CONQUERING ADVERSITY KEY IN WIN
Despite huge offensive stats, Redblacks had to push past five turnovers against Als
“Chop wood, carry water. Opportunity vs. obligation. Surrender the outcome, play present.”
Trevor Harris has the words written on a tiny piece of paper taped above his locker stall, taken from a Joshua Medcalf book: Chop Wood Carry Water — How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great.
Saturday night, moments after a 24-17 win over the Montreal Alouettes on a last-minute touchdown run by William Powell, Harris pointed to the piece of paper after being asked if it was difficult not to dwell on an at-times frustrating game where — despite huge offensive stats — his team had to push past five turnovers.
“Just chop wood and carry water,” said the Ottawa Redblacks’ quarterback. “Surrender the outcome. And we just play present. As long as we do that, good things happen. That’s really what it’s about — just pressing forward no matter what happens. Stay in the moment, trust in the process and don’t flinch.”
Harris completed 44 of 54 passes for 487 yards. The 44 completions (tying Anthony Calvillo, 2008) was just one behind the CFL single-game record of 45 set by Henry Burris with the Redblacks in 2015. Just one of Harris’s passes was for a touchdown, and he also had an interception on a pass tipped at the line into the arms of Chris Ackie, who ran into the end zone for a Montreal touchdown.
The statistics show the game shouldn’t have been close: Ottawa had 587 yards of net offence compared to 241 for Montreal. Time of possession was a whopping 36:14-23:46 in favour of the Redblacks. Yet it was close, much too close — with Powell’s 10-yard touchdown run coming with 15 seconds left. At the half, the score was 8-5 for Montreal.
“I got the ball, I was scanning the field and saw an opportunity outside one-on-one with the defender,” Powell said. “I figured I could just make him miss and get into the end zone.”
“It’s a big win,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said. “I never take winning for granted. It was good we were able to step up. It was one of those games that was going back and forth. The thing that was frustrating, in the first half particularly, was we were moving the ball well enough — we were able to do a lot of stuff — but we kept turning the ball over. Taking care of the football is a key and we’ll work on it.”
With 12 seconds left in the first half — third-and-inches deep in Montreal territory — the Redblacks opted to try a trick play with backup quarterback Dominique Davis rolling to his left and trying to connect with receiver Marco Dubois in the end zone instead of leaning forward for the first down. The pass went incomplete.
“I told our team before the game that we want to be aggressive and play the game to win,” Campbell said. “Maybe my emotions got the best of me. It was either kick the field goal, because we were going to run out of time ... or we had that play that we’ve liked for a couple of weeks. It was a calculated risk that didn’t work out. I definitely want our guys to have the attitude that we’re playing the game to win and that I believe in them.” Harris gave credit to the Redblacks’ offensive line, who he plans on taking out to all-you-can-eat sushi sometime in the next week. Also notable — five receivers had more than 70 yards receiving, led by Greg Ellingson with 110.
“We like to play uptempo, stay on the field and spread the wealth,” Harris said. “Obviously we wish we could do that every game. Greg and Brad (Sinopoli) and Spence (Diontae Spencer) being our guys, they’re going to have huge games. You’ll see RJ Harris and D (Dominique) Rhymes do the same thing — we want to make sure we continue to spread the wealth.”
Spencer had six catches for 74 yards, but with no Als defender near him, dropped a perfectly
placed Harris pass that would have been a sure touchdown.
“I was too wide open,” Spencer said. “I don’t even know, it happened so fast, I was thinking touchdown. But I wasn’t going to let that define the rest of my game.”
It was important the Redblacks not let another opportunity get away. Last week in Toronto, they led by 24 points before losing to the Argos on a touchdown with one second remaining.
“It was one of those tough games where you have to grind it out to the end,” Spencer said. “We did a good job, offence closing it out — that’s something we didn’t do in Toronto.”
Up next is a Friday night date in Winnipeg, against the Blue Bombers.