Burris to start; Williams gone for the year
Veteran Redblacks QB to start Friday as injury ends Williams’ season
It’s the Henry Burris Show ... again.
But if last year’s CFL Most Outstanding Player from 2015 is going to make magic, he’ll have to do it without Chris Williams, statistically the Ottawa Redblacks’ best receiver, who has a torn ACL and will be gone for the rest of the season.
Burris will be the starter Friday as the Redblacks travel to Hamilton to take on the Tiger-Cats in the first of back-to-back games against a team they’re battling for top spot in the CFL East.
“It’s a feeling I have regarding our team,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said of making the switch away from Harris, who completed 12-of-21 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown before getting yanked in a 32-30 overtime loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday night at TD Place.
“I will say that I’m completely happy with Trevor. We’re lucky to have both those guys here, not only as good veteran, winning quarterbacks, but also for the people they are. Trevor’s going to be the longterm solution here, nothing has changed on that. We’re just looking to make sure we’re doing whatever we can to make sure we have our mojo and keep it rolling.”
Earlier this season, Burris sat out four games with an injured pinky finger. In his absence, Harris grabbed onto the job and was lights out. Harris then went down with leg injuries in a 30-29 loss to Saskatchewan July 22. Burris wasn’t sharp when he returned and was once again replaced by Harris.
The 41-year-old Burris got his opportunity in Friday’s disappointing loss. He came off the bench to provide a “spark,” completing 9-of-16 passes while throwing two touchdowns and getting his team into overtime before a Chris Milo miss and a Tyler Crapigna field goal settled things.
“The business part of the game is never fun for us players,” Burris said. “It’s never fun for a quarterback when you’ve been playing for your team and all of a sudden, you’re not out there the next week. I’ve dealt with that on a few occasions.
“It was definitely tough. When you’ve been a part of leading this team, coming off an MOP season and getting my team to the Grey Cup ... it was definitely disappointing not to be out there. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. (The guys in the locker-room) kept me going. These guys kept my attitude up, I kept my chin held high. I wasn’t going to do anything to ruffle any feathers, Trevor was doing a great job.”
Burris said his finger, which got mangled in the regular-season opener in Edmonton, is far better than it was when he was pulled off the injured list for a July 31 game against Toronto.
“The hand’s strong now,” Burris said. “You can tell with the way the ball’s coming off the hand. I came back two weeks early, maybe I wasn’t 100 per cent. I wasn’t going to complain, I was going to get out there and do the best I could to help my team.”
Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins said the team hopes the return of Burris will provide some kind of boost.
“It was actually something we felt like we needed to do at this time of year,” he said. “We all saw what he did in terms of lifting everybody up. That’s just what we’re going to go with for now and we anticipate it’s going to go well. We’ll take it week by week. To say it’s a one-game thing or a season-long thing, we’ll see how it goes.”
Khalil Paden (who was re-signed after being released last week), John Harris and Jamill Smith are options to replace Williams, who was third in the CFL in receiving yards, with 1,246.
“We’ve lost some key pieces, but that’s the life of football, it happens to all teams,” Campbell said. “We have some guys we’ll plug in, you keep going.”
The Redblacks go into Friday’s game one point ahead of the Ticats. Hamilton comes to Ottawa on Oct. 21. Then it’s a back-to-back series with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to close out the regular season.
Defensive end Arnaud GasconNadon was practising with the first-team unit Monday and could play vs. the Ticats.
IN AND OUT
The Redblacks have signed receivers Avius Capers (Johnson C. Smith) and Joshua Stangby (Ottawa University, not a typo, it’s in Kansas) and linebacker Herve Tonye-Tonye (Northern Colorado), transferred defensive back Imoan Claiborne to the practice roster and released defensive lineman Sammy Brown and linebacker Anthony Harrell. Mike Reilly threw touchdown passes to Brandon Zylstra and Chris Getzlaf and ran one in himself as the Edmonton Eskimos defeated the Alouettes 40-20 for a third straight victory Monday in Montreal.
John White ran in a pair of TDs for the Eskimos (8-7). Brandon Rutley and Samuel Giguere had TDs for Montreal (4-10).
Meanwhile, Bo Levi Mitchell threw three TD strikes as the Calgary Stampeders clinched first in the West Division with a lopsided 48-20 win over the Toronto Argonauts.
Mitchell increased his leagueleading total to 29 touchdown passes as Calgary (13-1-1) earned a 12th straight win and ran its CFL-record unbeaten streak to 14 games.
With Toronto and Montreal losing, B.C. (9-5) and Winnipeg (9-6) clinched playoff berths. Edmonton (8-7) tightened its grip on a potential crossover spot while eliminating Saskatchewan (4-10) from post-season contention.