Ottawa Redblacks on pace for worst rushing season in CFL history

Photo courtesy: CFL.ca/Patrick Doyle

Plenty has been written about the ineptitude of the Ottawa Redblacks this season.

The club has tallied a modern CFL record 17 consecutive regular-season losses, and is just the sixth team in league history to begin a season 0-11.

It’s been ugly — like, shag carpet ugly.

However, the club is also on pace to make dubious history in another category: the inability to run the football.

Through 11 regular-season games, the Redblacks have rushed for only 547 yards. At an average of 49.7 per game, they are on pace for 895 rushing yards this year.

For context, no other team is currently below 1,000 aside from the Toronto Argonauts, who have 947.

CFL statistician Jeff Krever confirmed to 3DownNation that Ottawa is on pace for the fewest rushing yards in CFL history.

The previous low belongs to the Argonauts, who rushed for 929 yards in 2025. They were the first team in league history to rush for fewer than 1,000 yards in a season.

There’s an obvious notable connection between last year’s Argonauts and this year’s Redblacks: Ryan Dinwiddie.

The 45-year-old native of Elk Grove, Calif. was Toronto’s head coach last season before being hired as the head coach and general manager in Ottawa. Barring a change, he’ll soon have the two worst rushing seasons in CFL history on his record.

Despite the recent challenges, Dinwiddie’s teams have run the ball effectively in the past.

In 2022, Andrew Harris and A.J. Ouellette combined for over 1,000 rushing yards to help Toronto win the Grey Cup. Ouellette rushed for 1,000 yards the following year when the Boatmen went 16-2, then Ka’Deem Carey ran for 1,000 yards in 2024 when the team won its second CFL championship in a three-year span.

Situational football would partly explain the recent struggles of Dinwiddie’s rushing attacks.

When you’re almost always playing from behind, it’s tough to run the football. The Argonauts went 5-13 last year, and the Redblacks remain winless this season. Both teams were (and are) almost constantly at a deficit.

Ottawa has yet to record 100 rushing yards in a game this year. The only time they out-rushed their opponent was a double overtime loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 7, a game they certainly should have won. Ottawa held a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, and Greg Bell got a season-high 14 carries.

With that said, it’s not just that the Redblacks don’t run the ball very much, it’s that they’re awful at it when they try to do it.

Ottawa is averaging just 3.5 yards per rushing attempt this season. This is a full yard behind the eighth-place Saskatchewan Roughriders (4.5) and barely half of the first-place B.C. Lions (5.9).

Last year, Toronto averaged a league-worst 3.9 yards per rush. The next-worst team was the Montreal Alouettes at 4.7.

Dinwiddie is set to make his return to Toronto this weekend, where he’s hoping to help lead Ottawa to its first win of the season.

Running the ball and winning often go hand-in-hand.

If the Redblacks want to avoid becoming the first team in CFL history to go 0-18, they’ll also want to avoid having the league’s worst-ever rushing attack.

The Ottawa Redblacks (0-11) will visit the Toronto Argonauts (6-6) at BMO Field on Saturday, September 12 with kickoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. EDT. Last week, the Redblacks were on bye while the Argonauts won the season series against Hamilton with a 37-22 victory in the Labour Day Classic.

The weather forecast in Toronto calls for a high of 24 degrees and sun. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada, and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa or TSN 1050 in Toronto.