Ottawa Redblacks Thread

[OV Argo]

He also has never kicked FG's without benefit of a tee. IMO, his leg is nowhere near strong enough to merit consideration. But he's had an absolutely amazing season.

And he has also been kicking on a Canadian field with the hash marks wider apart, making for some tougher angles, as opposed to right down the pipe kicks on an NFL field.


And funny, i thought outstanding accuracy & consistency was the hallmark of a great FG kicker and not just leg strength (otherwise some would consider Boris Bede the best kicker in the CFL); all sorts o NFL teams feature FG kickers with weak or poor accuracy when it comes to nailing makeable FGs consistently, but maybe accurate FG kicking is not a big concern down there ? And NFL rosters are easily big enough to feature an extra place kicker who has the stronger leg and might handle kick-off duties plus be called on for the 55+ yard type long range / desperation time kicks, with your main kicker handling all other FG attempts.

Brett Lauther for the Riders is having an outstanding kicking season as well - not only accurate, but nailing lots of 50+ yard attempts.

The NFL "scouts" (LOL) are sure to be all over these guys. ;o)

[Antwon]

A couple of casual CFL fans i know asked me if I thought Ward would merit an NFL shot based on his outright incredible FG kicking accuracy thus far this season; sure- and pigs might be flying over the Olympic Stadium again as I witnessed back in 77. ;o) He's no FG kicking superstar talent like an Adam Vinateri, that's for sure.

He could get a sniff from the NFL. But considering it's his rookie year, if he follows up with another great year, he'd have a few teams giving him a shot.

[AngeloV]

And he has also been kicking on a Canadian field with the hash marks wider apart, making for some tougher angles, as opposed to right down the pipe kicks on an NFL field.


And funny, i thought outstanding accuracy & consistency was the hallmark of a great FG kicker and not just leg strength (otherwise some would consider Boris Bede the best kicker in the CFL); all sorts o NFL teams feature FG kickers with weak or poor accuracy when it comes to nailing makeable FGs consistently, but maybe accurate FG kicking is not a big concern down there ? And NFL rosters are easily big enough to feature an extra place kicker who has the stronger leg and might handle kick-off duties plus be called on for the 55+ yard type long range / desperation time kicks, with your main kicker handling all other FG attempts.

Brett Lauther for the Riders is having an outstanding kicking season as well - not only accurate, but nailing lots of 50+ yard attempts.

The NFL "scouts" (LOL) are sure to be all over these guys. ;o)

He doesn’t get nearly enough height on his longer kicks to succeed in the NFL. Take away the tee, and he would get even less lift. All his longer kicks are line drive. I take nothing away from him. He is money. But he would have longer kicks blocked in the NFL, or come up short. NFL kickers are making 55 yarders on a regular basis now. Vanderjagt and now Maher, never used a tee in the CFL. The tee for those that have always used it, makes a huge difference in place kicking. By the way, all these NFL kickers had the wide hash marks in college ball. It isn’t a big deal for a good kicker. The fact is, NFL teams expect to be in FG range as soon as the cross the 40 yard line now. There's a reason Ward has only attempted 1 kick beyond 50 yards this year, and that was last week with a huge wind at his back.

To me, Lauther would have a better chance in the NFL.

[OV Argo]

He doesn’t get nearly enough height on his longer kicks to succeed in the NFL. Take away the tee, and he would get even less lift. All his longer kicks are line drive. I take nothing away from him. He is money. But he would have longer kicks blocked in the NFL, or come up short. NFL kickers are making 55 yarders on a regular basis now. Vanderjagt and now Maher, never used a tee in the CFL. The tee for those that have always used it, makes a huge difference in place kicking. By the way, all these NFL kickers had the wide hash marks in college ball. It isn’t a big deal for a good kicker. The fact is, NFL teams expect to be in FG range as soon as the cross the 40 yard line now. There's a reason Ward has only attempted 1 kick beyond 50 yards this year, and that was last week with a huge wind at his back.

