and with six games left, five of which are against Eastern teams, Ottawa truly controls their own fate. Up next for the Redblacks is a visit to the Hammer next Saturday afternoon for a date with the Ticats.
