July 25, 2019

Nye: Can the REDBLACKS re-discover themselves?

Trevor Hagan/CFL.ca

Calgary could be visiting Ottawa at the perfect time for the REDBLACKS. They’ve consistently played the Stampeders tough, including a Week 1 victory in Calgary in the Grey Cup rematch.

Over the last three weeks, however, the REDBLACKS haven’t given many people confidence they have the team to actually beat Calgary this go around.

With no Dominique Davis, the team needed Jonathon Jennings to show them their gamble will pay off by bringing him in to try to resurrect his still young career. Last week, it appeared the BC Lions were right to move on.

It’s been a mystery for those who saw Jennings throw for over 5,000 yards and now he can’t complete even 50 per cent of his passes nor throw for 200 yards in a single game. Jennings gets another chance this week and it may be his last with Davis potentially returning in a week.

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Now, don’t let me lead you to believe it’s all on Jennings. Davis hasn’t been much better. He had a great game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders but aside from that, Davis has also struggled and if it weren’t for somehow pulling out the win in Week 1 despite a lackluster game, the REDBLACKS would be sitting with just one more win than the Toronto Argonauts right now.

The REDBLACKS need a quarterback to give them a reason to believe. It’s Jennings’ turn this week.

But everything around the quarterback has to improve as well. The REDBLACKS from top to bottom seem broken right now.

The offensive line is having problems protecting the quarterback and opening up holes. The receiving corps doesn’t have a playmaker who can make the quarterback look good. Greg Ellingson and Diontae Spencer were able to do that last year but nobody has stepped up in their absence. Brad Sinopoli is making many wonder if he can be the feature number one guy with a much slower to start to the campaign.

Big yards are being piled up on the defence.

Bright spots? The REDBLACKS will need to find those and try to enhance them in the game plan if anything will turnaround soon.

The only thing still going well is Lewis Ward‘s amazing streak of consecutive field goals. Although when your offence doesn’t even give you a chance to attempt a field goal, like last week, that streak continues to be safe.

However, the REDBLACKS will have a hard time trying to kick their way out of this funk.

Can John Crockett become a revelation for this Ottawa offence?

I’d like to see a lot more work from this first-year running back, who bounced around the NFL before arriving in Canada. In his first two games, Crockett is averaging 6.7 yards per carry.

Anything over five is impressive and with running like that, the REDBLACKS would make it a lot easier on themselves if they were consistently getting into second and medium and second and short. Well over 50 per cent of second downs with six or fewer yards are made. In the seven-plus yard range the conversion rate drops to 38 per cent.

Crockett has been giving them a shorter distance to work from, so keep feeding the 27-year old North Dakota State product.

Twenty-four-year old Noel Thomas II is another young face I’d like to see the REDBLACKS give more time to with the need to find some playmakers. Clearly Jennings was feeling comfortable with him with Thomas getting nine targets and four catches in his debut.

 

On defence, it definitely doesn’t help to be down two starting defensive backs with Antoine Pruneau and Jonathan Rose on the shelf. Ottawa gives up the third most yards in the air. And they’re worst with opposing quarterbacks completing 74 per cent of their passes.

A big reason for that is too much time. In the first two games, Ottawa had five sacks and they’ve only added three in the three games since then and Avery Ellis has two of them.

Ottawa needs to be better up front on defence and make the opposing quarterbacks life much more difficult than they have been.

Personnel has to be shifted around to try to find a better mix as the defensive line has been pretty well the same now for five weeks and nobody is making a consistent and positive contribution.

Bottom line for the REDBLACKS is simple. They need to find playmakers on both sides of the ball. Of their eight big plays so far this season, six of them came in the game against Saskatchewan.

Two big plays over the other four weeks shows you what kind of entertainment the REDBLACKS have been providing their fans, as they’re headed for their worst season since expansion in 2014.

Only if everyone in Ottawa could be as consistent as Lewis Ward, the REDBLACKS wouldn’t have a problem.