Jake Maier ‘fully accountable’ for Ottawa Redblacks’ offensive struggles

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Ottawa Redblacks’ quarterback Jake Maier was finally ready to point the finger after Friday night’s loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In his view, there was only one man responsible for the team dropping to 0-9 on the season. That man’s name? Jake Maier.

“I missed a couple throws, missed a couple reads, wasn’t good enough. I’m fully accountable for this one, in terms of not putting enough points on the board for our team,” Maier told TSN 1200 post-game. “That’s the story for me. That’s the way I see it, the way I want to look at it, and that’s what I told the guys. That’s where I’m at.”

Ottawa suffered a 33-21 defeat in Winnipeg, keeping them winless at the official midway point of the CFL season. The result extended a streak of 15 straight defeats dating back to last season, surpassing the 1994 Shreveport Pirates for the longest such drought in league history.

Maier put together a respectable stat line in the loss, completing 28-of-43 passes (65.1 percent) for 314 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. However, the Redblacks’ offence struggled to find consistent traction and went quiet for long stretches, particularly in the third quarter.

“A lot of it stemmed from me just being inaccurate or not getting to the right read in the progression,” Maier said. “I’m totally accountable to that stuff. I think if we don’t get first downs, I’ve got no problem putting the hand up and saying, ‘Hey, it’s something that I need to improve on and get better for our group,’ so that we can sustain an entire four quarters where we’re playing some good offence.”

Even when drives did prove fruitful, finishing them was difficult. The Redblacks converted on just 50 percent of their red zone opportunities, a persistent problem throughout this season.

Once again, Maier looked inward for answers, specifically calling out a second-quarter incompletion on second-and-four from the Winnipeg nine-yard line.

“I think that goes into some of the misreads and ball placement stuff. Felt like I had a tighter window-ish throw to Cade (McDonald). Probably should have just went the other way with it. Again, that’s just hindsight decision-making that I need to be better at when we’re down there, because we’re just not finishing well enough down there,” he said, adding that the lack of an established run game was making dissecting defences more challenging.

“It’s been kind of the theme all year, and it’s one of those things where we’re being presented some pretty tough defences in terms of how many people they have in coverage when we get down tight, and the windows become small and tight. But there’s no reason why we can’t still find some throws and find some windows in there to get us some points.”

While Maier may choose to focus on his own failures, even the harshest reading of his performance would have to acknowledge forces outside the quarterback’s control. His lone interception, which came on the opening dive of the game, bounced off the hands of McDonald on what should have been a simple bubble screen. A likely touchdown pass to Ayden Eberhardt was drilled off the left upright, deflecting away from the wide-open receiver. Tight end Jevoni Robinson had nothing but green grass in front of him on a 32-yard catch-and-run, but pulled a hip muscle and collapsed instead of finishing the race to paydirt.

Moments like that make it seem like there are powerful forces working against Ottawa, but Maier won’t use that as a crutch.

“The football gods don’t owe us anything. They really don’t,” he insisted. “I think that there’s a respect to the game that you try to play with in order to get some breaks and be ready for the opportunities when the luck presents itself. Right now, we’re just not taking advantage of those opportunities. We’re not owed anything, man. We just unfortunately are on the wrong side of things right now.”

The 29-year-old pivot has been under the microscope since he was elevated to the starting job in training camp, a controversial decision by incoming head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. Through nine games, he’s completed 246-of-351 passes (70 percent) for 2,680 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions — on pace for career highs in yardage and touchdowns. That just hasn’t translated into wins.

Despite the results, Maier’s status has never been seriously questioned internally, and his performance in Winnipeg likely won’t change that. He believes that Ottawa has the talent needed to end their drought and that they are close to breaking through.

“Right now, we’re just in that 21, 24 (point) purgatory, it seems like. I want to get to 30 points; I want to get to 35 points,” he said. “I feel like we have opportunities to do that. We have the receiver room to do that, and we had our chances to do that.”

The Ottawa Redblacks (0-9) won’t have to wait long for their next opportunity to record a victory, as they’ll visit the Montreal Alouettes (8-1) on Thursday, August 20. Kickoff at Percival Molson Stadium is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT.