Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
The Ottawa REDBLACKS had a chance to stick up for the poor, downtrodden East Division and they let it slip away.
After yet another magnificent catch and run by Chris Williams, the REDBLACKS found themselves with a first-and-goal on the seven-yard-line trailing the BC Lions 34-30 with fewer than 7:00 to go. This was Ottawa’s opportunity. This moment represented the best chance to beat the second best team in the league. Instead, the REDBLACKS were forced to settle for a field goal after two incomplete passes from Trevor Harris.
Turnovers may be the greatest single statistical indicator for who will win on a weekly basis, but if you want to distill the “elite” from the “pretty good” in any league, just examine how they produce in the red zone. Nothing says ‘you’re a .500 team with some potential but ultimately you’ll never break through’ quite like a whole slew of field goals attempts. Going into the Lions game, the REDBLACKS were last in red zone touchdown percentage. That statistic, while flawed like all other statistics, does speak to the bigger problem for Ottawa: The REDBLACKS boast an array of talented skill position players who can rack up yards but when it counts the most, the offence has not gotten it done on a consistent basis.
Bigger picture, what happened this weekend speaks to a consistent theme in the CFL: the West dominating the East. Not only did you have the Lions beating Ottawa but also Calgary, continuing its path of destruction throughout the league, laid down a 36-17 beat down of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. This sounds like a broken record doesn’t it? Early in the year it felt like Ottawa could be that Eastern team that bucks the trend and becomes a true juggernaut. In the first four weeks, the REDBLACKS had defeated the defending Grey Cup Champions; went toe to toe with Calgary, a game that ended in an infuriating 26-26 tie; and were 3-0-1 to start the year behind Trevor Harris throwing to a who’s who of 1000-yard receivers. On top of that we were all waiting for the return of Zach Collaros to push Hamilton back up to elite status.
Unfortunately the rise of an Eastern challenger has yet to happen. Ottawa went through injuries to both Trevor Harris and Henry Burris, never found a running game and the defence predictably took a dip from the highs that unit hit in 2015. It’s never a good look when you give up a season-high 43 points to Montreal back in Week 9.
The biggest disappointment has to be what we have seen in Hamilton. The most discouraging aspect for Tiger-Cats fans is their team is somewhere between underachieving and ‘fine’. The big issue is you can’t point to just one reason why they’re 6-8. The Collaros injury is the biggest factor but even in his return the team does not have a winning record with him under centre. Collaros has put up the passing yards but has also thrown eight interceptions in fewer than 300 pass attempts. Injuries to key offensive playmakers like Luke Tasker, Chad Owens and C.J. Gable have made Collaros’ job more difficult and have taken so much firepower away from the Tiger-Cats’ attack.
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But the problems don’t end there! The injury to defensive back Rico Murray meant the team had to go through even more re-shuffling in a secondary littered with youth, inexperience and recently -acquired players (Johnny Adams) who couldn’t tell the difference between Barton Street and Hess Street (to people not from Hamilton the difference is huge). So much of what makes up a successful pass defence is trust and continuity with each member knowing where his teammates are going to be. How can you possibly have that with so many new bodies being thrown into the mix and no time for everyone to practice together as a unit? A statistic that just boggled my mind was that Hamilton had only eight players who, coming into the Stampeders game, had started every game for the Tiger-Cats (not sure where I read that stat but as always if it is about Hamilton just assume I found it from Drew Edwards from ‘The Scratching Post’).
For the past two months, so many of us have been waiting for that inevitable string of dominant wins by Hamilton and it just has not happened. Instead the Ticats have ping ponged back and fourth between winning and losing without any real signature victories to their credit. At a certain point you have to drop the whole “wait and see” approach and just accept who a team is. Right now both Ottawa and Hamilton are both flawed, mediocre teams who have not lived up to the expectations that were placed on them. Of course there still is time but let’s be honest, with only five weeks left in the regular season it’s hard to suddenly have a dramatic reinvention.
To anyone reading this thinking it’s just a piece of Eastern bias: Let me defend myself by saying the number one thing I root for is entertainment and change. I like seeing new teams rise. I love the unexpected. Though I will always root for greatness (WOW Calgary), I also deplore predictably. In a perfect world you have two divisions each with elite teams doing battle with no one truly sure who is going to win it all. Right now we don’t have that perfect world.
