CFL.ca
The size of a football field in combination with the speed of the game and all its complexities, can hide a lot of things gone wrong for a struggling football team.
Unfortunately, the win-loss record is not one of them.
That’s why as the expansion Ottawa REDBLACKS hit the halfway pole in Season One, the talk was more about the record nine games in than it was about better days ahead, which is how it’s supposed be with first-year teams.
Now, no one expected 5-4 or 4-5 out of the gate.
Nor did anyone think mid-season headlines in the Capital would be screaming: “What’s Wrong with the REDBLACKS?” as the Ottawa Sun did this week.
Now on the chance — and it’s a good one — the REDBLACKS don’t beat the B.C. Lions this week at home, by the time they get another chance to play, it will be more than two full months since that historic one and only win.
And that is not good!
Jeff Hunt, the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment’s president of sports, echoed the feelings of everyone in uniform and on the coaching staff by telling fans 1-8 was not what the organization had in mind back in May at training camp.
At that time, predictions of exactly how many games the expansion club would win were hard to come by. The company line was always that they wanted to avoid falling back on the crutch of being an expansion team.
But they stopped short of setting a number.
But no one suggested something close to 1-8.
“I thought we would have a better record to this date,” said Hunt, this week. “And I think we should have a better record to date.
“We have had some bad luck or we could be three or four wins at this point. You just hope over time, we will get our bounces and things will even out.”
Out of camp and in the early weeks, some optimists set the bar as high as a .500 record for the REDBLACKS while others seemed to suggest more in the four to seven win range.
To a man, just about everyone stated the playoffs had to be a realistic goal and thanks to an off-year in the East, that will still be possible, at least for another month.
But they have to win — and soon — and after the B.C. Lions this week, the REDBLACKS get a bye week to try and re-group before a tough game on the road in Saskatchewan.
If the teams above them in the East are still within their sights come the end of September, the REDBLACKS finish with five of their last seven contests against East rivals.
Some would even suggest that five of their last seven are winnable games — even for an up-start operation.
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“Losing ruins my night,” Hunt continued. “That’s why we’re in the business. And that’s why our staff is beating every bush and bringing in new players every week, trying to find more pieces.”
“Fans have been patient but you can never say you are thrilled with losing. I think fans are starting to raise their expectations.”
“And that’s true with all of us . . . coaches and players too.”
“Hopefully, that win comes soon.”
Statistically, the REDBLACKS do lead the league in one very important stat and that’s in being able to count five consecutive home sellouts with the probability they will come close to selling out the entire home season.
On the field, the numbers are less kind.
For starters, the inexperience is showing with a league-high in penalties with 113. To put that into perspective, the Calgary Stampeders have been penalized the fewest times with just 82.
And just as predictably, the REDBLACKS sit at or near the bottom in every team offensive and defensive statistic.
On the offensive side, the REDBLACKS are 8th in the total offence, sixth in passing and last in rushing.
They have also scored a league-low 136 points and that is hard to do up against a futile offensive group in Montreal.
While defending, they are 9th in allowing total yards per game, the only team surrendering more than 400 (426) yards per game and that number is 72 yards more than they next worst. That additional yardage equates to really a decent touchdown drive per game.
It only makes sense that they are last in pass and run defence, allowing almost 90 yards more in passing versus the league’s best (Calgary) and almost 55 yards more along the ground than again Calgary.
The REDBLACKS D, on average, gives up just shy of 28 points per game, which is just slightly higher than the first-place Toronto Argonauts.
And that’s not knocking the REDBLACKS defensive unit as much as it’s just stating the facts for if a stat were kept for most time on the field by defence, the REDBLACKS would like lead the league by a mile.
The inability of their offence to extend drives has meant the defence has been pushed to get back out there time and time again.
“There’s lots to play for,” said REDBLACKS head coach Rick Campbell.
“We had chances to have maybe three or four wins where we let games get away but that’s the past. Those games are over and we can only look ahead.”
“What we have to do is when we get a chance in the fourth quarter we have to crash the end-zone.”
Like any team in any sport, the REDBLACKS talk of games they might have won.
They had chances to register wins over Winnipeg, Hamilton and Edmonton and could quite get the job done.
But that’s what separates winning teams from losing ones.
“I think over the long haul, every market will tolerate a (bad) year or two,” said Hunt. “People will ride out peaks and valleys and long as there are peaks — you can’t be in the valleys all the time. We just don’t want to find out the hard way (what fans will tolerate).”
