Harris wary of Stamp defence

A 29-26 home-field overtime win over the Calgary Stampeders last July 24, on the heels of back-toback losses to the Edmonton Eskimos, seemed to ignite the Ottawa Redblacks — show them they could beat the CFL’s elite.

After a Keith Shologan fumble recovery and Delbert Alvarado gamewinning field goal, the Redblacks had a 3-2 record and maybe more importantly, had gained confidence that they could win the close games.

Fast forward to Friday night, once again at TD Place. The Redblacks look to find more of the same magic, hoping to improve to 3-0 on the season.

There’s no question the Stampeders have a dangerous offence, led by quarterback Bo-Levi Mitchell, but it’ll be interesting to see how the high-powered Ottawa offence, with Trevor Harris slinging the passes, performs Friday night at TD Place. The Stampeders will need to figure out how to stop Harris, who has thrown for 687 yards and six touchdown passes in less than six quarters of work after taking over for injured Henry Burris.

“Their defence poses a brand new set of challenges for us,” said Harris. “They’re not getting a lot of attention across the league and they probably like that, but they have our attention.

“They pose a ton of problems. They jump routes really well, they route read extremely well, they get pressure with their front four, they bring blitzes when you don’t expect them and they don’t have huge tendencies in the way they read routes and the way they play their match coverages.”