There were a couple of remarkable statistics that jump out from last Thursday’s 40-17 butt kicking the Ottawa Redblacks put on the Saskatchewan Roughriders — both of them an emphasis of the coaching staff heading into the 2018 Canadian Football League season. Turnovers and penalties: Create turnovers while minimizing your own mistakes, plus cut down on the momentum-killing penalties. In Game 1, it was mission accomplished. Ottawa took just four penalties — an offside, two no-yards infractions and a holding call. None of those came on defence.
“It’s kind of been a theme this year,” said Redblacks coach Rick Campbell on Monday. “The penalties and the turnovers are big indicators of how the game is going to go so it’s good to be on the right side of that. ...
“We’ve been monitoring (the penalties), showing (the players) examples in other games. Also, we keep track of it every day in practice, usually you play like you practise. We tell the players, ‘If you’re a multiple offender in practice, it’s going to be hard playing you.’ “
Then there are the turnovers. In 2017, where the Redblacks finished the regular season with an 8-9-1 record, they were minus-12 in turnovers. While generating just 22 turnovers (worst in the CFL), they turned the ball over 34 times (third-worst in the league, ahead of only B.C. and Montreal). On Thursday, Rico Murray, Loucheiz Purifoy and Jonathan Rose (for a 56-yard touchdown) had interceptions and A.C. Leonard pounced on a fumble after a hit by Avery Ellis. The Redblacks turned it over once — and it was a big one — when Trevor Harris’ pass was picked off by Duron Carter, who scored a touchdown.
“(Turnovers) are big,” said Campbell. “We had two interceptions that we caught in our own end zone. Obviously that’s a big momentum killer for them.”
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