REDBLACKS NOT ABOUT TO DWELL ON HOME-FIELD WOES
Despite losing record, team confident about East final against Edmonton
Who, exactly, are the Ottawa Redblacks?
Why on earth should Redblacks fans pin hopes for success in the East Division final against the Edmonton Eskimos on Sunday on a team that had the Canadian Football League’s second-worst home-field record during the regular season with just two victories and a tie in nine contests at TD Place stadium? Or the team that became the first to clinch a division regular-season title with a losing record (8-9-1)?
It’s not as if the Eskimos will be pushovers. They had more victories on the road (five) than the Redblacks had at home and a better overall record (10-8-0), even though it only earned them fourth place in the CFL West.
That made the Eskimos a crossover team for the CFL playoffs, forced to travel to Hamilton for the East semifinal, but they won 24-21 on a late field goal by Sean Whyte.
The thing is … those facts are just component parts of a historical backdrop. Even if they had matched last season’s home record (7-2-0), the Redblacks couldn’t rise any higher than first in the East, which earned them the same first-round playoff bye they enjoyed in 2015 and the same opportunity to advance to the Grey Cup game with a strong on-field performance.
To paraphrase linebacker Damaso Munoz, professionals learn from their mistakes and their experiences.
“(Fans) should come to the game because they know the type of guys that we have and the type of team that we are capable of being,” Munoz said Friday after practice. “It’s going to be a fun atmosphere. I’m excited to play against these guys again in the rematch (of the 2015 Grey Cup), or whatever you call it. They need to come here because the Redblacks are playing.
“Last year, we lost in the championship and a lot of those nucleus guys, we still feel like we have some unfinished work to do. We’re here for the city, for the town, so I would say they should come this time so we can finish business.”
With workers applying the final touches to corporate logos on the playing surface mere yards away, head coach Rick Campbell said he had talked with Redblacks players about being exactly 48 hours from the middle of the first quarter of the East final, just as they had talked after the loss at home against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Nov. 4 regularseason finale about being ready to go right from the opening kickoff on Sunday.
“It’s not going to be an issue of motivation,” Campbell said. “Everybody is going to want to win at this time. It’s about spending these past two weeks getting prepared to win. Our guys have done a great job of that and we’ll tee it up at one o’clock on Sunday and away we go.”
That all sounds good, but the sound bites from the Eskimos’ practice field would undoubtedly be the same, as would those offered by the B.C. Lions and Calgary Stampeders, scheduled to clash later on Sunday in the West final.
Given the wintry weather forecast for the Ottawa area on Sunday, it’s easy to imagine the difference between victory and defeat being the relative number of mistakes committed by each squad.
The Eskimos produced 10 points off Ticats turnovers in what turned out to be a threepoint semifinal victory, and they’re 6-1 overall when they make fewer turnovers than the opponents. The Redblacks were perfect (6-0) when won the turnover-margin battle, but 1-2 when it was even and 1-7-1 when they coughed up more footballs than their foes.
“For us to win as many games as we did down the stretch to seize this momentum of having homefield advantage, having our home crowd on our side for one big moment, one big game, I’ll put the cards in our favour,” Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris said.
“I like our chances. We know it’s against a great team, a very good team, but I’m not worried about that because we know what we’re going to be with the animal in the other locker-room. Right now, I feel good about the guys in our locker-room. We’re very confident, we’re trusting each other, we’re sure of the things we need to do to get the job done.
“I expect us to be the East Division champions that everybody expects us to be.”
The Redblacks defeated the Tiger-Cats 35-28 in last year’s East final, a thriller decided by the 93-yard pass-and-run play from Burris to Greg Ellingson with barely more than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter.
Look further down the stat sheet, though, and you’ll also see the Redblacks produced fewer net yards of offence, but also forced the only two turnovers of the game. One was an interception by Brandyn Thompson, who, coincidentally, will line up in the Eskimos’ defensive secondary on Sunday. gholder@postmedia.com Twitter.com/HolderGord