REDBLACKS WARY OF JONES-LED TICATS
The football landscape in Ottawa has changed plenty in the 31 years since June Jones was brought in as the Rough Riders’ offensive co-ordinator — new stadium, new surroundings, new team name and a vibrant fan base with a Grey Cup in its back pocket.
Jones is hoping his return visit to the nation’s capital is Step No. 2 in turning the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ fortunes around.
Jones, who replaced Kent Austin as head coach of the TigerCats two weeks ago, is trying to defy history — no CFL team that started a season 0-8 has made the playoffs. But on Monday, the Ticats beat the Toronto Argonauts 24-22 and on Saturday (6 p.m.), they’ll be facing an Ottawa Redblacks team with a little momentum of its own, coming in with three straight wins.
“They may be desperate, but we’re desperate as well, to be honest,” said Redblacks defensive end Arnaud Gascon-Nadon, who played in Hamilton for three seasons before signing as a free agent in Ottawa. “We need to play with that desperate attitude. We don’t need to look at the standings, we just have to go out and try and pile up the wins.”
All that noise around the Ticats — a coaching change, a quarterback change from Zach Collaros to Jeremiah Masoli — the Redblacks are paying attention, but they’re more focused on keeping their own house in order. A win would put Ottawa three points up on Toronto for top spot in the CFL East.
“I think they’re a good team, their record doesn’t show it,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said. “When we played them in Hamilton, they had just played Edmonton close back to back. I’m thinking we’re smart enough to know every team you play in this league has ability and good players. That’s kind of been the recipe for us is to worry less about the other team and focus on us playing good football.”
Redblacks quarterback Trevor Harris echoed those sentiments.
“You always worry about (the opposition), especially a team like Hamilton, they’re a lot better than what people think,” he said. “They’ve just had two bad games that got away from them. We have to make sure we execute our game plan because if we don’t Hamilton’s a team that could really come up and bite you.”
A couple of weeks ago, the Redblacks beat Hamilton 37-18, but led by just five at halftime. Besides, that was a different team and certainly a different system. Jones has already installed portions of his “run-and-shoot” offensive schemes.
“We’ve added some things, we’ve continued to run some things that Kent does,” Jones said. “I would say right now, it’s like we’re coming out of training camp. We’re probably not executing where we need to, but it’s way better than it was last week so we’ll just keep getting better, hopefully.
“Whenever you come into situations that are upside down, creating the chemistry, creating a new culture and a new belief system, that’s what turns things around. That’s probably true in any business or any locker-room. You have to put your stamp on it and get everybody realizing that it matters — it’s not just the X’s and O’s, it’s the other stuff that makes good teams great.”
After stumbling out of the blocks with a 1-6-1 record, the Redblacks have put the pedal to the metal in the second half the last two games.
“We have to make sure we’re aggressive and we stay aggressive,” Harris said. “We have to step on people’s throats as opposed to just trying to get out of there. You’re starting to see us doing what we’re capable of and I think we’re going to continue to get better every week.”
The Redblacks aren’t getting wrapped up in any changes the Ticats have made.
“There’s not a huge difference,” Campbell said. “You can only do so much in the CFL. You can definitely adapt. I thought they did a good job (against Toronto). They made a big effort to get the ball into 16’s (Brandon Banks’) hands as many times as they could, which makes sense to me.” THINKING AHEAD: First up, it’s Hamilton. Then it’s Montreal. Campbell doesn’t want his players thinking ahead. While the first priority is getting into the playoffs, finishing in top spot and gaining an automatic berth into the East final would be huge. Said Harris on Friday: “It would be huge in terms of you don’t have to win a game to get to the game to win the Grey Cup. But at the same time, we’d have bye weeks in weeks 18, 20 and 21. How’s that go toward the end of the year? Obviously, we would choose to get the bye. We have our eyes on winning the East, that’s our first goal. But the goal before that is to win (Saturday) against Hamilton.” MADU STAYS IN LINEUP: While running back William Powell probably could have played Saturday, he remains on the onegame injured list. Tough to remove Mossis Madu Jr. from the lineup. He’s been steady. “Madu’s been playing really well, we’re going to get William completely healthy,” Campbell said. “We’re fortunate with both those guys, we don’t seem to miss a beat.” As for receiver Kevin Elliott and receiver/returner Quincy McDuffie, Campbell said: “They’re really close. We’d like to see those guys as soon as possible, particularly McDuffie. I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t play next week.” THE END AROUND: Funny jab at the Ottawa Senators on the Redblacks’ Twitter account Friday, with a “breaking” news flash that TD Place was going to add 1,500 gently used seats to its stadium capacity. A day before, the Senators announced they were removing 1,500 seats from Canadian Tire Centre to make the building seem more full. The Redblacks tweet was later removed, hopefully not as a result from a complaint from the NHL team ... Henry Burris will be honoured at halftime of the Ottawa-Hamilton game. tbaines@postmedia.com Twitter: @TimCBaines