Campbell on Grey Cup Rematch: ‘That definitely makes it interesting’

OTTAWA – When the Ottawa REDBLACKS hit the field at TD Place Stadium for the Eastern Final on Sunday afternoon they’ll be facing a familiar foe.

The REDBLACKS will be taking on the Edmonton Eskimos as they fight to win the East – the same Edmonton Eskimos they matched up with, and lost against, in last year’s Grey Cup Championship.

“That definitely makes it interesting,” head coach Rick Campbell said when asked about the rematch against the West Division crossover team. “The thing about it though is that it is a new year. Even though we have a lot of the same players and they have a lot of the same players, it’s really a new year. I don’t think that’s going to be on the forefront of everyone’s minds but I think it’s an interesting thing to think about during the week but once the ball’s kicked off that’ll all go out the window.”

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Henry Burris will hope his team will come out on top of last year’s Grey Cup rematch on Sunday (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

It’s been quite some time since the REDBLACKS and Eskimos last met – not since Week 7 to be exact. Their first meeting? All the way back in Week 1.

The REDBLACKS swept the season series, first taking down the reigning Grey Cup Champs in a 45-37 overtime victory followed by a 23-20 win back in August.

“As far as getting a beat on exactly what they’re doing and breaking down film specifically for them, that’s what we spent time this past bye week (doing),” Campbell said of his team’s preparation for the Eastern Final. “(We were) breaking down film on both Hamilton and Edmonton and having an initial game plan put together so that once we found out the results of the game we’d be able to hit the ground running.”

And speaking of running, the REDBLACKS now have the challenge of containing John White when the Esks roll into town.

In the Eastern Semi-Final, White racked up 160 rushing yards on 20 carries, another 12 yards receiving and two touchdowns in the Eskimos’ win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The running back took over the starting role near the end of the season with a vengeance as he rushed 457 yards in his final four games of the regular season while also finding the end zone five times.

“We haven’t won enough games at home this year but there’s no place we’d rather be than with our fans in Ottawa.”

Rick Campbell

If the REDBLACKS can take anything from their first two meetings against the Esks, it’s the fact that they held White to just 76 yards and a single touchdown combined. Now, it’ll be up to the Ottawa defence to do it again, to stop Edmonton’s ground game – and that includes White – in their tracks.

“You can see he’s really running the ball hard,” Campbell said of White. “He’s running with a purpose and their o-line is doing well. We were even talking in the offices here last week during the bye week about if we ended up playing Edmonton that cancelling the run is going to be a big part of it because he’s been playing well over the last few weeks.”

Another player that’s been playing well over the last few weeks is REDBLACKS veteran pivot Henry Burris, who will be leading the charge on the offensive side of the ball for Ottawa. In the eight games the 41-year-old started in the regular season, he threw for 2419 yards and 12 touchdowns – 1149 of those yards coming in his last three games.

The 2015 Most Outstanding Player will have three of the four REDBLACKS receivers that eclipsed 1000 yards on the season at his disposal – Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson and Brad Sinopoli, while Chris Williams is out with an ACL injury – as Ottawa tries to outmuscle Edmonton’s dynamic receiving duo of Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker.

Ottawa will also be looking to nab a win in their own house – something that the club has struggled with this season. But despite the team only having a 2-6-1 record at TD Place, Campbell said his team wouldn’t want to play anywhere else.

“I know that’s what the record says but I know if you asked any of us players or coaches there’s no place we’d rather be than with our fans trying to win a big game because they’re (the fans) are a big part of it,” the bench boss said. “Our fans have risen to the occasion this whole year by selling out and being hugely supportive.

“We wouldn’t trade it for anything. We want to be at home, we like playing at home. We haven’t won enough games at home this year but there’s no place we’d rather be than with our fans in Ottawa.”