To me, Lauther would have a better chance in the NFL.

Doug Flutie - the little midget QB - would never do anything in the NFL either; way too short and not enough "arm strength" ; 90% of his NFL pass attempts would be swatted down by the D-linemen there who are all 6 foot, eight" plus and way more athletic than the scrubs Flutie faced in the CFL. Yadda, yadda, yadda ;o)

[OV Argo]

He could get a sniff from the NFL. But considering it's his rookie year, if he follows up with another great year, he'd have a few teams giving him a shot.

Dave Ridgway, Lui Passaglia and Mark McLoughlin all got zero NFL call in their CFL primes either and they were way better FG kickers than some of the average joes who had NFL jobs at the time; but CFL average joe kickers like Dean Dorsey and Jerry Kauric did get NFL looks and play there some. Trying to make sense of NFL "scouting" of CFL players is a waste of time.

Thank gawd - for CFL teams & fans - that the NFL super experts are often so clueless or ignorant or dismissive of CFL talent or CFL teams would be raided of way more players every year.

[AngeloV]

Doug Flutie - the little midget QB - would never do anything in the NFL either; way too short and not enough "arm strength" ; 90% of his NFL pass attempts would be swatted down by the D-linemen there who are all 6 foot, eight" plus and way more athletic than the scrubs Flutie faced in the CFL. Yadda, yadda, yadda ;o)

You just don’t get it. I’ll leave it at that.

[jerrym]

It's not surprising that National LB Chris Ackie is happy with his trade from last place Montreal to first place Ottawa, even though "he's now living in a dorm and playing special team, backing up at a position, where he'd been a star this season". Hopefully, the Redblacks will start using him as a starter by next season at the latest as he showed how valuable he is as a National starter by being fifth in tackles with 81 at the time of the trade

“I don’t think I could have been put into a better situation than what I’m in right now,” says Ackie, the 26-year-old native of Toronto, who grew up about an hour west of the city, in Cambridge, Ontario. “I’m just gonna do whatever I can to help the team.”

“It’s a bit of a transition going from, like, being the guy in Montreal starting all the time at linebacker, to being the rotational guy,” says Ackie, who sits behind Kevin Brown, Ottawa’s fine second-year WILL, on the depth chart (although this week, Ackie finds himself on the one-game injured list). “But I gotta expect that, being the new guy coming in. They already have their linebackers. They’ve already been a great defence all season.” ...

I’m happy to be here. I got put into a great opportunity. I’m going to the playoffs for the first time in my career. I’ve come to a great team with great coaches, great teammates.” ...

In Montreal, Thorpe used Ackie in different positions, aware of the kid’s versatility. Playing him solely at linebacker wasn’t in the plan and Ackie took reps all over for Thorpe while in Montreal.
“You look at a guy and his size and the way he can move, his athletic ability, his speed, you wanna put him in positions to utilize those skill sets,” said Thorpe when interviewed on the day of the trade. “And we were gonna put him in multiple positions to do that.”
If that is the plan again, now that the two have been reunited in Ottawa, Ackie is not aware of it, saying he has been repping at linebacker since joining his new team. That, he says, is perfectly fine with him because he absolutely loves playing WILL.
“Being at one position this year, actually really helped me grow as a player,” says Ackie, thankful of the chance the Alouettes gave him to blossom this season. “I find that playing that weakside linebacker position is actually the position I’m meant to play. I feel comfortable. Every game, I continued to get better. I feel, for me, to be an impactful player, I get better the closer I get to the football.” ...

Still, the REDBLACKS will not hesitate to use Ackie in the secondary if they need to, with the knowledge that he can play back there in a pinch. “He’s a smart enough guy to be able do that and his skill set, physically, he can do both,” said Head Coach Rick Campbell on the day of the trade.

