Patrick Doyle/CFL.ca
On Saturday, Jonathan Rose played a big part in slowing one of the league’s top offences, helping the Ottawa REDBLACKS solidify their spot atop the East Division.
On Sunday, he’ll work on something bigger.
The REDBLACKS cornerback said he’d get out in his Hunt Club neighbourhood in southwest Ottawa and help clean up the mess that Friday’s tornadoes made in the city.
The 25-year-old was on a boat cruise when the city was under a tornado warning and didn’t know what to make of it.
“It was weird, because they didn’t stop the boat cruise, so I didn’t know if it was really serious or if it was going to miss us,” he said.
He saw dark clouds but no funnel clouds. When he got home later in the evening, he realized how serious the storm was.
“I went to my house and the power was out, there was a lot of damage. The trees were down,” he said.
“Probably (Sunday) I’m going to go around and pick up the neighbourhood that I live in, man and we’re just going to try to help some of these people.”
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In total, two tornadoes made contact with the Ottawa area. One hit Dunrobin, Ont. and Gatineau, Que and has been labelled an EF3 tornado, with wind speeds that got up to 250 km/hr. The tornado that hit southwest Ottawa, where Rose lives, was an EF2 that had a wind speed of up to 220 km/hr.
The storms have left over 100,000 homes and businesses without power. It could be days before it’s restored fully. Despite the destruction, outages and road closures in some areas, 24,800 fans came to TD Place to watch the REDBLACKS beat the Edmonton Eskimos.
Before Ottawa head coach Rick Campbell addressed the game, he thanked the fans for coming out to the game on a difficult day.
“We were just talking in the locker room (with) our players about how awesome this city is and this region and the fans for just coming out today,” Campbell said.
“It was a rough day in Ottawa here yesterday and to see people lose property was heartbreaking. This city is pretty awesome and it was great to see everybody show up today.”
The crowd stuck it out through a gritty three quarters of football. Ottawa saw three touchdowns called back — two on offence and one on special teams — and leaned on rookie kicker Lewis Ward for their total offence through 45 minutes of play.
The offence finally made good in the fourth quarter, with Trevor Harris finding Greg Ellingson for a five-yard score with four minutes left in the game. Ward’s convert made it a 25-15 lead. He added his seventh field goal on a perfect night (he’s now at 38-consecutive makes, putting him one behind Rene Paredes’ CFL record).
Along with Ward, the other constant on the night was Ottawa’s defence. It stymied one of the league’s top passing QBs in Mike Reilly (276 yards, one TD, one interception) and held the league’s leading receiver, Duke Williams to four catches for 65 yards with one touchdown.
“Mike Reilly can zing that ball around the field and they have some athletic receivers that can make plays and make it tough. We got some pressure on him and came up with some timely turnovers that were big,” Campbell said.
“We figured that Duke would be their main target guy with 8-7 ( Derel Walker) down and we found a way to control it,” Rose said.
“Sometimes I was matched up on him, sometimes ( Randall Evans) was matched up on him. And basically take away the vertical. We’ll play underneath routes but he is a big vertical threat so let’s take away what his go-to is and I feel like we handled the vertical ball well tonight. That’s what helped us boost to this victory.”
At 8-5, Ottawa has guaranteed it will hold onto first place in the East at least a little longer. There have been brilliant moments this season as well as head scratchers from the REDBLACKS, but they’re in position now to control the division as the regular-season winds down.
“I think it’s always evolving throughout a season. There’s still quite a bit of football left to be played,” Harris said. “We’re always evolving and you find new strengths in players when you watch the film and new things that you can do in terms of your scheme.
“Outside of Calgary I’d assume now we have the second-best record in the league,” Campbell added.
“Everybody’s good, people are well-coached, so the margin for error is very small. Every win is huge and we just want to keep putting wins in the bank and give ourselves the best chance at the end of the year.”
Ottawa goes into its final bye week of the season with a comfortable lead in the East.
Rose, a leader on one of the league’s top defensive teams, wants to see the same team come back to close out the schedule.
“Consistency is our key,” he said. “Consistency in winning. Consistency in our attitude and our poise when we come to work and that’s basically our road. We’re going to get to the Grey Cup by being consistent and being focused, being locked in and prepared more than the other team.”
