REDBLACKS FALL AGAIN B1
One more time, Ottawa comes up short in loss to Eskimos
Eskimos still perfect
Maybe the misery will end next Friday in Hamilton.
Until then, the Ottawa Redblacks and their fans will have to live with yet another disappointment: a 27-20 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos at TD Place stadium Thursday.
While the Eskimos remain undefeated at 7-0, the Redblacks have fallen to 1-6-1. That’s right. Just one win in eight games. Miserable, right? While the Eskimos have played through a long string of injuries, the Redblacks can’t use that as an excuse. There should be no excuses. Game after game, they just aren’t good enough. They have to find another gear from quarterback Trevor Harris all the way down.
“It’s tough,” said Redblacks coach Rick Campbell. “We have a lot of guys busting their butts and nothing to show for it. We obviously wanted to start fast. That first drive, we could have gotten off the field and (QB Mike) Reilly scrambled around and made a play. That’s football, stuff happens. Obviously, the plan is to start fast. We had to dig ourselves out of a hole. We did it and got the lead going into the fourth quarter and couldn’t hold onto it.”
“It’s viciously frustrating,” said Harris. “We’re paid to win as professionals and we’re not doing it.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the Redblacks, who you’d think would come out fired up, weren’t very good in the first quarter of this Canadian Football League contest. On the opening drive, the Eskimos got a great block by lineman D’Anthony Batiste to spring LaDarius Perkins for a 35-yard touchdown off a screen pass to the right side. The convert gave Edmonton a 7-0 lead.
On Edmonton’s next possession, Kenny Stafford turned Imoan Claiborne inside out, caught a pass from Reilly and went 70 yards. The Eskimos settled for a 20-yard Hugh O’Neill field goal after Claiborne made a terrific diving knock-down of another Reilly pass.
The Eskimos made it 13-0 on a 38-yard field goal.
After a 25-yard completion to Greg Ellingson, Harris found Diontae Spencer for 36 yards. Harris then hit Ellingson with a four-yard touchdown pass and, with the convert, it was 13-7.
An illegal block by Andrew Marshall wiped out an electric 92-yard punt return for a touchdown by Quincy McDuffie. On the next play, Mossis Madu Jr. scampered 22 yards. After McDuffie took a handoff and ran for nine yards, Brad Sinopoli caught a 20-yard pass, but still Ottawa settled for a 33-yard field goal by Brett Maher.
On Edmonton’s next offensive play, Reilly found Bryant Mitchell with a pass for 58 yards. The drive sputtered and Edmonton got a 21-yard field goal with 2:32 left in the half.
After a two-and-out by Ottawa, the Eskimos got the ball on their own 11-yard line. However, after a short run and a time-count violation, the Eskimos punted the ball back, with Ottawa starting on its own 46-yard line with 1:25 left.
That didn’t work, but the Redblacks got the ball back when Taylor Reed tipped a Reilly pass into the air and Claiborne snagged the interception. A 16-yard catch by Sinopoli and a six-yard completion to McDuffie set up a 40-yard Ottawa field goal on the final play of the half.
On their first possession of the second half, the Eskimos made it 19-13 with a 42-yard field goal.
After an unnecessary-roughness penalty against Edmonton, Harris passed to Joshua Stangby for 38 yards, down to the Eskimos’ 10.
Two plays later, Harris hit Spencer in stride at the back of the end-zone. The convert gave Ottawa its first lead of the game, 20-19.
The Eskimos were marching downfield on their next possession, but a tip by Sherrod Baltimore and interception by Antoine Pruneau in the end-zone gave Ottawa the ball on its own 12.
A couple of possessions later, a beautiful punt by O’Neill bounced out of bounds at Ottawa’s one-yard line. After a Maher punt from the end-zone, Edmonton took over on Ottawa’s 46 and drove to set up a Chris Getzlaf touchdown catch. The Eskimos went for the two-point convert and took a 27-20 lead when Reilly dashed into the endzone.
A 49-yard Eskimos field goal attempt with 55 seconds left went wide, so the Redblacks still had life, but starting at their 13-yard line. An interception with no time remaining closed it out. SHANIA TO PLAY GREY CUP:
Five-time Grammy award winner Shania Twain will play the halftime show at Grey Cup in Ottawa, it was announced Thursday night. On Sept. 29, Twain will come out with a new studio album, NOW, her first release since 2002, when she played the halftime show at the Grey Cup in Edmonton.
SECOND AND LONG: The Redblacks looked to hit speedy Quincy McDuffie with three short passes in the first quarter. On the bright side, at least one of them worked … Interestingly, on second-and-one with a bit more than 10 minutes left in the third quarter, the Redblacks left Harris in for the QB sneak. When he came up short on that play, he was still there for third-handinches
… The Redblacks need to get back to basics: See player running with the ball, tackle player running with the ball. ARMED FORCES APPRECIATION:
The Redblacks gave 800 tickets to the Military Family Resource Centre for the Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation Game. It was through a program where season-ticket holders bought tickets to support the armed forces. For each ticket they bought, OSEG donated an equal amount of tickets.
THE END AROUND: On the Bodog betting site, the Redblacks went from being a 2 ½-point underdog on Wednesday to a 2-point favourite by game time ... For the record, I picked the Redblacks to win 30-21. For the record, I’m not picking them again until they win ... Former Senators winger Chris Neil had chainsaw in hand at the game. The Redblacks didn’t keep him busy enough cutting into the log ... Fewer than 1,500 tickets are remaining for the Grey Cup ... Surprising that the Redblacks didn’t have a moment of silence for legendary Rough Riders linebacker Soupy Campbell, who died early Wednesday morning of a heart attack.