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OTTAWA — It takes a full team effort to win football games and the Ottawa REDBLACKS did just that on Tuesday night.
With contributions from all three sides of the ball, offence, defence and special teams, the REDBLACKS notched their second win of the season with a 34-24 victory over the Edmonton Elks.
“I think the story of the game, for me, is that it’s a three-phase game,” head coach Paul LaPolice told members of the media following his team’s win. “The offence scored points, the defence got takeaways, kept them out of the end zone and the special teams were special and got another return touchdown.
“Defensively, they came up big with a couple of takeaways. They pressured all game, they were able to minimize the run and just keep us in the game and then when we started to make our plays, that helped us. Really, hats off to the offence, (they) did a great job. Going up 14-0 really helped us and one of those defensive takeaways early in the game helped us get to that 14-0 to give us a cushion, which we haven’t had in a lot of games.”
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In their first offensive series, Caleb Evans, the rookie who was starting in place of the injured Matt Nichols and Dominique Davis, led his REDBLACKS down the field and Ryan Davis hauled in the game’s opening touchdown pass. The defence got in on the action on Edmonton’s first series, as Don Unamba forced Greg Ellingson to fumble on the first play from scrimmage, bringing Evans and co. back onto the field.
Once again, Evans looked confident behind centre and set up Ottawa’s second touchdown of the night, as Timothy Flanders found the end zone for the first time in 2021, giving the home team a two-score lead just five minutes into the game.
Those two offensive series were foreshadowing of what was to come for the REDBLACKS pivot, as Evans led his team to to the win column after connecting on 15 of his 22 passes for 191 yards and rushing for 59 yards on seven carries to go along with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
That success was not surprising to the REDBLACKS bench boss, as he saw what the 23-year-old was capable of earlier this year.
“Through training camp, he showed accuracy with the football,” said LaPolice. “He had the ability to use his legs and certainly has a strong arm. He’d done that through training camp, and again, hats off to the kid. This is not an easy situation for a kid to step in and play a professional football game without ever playing in a pre-season game. Three touchdowns, zero interceptions, just an outstanding performance for him. We’ll work on the things that he has to clean up and everything but he puts us in a position to win a football game.”
Before hitting the field for his first game north of the border, Evans knew he needed to get his emotions in check and he did so with the help of one of his teammates.
“The emotions were high at the beginning of the game,” said Evans. “We were in the locker room, jumping up, like you normally do. I just tried to take deep breaths. Timothy Flanders kind of told me the same thing, just take deep breaths when you’re out there, relax and like I said, it’s pitch and catch. I just tried to calm myself down and the guys did really well rallying around me.”
Along with the offence contributing (Flanders, Kenny Stafford and Davis all found the end zone), the team’s defence also got in on the action. As a unit, they got to Elks quarterback Taylor Cornelius four times and came up with two key interceptions – one in the end zone as Cornelius looked for Mike Jones early in the fourth quarter and one at the end of the final frame to seal the deal for the home team.
But as coach LaPolice stated, all three phases were key to the victory and that included special teams. DeVonte Dedmon helped get Evans and co. in good field position all evening and returned a punt to the end zone for a touchdown. And although he is contributing himself, what makes Dedmon so special is what he does to the other player around him.
“He makes the special teams players better, if I can say that,” said LaPolice. “They go out on the field and give their best performance every time because they know if they create a little bit of space for him, he’s going to return for a touchdown. He makes the players on special teams play harder and that’s an amazing thing to do.”
Now the REDBLACKS get set for two big East Division matchups, first on Wednesday against the Argonauts in Toronto and then on Monday they head to Montreal to take on the Alouettes.
“It’s going to be a big stretch for us,” said Pruneau, who hauled in the game-sealing interception late in the fourth quarter. “We have to come up successful out of this. Obviously this game is going to help us carry momentum to those upcoming games. I’m really looking forward to the next few days. We have to take care of our bodies, obviously, this is not an easy stretch in anyway but it could be a stretch that changes our entire season.”
