September 22, 2018

O’Leary: Trying to understand the Ottawa REDBLACKS

Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca

Shortly after his fellow male model friends are blown up in a lavish, brand-placement-heavy freak gasoline fight accident, Derek Zoolander is at a crossroads.

Aside from the fame and the money, what has modelling gotten him, really? Like any workaholic, his job — shilling for carbonated beverages, fragrances, makeup, etc. — has overtaken how he self-identifies. It’s not a healthy situation.

Standing on a New York City curb, he catches his perfect reflection in a puddle, squats down over it and asks the question that so many of us snared in a crossroads has asked themselves.

“Who am I?”

The Ottawa REDBLACKS have had me thinking about that Zoolander scene this year and it’s not because of Greg Ellingson’s turn-you-to-stone-and-shatter-you Blue Steel capability.

Twelve games into the season, the REDBLACKS are on top of the East Division with a 7-5 record. It’s where many people would have picked them to be had you asked them before the season started. I don’t know that I’ve ever had less of a grasp of a first-place team in all of my time watching the CFL.

Two nights this year against Saskatchewan, Ottawa has looked like the team we thought they could be, masterfully navigating Chris Jones’ defence. Other nights, all of that offence dries up and comes to a nails-on-the-chalkboard halt. Trevor Harris will get blanked in the box score (he’s had four games this year with zero TDs thrown). His targets will drop balls, or get emphatically denied at the goal line. Just when you think they’ve hit their stride and are starting to string something together — like wins over Toronto Montreal and Winnipeg in August — a strange, out of place egg is laid that pulls them back in the other direction, like their losses to Montreal and BC that followed.

Then, keeping in tune with their out of tune season, they end the Riders’ four-game win streak in Saskatchewan last week.

 

Which brings us to their game on Saturday against Edmonton. Both teams are 7-5, but they seem like two entirely different clubs. The Esks sell themselves as Grey Cup contenders, even if they’re prone to defensive lapses and have a habit of taking costly penalties at the worst possible times. The REDBLACKS are sort of the opposite, where you can count on their defence (their 23.2 points allowed per game is second-best in the league), but their offence has blips of inactivity. Their 24.9 points per game is sixth in the league. They can slay a Goliath in the league one week, then land in the crosshairs of a slingshot-wielding David the next.

Who are the Ottawa REDBLACKS? What are they capable of? Can they play consistently? Win consistently? Can they get hot at the right time and win another Grey Cup?

I feel like I’m the face in the puddle (perhaps not really, really, really ridiculously good-looking), staring up at the world when I think about these questions. My answer is very Zoolanderian.

I don’t know.