CLOSE HASN’T QUITE CUT IT FOR RESTED REDBLACKS
Defending champs return to practice after licking their wounds from 1-4-1 start
It’s not like they’ve been holdyour-nose stinky in the first six games of the CFL season, but the Ottawa Redblacks need to find a way to turn almosts into victories after just one win a third of the way through the CFL regular season.
Maybe a bit of a break is what was needed following Ottawa’s latest setback July 24 in Toronto. It was an all-too-familiar scenario with the Redblacks doing enough good things to win, but making big mistakes at bad times. Especially stinging is the fact they’ve lost their four games by a total of 10 points.
Given a few days off after coming through a stretch of four games in 17 days (and three in 11), the Redblacks were back at it Monday at TD Place, hoping to find a mindset that can give them momentum and a push up the East Division standings which Toronto leads with three wins.
“Everything’s in front of us, there’s a whole bunch of football left to be played,” said Redblacks coach Rick Campbell. “We’re on the cusp of where we need to be. We understand winning is the thing that’s important. At the same time, when you’re evaluating yourself, it’s important to see how close we are. We’re trying to tweak and be better at a few things and if we do, we’ll be in the mix with everybody else in this league.”
Even though the team won the Grey Cup in 2016, that was then and this is now.
“I’ve never thought of us as a Grey Cup champion because it’s a new season,” said Campbell. “That needs to be long gone and forgotten. It’s a new year and a new time. It doesn’t matter which team won the Grey Cup last year.”
With their down time, some of the Redblacks headed home, others stayed in town and just stepped back from football for a few days.
“I got to spend a little time with my wife and little man (son Trenton) and unplug for a couple of days,” said quarterback Trevor Harris. “It’s good for the body, good for the soul and here we go.
“Physically, you play four in 17, I don’t know how safe that is. So it was good to get a few days to recharge. Mentally, a lot of people don’t realize the grind you’re going through when you’re playing that many games in that many days. It almost feels like the first game of that set was so long ago.”
Campbell and his wife Geri enjoyed some cottage time an hour north on Lac Poisson Blanc. A lot of time was spent sitting on the dock and relaxing with friends.
“We had that string of close games, so I know it was good for the players to get a rest,” said Campbell. “It was good to step away for a couple of days and hit the reset button. The goal is to take a good 48 hours and not talk about football, then get right back at it.
“When you have some off time, you have some time to do what we call self-scout — selfevaluating everything we’re doing — making sure we’re doing everything we need to do to win games.”
With all their East Division foes losing over the weekend, the Redblacks could make a big move up these next two weeks with a pair of home games up next, including Friday against Winnipeg and Aug. 10 against Edmonton.
“We’re thankful for the way things are going right now in the East,” said Harris. “But we’re going to just play our schedule and worry about the Redblacks. As long as we continuously get better as a group, get better as a team and take care of the business we can take care of, things will work out in our favour.” MY O MY: Statistics may be deceiving. Harris is ranked second in passing yards with 1,939 — with an efficiency ranking of 108.7, behind only Edmonton’s Mike Reilly (114.0). But the Redblacks offence needs to get more consistent and certainly better. Said Harris: “We have to finish in the red zone. We have to be more efficient early and in the middle of the games. We need to have the killer instinct to kill teams when we have them down, bury them early and do all we can to put games out of reach as early as possible — that’s very tough to do in this league with the parity.” WHY NOT GILLANDERS?: In Game 1 of the season, a 31-31 tie with Calgary, Brendan Gillanders stepped in for injured running back William Powell and had 80 yards rushing on 12 carries. He also had a costly fumble, but certainly looked very good. Since that game, he hasn’t carried the ball. Not once. Explained Campbell: “He’s always an option. He’s a good football player. We have a guy, William Powell, that we think’s a pretty dynamic guy. Whoever our running back is, running the ball is going to be a point of emphasis; good teams find a way to run the ball.” THE END AROUND: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers could be without leading receiver Weston Dressler Friday. If Dressler’s not ready to go, Ryan Lankford may get the call. Redblacks linebacker Ron Omara, on the six-game injured list to begin the season, was practising Monday and hopes to return soon. Anybody got a beef with the Redblacks punting? Brett Maher is ranked first in the CFL with a 45.6-yard average.