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/11/01/landry...riving-ottawa/

[ArgoRavi]

It's not surprising that National LB Chris Ackie is happy with his trade from last place Montreal to first place Ottawa, even though "he's now living in a dorm and playing special team, backing up at a position, where he'd been a star this season". Hopefully, the Redblacks will start using him as a starter by next season at the latest as he showed how valuable he is as a National starter by being fifth in tackles with 81 at the time of the trade


https://www.cfl.ca/2018/11/01/landry...riving-ottawa/

I doubt that Ackie will even be in Ottawa next year. I expect that he will return to Montreal. He is the definition of a "rent a player" for this year.

[jerrym]

On Friday International LB Avery Williams had a dominant performance against the Argos with 7 DTs and a recovered fumble while former Argo Rico Murray's fifth interception showed why the Argos miss his skills.

[OV Argo]

I doubt that Ackie will even be in Ottawa next year. I expect that he will return to Montreal. He is the definition of a "rent a player" for this year.

Dunno about that Ravi, but maybe ?

We'll see if Thorpe knows how to use Ackie or if he just treats him as a depth / back-up guy behind the young import LBs Thorpe has been favoring; and Ackie blew away any Ottawa defender this year in terms of D play-making; it was Thorpe who had Ackie in Montreal after the Als drafted him, and while he ended up starting at safety for them (in his 2nd season i think?), it was the move to OLB with Thorpe gone that showed what a talent Ackie was. If Ackie gets respect / playing time in Ottawa, a chance to make an impact in the play-offs, plus the chance at play-off/GC bonus buck$, why would he want to move back to the Mavis gong show in Montreal ?

Heard he wanted to try the NFL, but he would likely be a real long-shot there. Mavis has zero clue what he is doing in Montreal, so I really doubt he has Ackie sewed up to return.

[jerrym]

The CFL is modifying its celebration policy after Jon Gott chugged a beer following a TD against the Argos. Gott was not fined because drinking beer was not banned.

The CFL wants to make sure Jon Gott’s beer-chugging touchdown celebration doesn’t become a regular occurrence.

While the Ottawa Redblacks offensive lineman wasn’t fined by the league after grabbing a beer from his girlfriend and chugging it last Friday night in the aftermath of a touchdown against the Toronto Argos, the league revised its celebration policy on Monday.

The new policy prohibits “the use of alcohol or drugs and the mimicking of the use of alcohol or drugs.”
“When a player celebrated a touchdown this weekend by drinking a fan’s beer, he was acting within that policy and no discipline was mandated,” the statement says. However, the situation prompted several discussions with our clubs which indicated concern there is a risk that repeated celebrations featuring alcohol, or for that matter drugs, could send the wrong signal about our players, especially to young and impressionable fans.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4632473/c...edblacks-game/

[jerrym]

The Redblacks has the most CFL All-Stars this year with eleven this year.

https://www.ottawaredblacks.com/2018...ast-star-team/

[jerrym]

Rick Campbell comments on Hamilton's lopsided win over BC and Ottawa's upcoming game against the Tiger Cats.

In a surprisingly easy 48-8 romp over the B.C. Lions in a semi-final Sunday in Hamilton, the Ticats showed just how explosive they can be. So the Redblacks can’t/won’t get wrapped up regular-season success. ...

“You throw all that out, what happened in the regular season doesn’t matter,” insisted Redblacks coach Rick Campbell Sunday afternoon after watching the Ticats-Lions game on TV from his couch at home. “They know a lot about us, we know a lot about them. It’s going to come down to one football game. They’re going to come in on a high because they just won a playoff game, we’re excited we get a chance to play at home. We’ve played a lot of big games and close games against these guys. It’s kind of becoming a rivalry which is good.”
The lopsided result baffled Campbell.

“It’s always surprising when a playoff game is a one-sided thing,” he said. “You expected a close game that was going to come down to the end.”
“We really just need to focus on this game,” said Campbell. “You don’t want to think too much that it’s a chance to go to the Grey Cup.”

https://ottawasun.com/sports/footbal...ld-be-toughest

[jerrym]

Henry Burris who led the 2016 Redblacks to a Grey Cup victory thinks the 2018 Redblacks are a better team and that they will beat Hamilton on the weekend.

