WIN ONE, LOSE ONE
Redblacks reclaim first in East, but Tate suffers injury
MONTREAL — The Ottawa Redblacks are back in first place, but they may have a big problem.
With an injury to quarterback Drew Tate — while in the throwing motion, he was drilled by Dondre Wright in the second quarter of Sunday’s 29-11 win over the Alouettes — the depth chart right now reads Ryan Lindley, Danny Collins and Will Arndt. So it’s a first-year CFL player (with NFL experience, though) and two rookies, one who has been with the team for less than a week.
Up next is a Friday night date in Winnipeg.
“We’ll have to wait and see what (Tate’s) deal is,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said. “Initially, he thought he just had the wind knocked out of him. But he just doesn’t feel right. I was proud of Ryan Lindley stepping in, he’s barely taken any reps in practice — other than being the QB-sneak guy.”
“We don’t know 100% (what the injury is) so I’m not going to speculate,” Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins said. “We’ll have to see what the medical imaging says and we’ll go from there. It was arm/shoulder, but beyond that ... there are a couple of possibilities.”
Can they go with the three quarterbacks currently on the roster?
“Potentially,” Desjardins said. “We may not have a choice. It’s not ideal, we’re on a short week, but we’ll look at all options.”
Lindley was solid, not spectacular, completing 7-0f-14 passes for 76 yards. Before Tate left the game, he was good on 21-of-29 for 185 yards. Running back William Powell really stepped up his game, with some strong blocking ahead of him, rushing for 144 yards.
“My biggest thing is you don’t want to feel like you’re mentally behind in the game, everybody’s playing faster than you are,” Lindley said. “Those first couple of drives, I was trying to make decisions too quickly, not letting it come to me. That’s where some of those things were forced and a little off.”
Offensively, the Redblacks had the ball for a staggering 41 of the 60 minutes. That’s a time-of-possession jackpot.
Ottawa’s defence really stepped up, allowing just 83 yards passing by the Als, with three sacks — two by
Jonathan Newsome and another by Avery Ellis.
“As a defence, we talked (Saturday night), we just want more respect,” Newsome said. “We’re not about letting up anymore. We learned our lesson — against B.C. and last week against Hamilton.
“(The defence was) on the field for (19) minutes. Anytime you have a game like that, it’s going to be easy. We were fresh. We had a lot of fun today.”
On Lindley’s first pass, where he was trying to hit
Greg Ellingson over his outside shoulder in the end zone, it was picked off by Tevaughn
Campbell. But even when the Alouettes did something right, it went wrong. Campbell stepped out, then back into the end zone. Safety. Two points for Ottawa and possession on their own 35. D’oh!
The Alouettes were horrible on offence. In the first quarter, they had minus-2 net yards. Their first first down of the game came well into the second quarter. QB Darian Durant was yanked, with Drew Willy on in relief. The Redblacks chewed up more than eight minutes with their opening drive, closing it off with an 16-yard touchdown pass from Tate to Patrick Lavoie. Jake Harty caught a two-point convert.
Boris Bede booted a 38-yard field goal for Montreal, but a 30-yard Brett
Maher field goal made it 11-3. On a missed 54-yard field goal attempt, Diontae Spencer found an opening, scooted down the right sideline, then broke left to score a 113yard touchdown. Ellingson was wide open for the twopoint convert. A Maher single on the kickoff and a safety made it 22-3 at the half.
A 22-yard Maher field goal midway through the third quarter made it 25-3.
Tyrell Sutton found an opening up the middle and ran for 42 yards to the Ottawa three-yard line. Willy leaned into the end zone for the touchdown. The twopoint convert was good, with
Tiquan Underwood scoring. A Maher field goal and single closed out the scoring.
The Redblacks (5-7-1) moved a point ahead of the Toronto Argos, who have a game in hand, for top spot in the East Division. The struggling Als fell to 3-9.
“It’s a big win,” Campbell said. “We’re competing directly with Montreal for a playoff spot so this is like a four-point swing game.”
SECOND AND LONG
Thing were going so bad for the Als, on an Ottawa drive midway through the third quarter, Lindley and Powell collided in the backfield. So five-yard loss, right? Nah, Powell took the delayed handoff and ran for eight yards ... The TSN TV feed cut out for a while, most of the first quarter, so after a delay, they used the RDS feed, with the studio crew doing the playby-play/commentary.