November 14, 2018

REDBLACKS carrying over high-tempo from week off

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Henry Burris said he expects this year’s Eastern Final to be very similar to that of the one played back in 2015 —  you might recall a particular miracle play towards the end of that game which won the REDBLACKS the game, sending them to their first Grey Cup in just the second year of the team’s history.

That being said, Burris also believes the Tiger-Cats will be needing to make the REDBLACKS one-dimensional when it comes to defending the highly-potent offence that Ottawa will have on Sunday. Trevor Harris completed 70 of his 97 passes (72%) and did not give up an interception in 2018 versus Hamilton. Adding that stat-line with that of William Powell, who — in two games against the Tiger-Cats — had 195 combined yards. Powell was a healthy scratch from the lineup in Ottawa’s final game against the Tiger-Cats in Week 20.

Despite not having a game to play last weekend, Rick Campbell was sure to have his squad treating it like any other week as the team awaited their opponent for this up and coming Eastern Final. It wasn’t long before Campbell and his staff were able to switch gears after witnessing the Tiger-Cats come out of the Semi-Final triumphant, as he and his staff then quickly escaped to the video room to get game preparations underway.

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With practising last week, the REDBLACKS were also able to give Antoine Pruneau some much-needed reps and activity, as he’ll be likely to make his return from injury on Sunday in the Eastern Final.

“It was a tempo as if we were playing this week,” Pruneau said following one of last week’s practices.

The return of Pruneau will help bolster the REDBLACKS already strong secondary as they’ll look to keep with their season-long trend of shutting down the Tiger-Cats offensive attack.

“I’m really lucky to be back and healthy for the playoffs. I’m glad my teammates put us in that position to clinch that first (place in the East) and give me one more week to get ready. I expect a lot of good things from our team. We’ve been practising good this week.”

Through the three regular season games against Hamilton, Ottawa enters the Eastern Final with a squeaky-clean 3-0 record, all while outscoring the Tabbies 86-59.

Defensively, Noel Thorpe will be hoping to have his crew maintain the same level of intensity on Sunday from that of the regular season. The REDBLACKS managed to limit the Tiger-Cats to just three touchdowns, while also hauling down the Eastern Most Outstanding Player in Jeremiah Masoli a total of five times, as well as intercepting four of his passes.


With the back-to-back wins over Hamilton in the last quarter of the regular season, Ottawa has plenty to work off of in terms of film. Yet, it can certainly be expected that Rick Campbell isn’t allowing his team off the hook, especially after the convincing victory the Tiger-Cats are coming off of in the Eastern Final — a 48-8 win over the BC Lions.

Sunday’s Eastern Final tilt will get underway with a 1:00 p.m. ET scheduled start time.

With files from OttawaREDBLACKS.com