By: Adamo Marinelli
July 20th, 2018
After a humiliating 28-3 loss to the Calgary Stampeders in week five of the CFL season, where the Ottawa Redblacks were bad defensively and couldn’t do anything on offense, as quarterback Trevor Harris only had 93 passing yards with an interception and two fumbles lost and the only thing Ottawa’s offense could do was hit a single field goal, the Redblacks, particularly quarterback Trevor Harris needed a huge turnaround game, against the BC Lions tonight.
On Friday night, the Redblacks let their play do the talking and played a stellar game, both offensively and defensively.
Trevor Harris had an absolutely wonderful game against BC, throwing for 363 passing yards and a touchdown with no interceptions after potentially the worst performance of his career last week in Calgary. Performances like these are huge for Harris as this year he is on a one year contract with the Redblacks and the time is now for him to prove he’s an elite quarterback that deserves to get a long-term high paying deal with the Redblacks.
Another player with a big game after the blowout loss to Calgary who promised to be better next week against BC was running back William Powell, who rushed for 50 yards on the night, including scoring a two-yard rushing touchdown in the final minute of the game to give the Redblacks a 29-25 win against the Lions. He also had seven catches for 61 yards and Lewis Ward, the Redblacks’ kicker hit all five field goals he attempted, having a good game himself.
“We can't have those stalled out drives and we have to keep the pace up. Whenever we keep the pace up and we're flowing and we're moving and we won't stop and we get the defence tired we always have success”, Trevor Harris said after the win against BC.
That was clearly the case on Friday night as the Redblacks kept the pace up all night and when they got on a roll, they moved the ball well going down the field with efficiency. The whole team worked together, especially the offence, which was invisible against Calgary. Now the Redblacks move to 3-2, claiming first place in the east division while dropping the Lions to 2-3, giving them control of last place in the west division and handing them their eighth loss in their last nine road games.
“We have a new attitude and everyone believes. When the chips were down we came back and won,” Powell said in a post-game interview with Matthew Scianitti.
Clearly, the turning point of this game came with just over two minutes to play in the fourth quarter. The game was tied 22-22. The Lions had a 2nd & 7 at the Ottawa 11 yard line and had a chance to lead by a touchdown. However, Lions quarterback Travis Lulay took too long to take the snap and they were charged with a time clock violation penalty which resulted in a loss of down for the Lions and forced them to go for a Ty Long 20 yard field goal to lead 25-22. This gave Ottawa 1:59 to drive down the field and Trevor Harris orchestrated an 80 yard drive with the help of a circus catch from Ellingson and a 26 yard catch and run by RB William Powell to give the Redblacks a first and goal at the BC two-yard line followed by a two-yard rushing touchdown from Powell the very next play to give the Redblacks a 29-25 lead and the defense secured the win for Ottawa with three stops against the Lions’ offense in the last 45 seconds of the game.
“The parity in this league is amazing. The close games we've got to be able to pull it off and tonight we did so we have to take a lesson from it, which we talked about as a team after the game,” Harris said.
“It's gratifying to get the win, but just like last week that was one loss, this is only one win”, Harris added.
Travis Lulay, coming off a game-winning drive of his own which led to a game-winning Ty Long field goal to complete the comeback and pick up a 20-17 win against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers last week after being down 17-0 at the half, had a spectacular game in Ottawa where he threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns for the Lions, including a 78-yard catch-and-run play to Emmanuel Arceneaux inside the final three minutes of the game that led to the Ty Long field goal to give BC the 25-22 lead.
“We had too many dropped balls. I don't know that we stalled, but at times we just didn't capitalize on plays and it hurts us along with the time count violation that cost us a chance to go for seven,” Lions coach Wally Buono said, regarding his team’s close loss to Ottawa earlier tonight.
Buono also added: “Give [the Redblacks] credit though, they played hard and at the end, they scored a touchdown at the end and we didn't.”
An incomplete pass by Lulay on third down with 25 seconds to play sealed the win for the Redblacks.
The Redblacks earned 11 first downs and 203 yards of total offence in the first half, compared with 13 first downs and 169 yards of offence during the entirety of their loss against Calgary last week. That just shows how much more their offence showed up this week against the BC Lions. Furthermore, despite the Redblacks got the win, the game was really evenly matched as BC had 444 total yards compared to Ottawa’s 422 and the Redblacks had 30:12 possession time compared to the Lions’ 29:48 possession time. That is the definition of a very close game.
Now, with the Redblacks sitting atop the eastern division at 3-2, after week 6 of the CFL season ahead of Hamilton by one game, who are sitting at 2-3 after their loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in week 6 and two games ahead of the Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes who are both 1-3 and tied for last place in the east division, the Redblacks are in the driver’s seat to win the east division and get a bye to the east final game for a chance to play in another Grey Cup game.
In reality, unless a massive momentum swing happens to the Argonauts and the Alouettes, Toronto and Montreal will not win the east division, which will only leave Ottawa and Hamilton competing for the top spot in the east. Although, Ottawa is the better of those two teams and their week six win showed that whereas Hamilton blew a 17-7 halftime lead in their 31-20 loss to Saskatchewan, so Ottawa should get the first place in the east division.
But regardless, at least the top two teams in the east division make the playoffs, the first place team gets a bye to the east final and the second place team plays a third-place team in the east division or a fourth-place team from the west division in a crossover east semifinal game as first place in the west division would get a bye to the west final and the second and third place west teams play in the west semifinal.
So the Redblacks should be able to win the east division or at the very least make the playoffs -- unless they collapse in the second half of the season which is unlikely -- but whether or not they win the Grey Cup or not is a different story as the west division is clearly better than the east division, especially with powerhouses like the Stampeders who are 4-0-0 so far on the year, scoring 120 points while only allowing 38 in those four games thus far in their season and the Blue Bombers who are 3-3 but have a lot of talent on offense and defense.
In conclusion, it’s still too early in the season to say predict who will play in the east and west semifinal, the east and west final and the Grey Cup, but I predict the Redblacks will win their division, get a bye to the East Final where they beat the Tiger-Cats after Hamilton stunned the Roughriders in a crossover east semifinal and then the Redblacks will beat the Blue Bombers in overtime to win the 106th Grey Cup and their second Grey Cup in three years after the Blue Bombers beat the Stampeders in the west final thanks to an Andrew Harris rushing touchdown in the final minute of the west final to give the Blue Bombers a ticket to the Grey Cup final.
No comments:
Post a Comment