MAYBE THEY ARE THIS BAD
At 1-6-1, Redblacks must start winning games — now
Maybe the Ottawa Redblacks just aren’t very good.
Maybe they are exactly what we’ve seen so far — a football team that isn’t experienced enough to finish off games they should win, a team that can’t seem to block or tackle well enough, a team that both bends and breaks.
There’s no disguising the ugliness of a 1-6-1 start to a regular season, the latest setback a 27-20 loss to a depleted Edmonton Eskimos team Thursday night. Certainly you’d expect more out of a defending Grey Cup champion, a team that desperately wants to play in this year’s Grey Cup on its home turf. The way it looks, the only way they’re going to the Grey Cup is with a ticket.
There is still time. And they do play in the East Division, where seven or eight wins could get you into the playoffs. And, as the Redblacks showed last year, if you can get to the dance and rise up, well, big things can happen.
“We’re going to hang together, we’re going to keep working,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said.
Next, it’s on to Hamilton, a team that goes for its first win Saturday against Winnipeg. And if there’s a must-win for this year’s Redblacks, this may be it.
“We’ve got the rest of the season left, it’s that simple,” Redblacks quarterback Trevor Harris said. “For us to throw in the towel, what do people want us to do, fold? We’re going to come out fighting. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘We’re not good enough right now.’ Everybody, including myself, has to be better. We have to step our game up and find a way to win.”
The frustration is weighing on the coaches and on the players.
“It’s come to a point where you come into the locker-room and question yourself,” defensive back Imoan Claiborne said. “We have to be able to finish games. It’s a broken record, but the problem has to be solved. As a competitor, you want to win football games. We don’t come here to lose. We prepare all week to win. When you don’t get the job done, it weighs on you. We have to let this game go and go to the next game with a sense of urgency.”
It’s easy to point fingers, but there are too many phases of the game where the Redblacks just aren’t good enough.
“The truth is we’re not as good as we need to be,” Campbell
You don’t just blow up a team that can compete with anybody. But you have to find a way to win.
said. “Obviously we’re not good enough. We have to face reality and find ways to make it better.”
While all the right things are still being said within the lockerroom, it’s a good bet a loss to the Ticats could cost people their jobs. Offensive co-ordinator Jaime Elizondo is a popular social media target.
“It’s a deal where we’re close,” Campbell said.
“But you don’t get any points for being close. You don’t just blow up a team that can compete with anybody. But you have to find a way to win. I still feel like there are a lot of correct pieces here and a lot of players that are the right guys, but for whatever reasons, we’re not getting it done.”
The Redblacks slept through the first quarter and the early part of the second quarter against Edmonton. The players were sluggish; some of the playcalling was questionable.
“We were fired up coming into the game, I thought we showed resiliency battling back,” Harris said. “It seems to be the same song, different verse. We keep finding new verses and that’s unacceptable.”
There was also a 92-yard punt return by Quincy McDuffie that was called back on an illegal block.
“It was a game-changing play,” Campbell said. “You can see McDuffie’s a pretty electrifying guy that can make things happen. We were priding ourselves on not taking penalties in the return game — I think we were four or five games in a row without doing it. Obviously that was a costly (penalty).”
What does the game in Hamilton mean for a team that can’t find its identity or a way to win football games?
“We’ve been desperate for several games now,” Campbell said. “They’re all going to be big. Again, I sound like a guy saying the same thing over and over. If we can find a way to win a couple of games, all of a sudden we’re in the thick of it. First thing’s first, we have to win one.” Harris echoed that sentiment. “It’s probably one of those games where a team gets a win and uses it as a springboard,” Harris said. “They’re a talented team, we just have to make sure we bring what we can. We’re 1-6-1, we can’t take anything for granted. We have to go out and play our you-know-whats off.”
Anything less and heads are going to roll.