Upcoming eastern games key for Redblacks
All games the Ottawa Redblacks play are worth the same number of points in the standings, but all games are not equal.
For example, while the Redblacks have defeated the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders this year, their two victories against the Montreal Alouettes were more important because they clinched the end-of-season tiebreaker advantage against a counterpart in the Canadian Football League’s East Division.
Similarly, while the Redblacks still have a pair of remaining matchups with both the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, there’s more significance attached to three showdowns with the Toronto Argonauts and two with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who share first in the East at 5-2.
The Redblacks are coming off last Saturday’s 48-3 shellacking at Calgary, but the upside is they’re 4-3 overall and third in the division going into Sunday’s game with the Argonauts at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
“It’s always a thing to want to come back and play well after you have a disappointing loss like what happened in Calgary,” cornerback Jovon Johnson said Thursday following practice at TD Place stadium. “For us, it’s (important) to focus on what we can control because, at the end of the day, we didn’t play to our capabilities, and that’s just what it all boils down to. We have to be better and we all know that, and that’s the most important thing.”
Chris Williams, whose 432 receiving yards still lead the Redblacks even though he missed the past two games because of a lower-body injury, said it was hard to watch the entire television broadcast of what transpired at Calgary ’s McMahon Stadium, but he did.
“When you’re not able to go out there and help your team, when you’re used to being out there, it puts a little bit of a damper on things,” said Williams, who is expected to return to the lineup and to improve the much-criticized punt-return unit that coughed up three fumbles on Saturday.
“Obviously, the way that it turned out, it had me more hungry to come out and help the guys,” Williams added.
There could be a handful of other roster changes, too. That list starts, almost certainly, with new punter Andy Walker, but it’s a safe bet linebacker Travis Brown will play for the first time since hurting a shoulder in the June 25 season opener in Montreal. It’s at least 50-50 that defensive lineman Justin Phillips will be on the field for the first time since breaking his left fibula and tearing ankle ligaments in July 2014 game against Hamilton.
The roster must be finalized Saturday, but since that’s the day the Redblacks travel to Toronto by train, expect decisions on Friday.
“Thank goodness I didn’t go to Calgary,” said Phillips, who was instead transferred to the one-game injury list after starting 2015 on the six-game list. “We sat down to watch the game and, about 10 minutes into the game, (his wife Jacqueline’s) water broke … shockingly.”
Weston Wayne Phillips entered the world Wednesday, nearly eight weeks premature, causing his dad to miss practice that day, but Phillips was back with his football family Thursday.
The Ottawa native and Arnprior resident hadn’t yet watched the recorded broadcast of what the Stampeders did to the Redblacks. He had spent every non-football moment at the hospital with his wife and newborn son, who was in excellent shape, but was still in a special-care unit because of his premature birth.
Johnson wasn’t as fortunate as Phillips. He committed one of the three special-teams fumbles and lived through the collective agony of that long night.
“You try to forget about it, but you do have to look at it on film to see what you did right and what you did wrong. Unfortunately for us, we did a lot of things wrong. The good thing about it is we get to go out and play another game, and all those things are correctable because we didn’t make those mistakes in the game prior to that game,” the 31-year-old defender said, referring to a 26-23 victory against Montreal on Aug. 7.
One of few personal highlights for Redblacks players last Saturday was the first CFL quarterback sack for rookie defensive tackle Ettore Lattanzio long after the winners and losers were decided. The Ottawa native, who played for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, called it a bittersweet moment as he would have preferred a victory.
“It wasn’t just my doing that got the sack,” said Lattanzio, who had one of five Redblacks sacks in the game, including four against Stampeders backup QB Drew Tate. “(Other) people had to do their jobs, and that’s what made it possible. I still think it is sweeter rather than bitter because it shows we didn’t quit, we didn’t give up.
“It didn’t go our way, of course, but that’s sports.”
We sat down to watch the game and, about 10 minutes into the game, (Phillips’ wife Jacqueline’s) water broke …