[jerrym]

Trevor Harris realizes a lot is riding on whether or not he wins this week's playoff game against Hamilton. His successful season could disappear from fan's memory if he loses.

Team success in the CFL is very much dependent on the performance of a quarterback. How Harris goes, so go the Redblacks.
If he’s good on Sunday, they go to Edmonton to play in the Grey Cup game for the third time in their five year existence. They go home for the winter if he has a bad day. And unless Harris can make it four in a row over the Tabbies at TD Place Stadium on Sunday, this very good season he’s had will be a waste, a bust, a failure, a flop. He knows it.
Working on a one-year contract, Harris also knows he’ll take a hit of some size on his next deal – whether that’s with Ottawa or another CFL team.

If he says he doesn’t care so much about that, he knows that his reputation as a both a player and a leader will be on the line when he takes the field with most of the 24,000 fans there in his corner.
And he knows that for some reason, he is unfairly viewed as a guy who stumbles when all the chips are on the table. That, he cares about. “I hear what people say, the fact that I can’t win a playoff game and all that kind of stuff,” Harris said a few weeks ago. “I’ve played in one playoff game. Let’s keep the perspective here. It’s not like I’ve lost 10.”

He almost started a Grey Cup game two years ago, but Henry Burris dramatically recovered from an injury in warmups to lead the Redblacks to their first championship. Harris had a very good season last year, but it was cut to 15 games because of injuries.

Then came his one playoff shot. At TD Place on Nov. 12, 2017, he led the Redblacks into the Eastern semi-final against the crossing-over Saskatchewan Roughriders. Harris did not have a good afternoon. He threw a lot, completing 37 of 60 passes for 457 yards, but it was because the Redblacks were forced to play catchup most of the day.

https://ottawasun.com/sports/footbal...-big-game-flop

[jerrym]

Trevor Harris came through in an outstanding performance in which he threw a record six TD passes while going 29/32 for 367 yards against Hamilton. The agony of watching the one who should of been the Argo QB.

[jerrym]

Here's a good article on why the Redblacks are successful on and off the field.

The Ottawa Redblacks have been a success from the time the first seeds were planted for the CFL franchise more than a decade ago, when John Ruddy honoured his father’s dream by bringing pro football back to the nation’s capital. ...

John Sr. was a close friend and neighbour of Frank Clair, the former Rough Riders coach and GM whose statue overlooks today’s field. John Jr. loved football, too, but the businessman in him balked.
“Dad, it doesn’t make any money,” Ruddy told his father. “Why would I get involved in a money-losing proposition?” Let’s just say the old man wore him down. Ruddy, founder and executive chairman of Trinity Developments, would ultimately gather other titans of Ottawa industry, including Roger Greenberg, Bill Shenkman, OHL Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt and soccer builder John Pugh to form the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG). ...

Ruddy wooed Greenberg and Shenkman to help him rebuild Lansdowne Park with condos, restaurants and green space, while also forming a home for football, the soccer Fury and the 67’s. Ruddy used a line that would become a running gag among his fellow builders: “It will take a little time, a little money and provide a lot of fun.” ...

With the transformed TD Place barely finished in time for the opening kickoff, the first season, 2014, was challenging – Ottawa won just twice while losing 16 times. Yet even then, as head coach Rick Campbell put it so well, there was a “heartbeat” of a good team.
On Tuesday, the Redblacks boarded a plane bound for Edmonton to begin preparations for their third Grey Cup game in the past four years. In 2016, the Redblacks brought home Ottawa’s first Grey Cup championship in 40 years, a touchstone to the day Tom Clements delivered the storied touchdown pass to Tony Gabriel late in the fourth quarter. ...

Watching that touchdown, from his home in Hamilton was a 10-year-old named Marcel Desjardins. Gabriel, of course, was born in nearby Burlington. Young Desjardins had goose bumps as big Gabriel hauled in that end-zone pass. ...

