The Canadian Press
Just over a month ago, I raised some questions about the Ottawa REDBLACKS.
The gist of it was that it was hard to get a feel for who they might be. To that point — their at-home win over Edmonton — they were 8-5 and had a decently firm handle on first place in the East Division.
Then they went and lost two tough games in a row, falling to Winnipeg in overtime and then losing against a desperate Edmonton team a week later, dropping back to 8-7. That had been the REDBLACKS season in a nutshell. Win impressively for a week or two, lose a head scratcher and move on.
Watching Trevor Harris and the REDBLACKS lock up the East Division over the last two weeks, I feel like we’ve finally gotten some answers to the questions that have piled up over the last 20 weeks or so.
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Trevor Harris put the weather conditions aside and delivered a division-clinching performance Saturday evening over the Tiger-Cats. (Adam Gagnon, CFL.ca)
In a pair of high-stakes games against the Ticats, Harris put together a pair of superb performances. He was a combined 46-62 for 608 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. His best performance came in that second game this past weekend in Hamilton, where it was cold, windy and wet. As CFL.ca’s Don Landry points out, he did it old school, going gloveless in finger-numbing elements. As a person whose digits are rendered useless the second they’re met with any type of cold weather (thanks for nothing, a childhood spent in Fort McMurray) you gain instant respect from me when you can manage to play well in these kinds of conditions.
Consistency hasn’t been as much of an issue for Ottawa’s defence, with Noel Thorpe’s group holding teams to 24.2 points per game, good for third in the league. They did a great job of limiting a potent offence on a week when their opponents had their backs against the wall. The weather may have assisted, but they can also head into the playoffs knowing that they’ve held the Ticats’ offence to two of their worst performances all year. The Ticats had 15 in a Week 7 loss to Ottawa, before being held to a season-worst 13 on Saturday (they also were held to 13 in their Week 1 loss to Calgary).
Those questions that hung over the REDBLACKS all season — can they play consistently? Can they win consistently? Can they get hot at the right time? — feel like they’re starting to be answered. The top team in the East Division is in Ottawa and after these two playoff-like atmosphere wins, they’ve shown they have the offence to go with the defence. And when that offence doesn’t quite get all the way there, they’ve also got the hottest kicker in league history in their back pocket.
Hosting the East Final for the third time in the last four years, the REDBLACKS should feel good about themselves. They’re playing great, they’re largely healthy and they should like their chances against whoever they welcome into TD Place on Nov. 18. They swept the season series with the Ticats 3-0 and split their season-series with BC (keep in mind also that a crossover team has never made it to the Grey Cup). The REDBLACKS led the race in the East this year, but with one game left on the regular-season schedule, it feels like they’ve arrived at just the right time.