In 2013, Ottawa’s “expansion” franchise became Desjardins’ team. He was a football staff of one, hired by Hunt to be general manager. Working out of the team’s temporary offices in an industrial warehouse, Desjardins tethered his phone to his personal laptop so he could access the Internet, and build a negotiation list. His team had no name, no logo, no players and no coach. But they had a GM with enough experience from his time with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes to know what it took to succeed in this quirky league.
Over time, Desjardins named Campbell, son of the legendary CFL receiving star and Hall of Fame coach Hugh Campbell, his coach. From an expansion draft and free agency he pieced together a roster, understanding that one position mattered above all. Henry Burris became his quarterback when the Tiger-Cats opted for Zach Collaros instead. Later, Desjardins scooped Trevor Harris from Toronto, as the Argos stayed with veteran Ricky Ray.

After Year 1, Desjardins recognized he lacked quality receivers and put together a group that was as talented as could be found: Greg Ellingson, Brad Sinopoli, Ernest Jackson and Chris Williams. Three years later, Ellingson and Sinopoli continue to form the heart of a receiving corps that now includes Diontae Spencer and R.J. Harris. Sinopoli, who was a Hec Crighton winner as a quarterback at the University of Ottawa, is a remarkable story of personal re-invention. At the pro level, he taught himself to be a receiver, first with Calgary and then Ottawa. This year he set a record for catches by a Canadian, with 116 for 1,376 yards. ...

On Sunday, Harris threw a CFL playoff-record six touchdown passes in Ottawa’s 46-27 rout of Hamilton in the East final. To say it was an important game for Harris would be an understatement. In 2017, his first year replacing the legendary Burris, Harris was inconsistent and lost in the East semifinal to Saskatchewan. He tried to stem his detractors in Ottawa by saying, “the perception is I’m 0-for-36 in the playoffs. I’ve played one game.” Now he’s played two playoff games, the last one a beauty. He will be asked to replicate it against a very tough Calgary Stampeders defence in Sunday’s Grey Cup game.
Regardless of the outcome, the Redblacks organization will continue on in its usual manner, a sort of understated dignity. Most fans of the team couldn’t name the OSEG partners, who remain behind the scenes. They barely know Desjardins, a soft-spoken man who best expresses himself with a twinkle of the eye. As for Campbell, if there is a more humble football coach in North America, I would like to meet him. Campbell defers to his staff, his players, and will not admit to any big deal about escaping the giant shadow cast by his father. ...

The Rough Riders went 17 seasons, their final 17 seasons, from 1980-1996, without a winning record. The Renegades served up four forgettable, losing seasons. Football ownership foundered in the hands of outside interests such as Bernie and Lonie Glieberman, the invisible Horn Chen, Brad Watters, and once the league itself as owner. In one of the most bizarre sights in Ottawa football history, Donald Crump, Harold Ballard’s former bean counter, and briefly the CFL commissioner, sat behind a desk in football operations, a Rough Riders cap on his head. It was 1991 and Crump would assume control of the club until he brought in the Gliebermans.
Lonie Glieberman once held an exorcism ceremony at Lansdowne to expel evil spirits. Today we know the “Curse of Lansdoom” was years of inept ownership and management. The good operations make it look easy.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cf...cfl-franchise/

[ArgofanIan]

a nice article by Damien Cox about the Red Blacks... to me this should be one of the top CFL story lines...for the week....I feel they are a better team than people are willing to admit … but I guess we will see on Sunday... https://www.thestar.com/sports/footb...ess-story.html

[ArgoRavi]

Trevor Harris came through in an outstanding performance in which he threw a record six TD passes while going 29/32 for 367 yards against Hamilton. The agony of watching the one who should of been the Argo QB.

Honestly, I don't feel any agony at all. The Argos had to make a choice between Ray and Harris and won a Grey Cup last year with Ray.

[jerrym]

Below are an article and a video of Lewis Ward's comments as a double winner at the CFL awards of Rookie of the Year and Most Outstanding Special Teams player.

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/11/22/lewis-...ookie-honours/