I’ve watched my city play a lot of bad football.
Be it the demise of the Rough Riders, the volatile Renegade years or the Redblacks’ 2014 expansion season.
Yet in terms of outright awful performance, nothing comes close to what the Ottawa Redblacks are currently putting on the field.
For the third time this season, the Redblacks lost to the Argos, this time by a score of 39-9, in front of 12,005 empty seats at BMO Field. The defeat is the Redblacks’ 10th straight, a franchise record.
Here are all my thoughts on the game:
1) In his third career start, Will Arndt continued to look like an inexperienced player who needed (but failed to receive) more help from his teammates. Arndt completed 21-of-32 pass attempts to nine different receivers against Toronto for 194 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions.
Arndt wasn’t terrible against the Argos but he also didn’t do anything to move the needle either. He was sacked four times on the night but at least two of those were avoidable if Arndt simply throws the ball away.
On one hand it remains tough to judge Arndt too harshly as he’s handicapped by one of the worst coached offensive units of all time. On the other, those in R-Nation pinning for a ray of positivity in a quarterback once considered part of the future remain disappointed.
2) Speaking of Ottawa’s offensive committee, let’s start with the positives. The Joe Paopao-led unit scored a touchdown, which is an improvement over last week’s zero touchdown performance. They also generated thirteen first downs, which is more than last week’s nine. The run to pass play call ratio was better (17 to 32). But that’s where the positives end.
Ottawa’s attack remains ineffective, predictable and painful to watch. It generated 239 yards of net offence, averaged 4.5 yards per play, lost the time of possession battle once again (27:39 to 32:21) and converted just 8-of-22 second down opportunities (36 percent). Ottawa was also basically shut out in the second half, with their only points coming on a rouge. Keep in mind all this comes against a Toronto team that’s surrendered the most points in the league.
Of the Redblacks’ 16 possessions, fourteen lasted five plays or less, two generated more than 26 yards, five generated zero or negative yards and two ended in points (a touchdown and a rouge).
Incompetence runs rampant throughout the unit, from the top down. Thankfully, R-Nation only has to suffer one more outing before a thorough teardown and rebuild.
3) Not an overly impressive night from Ottawa’s Canadian running backs. Brendan Gillanders averaged 2.9 yards per carry, turning nine rushes into 26 yards. Greg Morris turned five handoffs into 32 yards (good for a 6.4 yards per carry average). That said, each busted one 10-plus yard run. Combined, the duo made five catches for five yards.
4) Congratulations to Brad Sinopoli for passing the legendary Tony Gabriel to become Ottawa’s all-time leading pass catcher, a record that spans three franchises and 130 years. Sinopoli finished the game with four catches for 29 yards, bringing his career total to 501 receptions. 447 of those have come with him wearing red and black.
A slice of Ottawa 🏈 history for receiver @BSinopoli 👏#CFLGameday | @REDBLACKS pic.twitter.com/XE7hAe24Un
— CFL (@CFL) October 26, 2019
A pending free agent, general manager Marcel Desjardins would be wise to lock up Sinopoli sooner rather than later. Not only to ensure that a player still capable of producing at a high level sticks around and is part of next season’s turnaround, but also as a sign of good will to the fan base. At this point, not re-signing Sinopoli would be extremely difficult to justify.
5) As for the rest of the receiving corps, Caleb Holley led all Ottawa receivers with five receptions for 65 yards. R.J. Harris made three catches for 38 yards and Canadians Wesley Lewis and Nate Behar each hauled in a pass for nine yards.
Dominique Rhymes continued to pad his season stat totals with a leaping 36-yard touchdown catch but was otherwise ineffective and invisible, finishing the night with one catch on six targets. This a week after failing to record a reception on three targets. Rhymes might be a 1,000-yard receiver but he’s certainly not one who strikes fear into the hearts of the opposing secondary.
6) When the other team has not one, not two, but three quarterbacks throw for a touchdown, you know your defence was getting lit up. Ottawa’s secondary (and defence as a whole) couldn’t stop anyone wearing double blue.
🇨🇦 First career TD for Michael O'Connor (@TheTrueQB)! 🇨🇦#CFLGameday | @TorontoArgos pic.twitter.com/ZGlz5H81Pq
— CFL (@CFL) October 26, 2019
As a group, Noel Thorpe’s unit looked discombobulated, repeatedly finding themselves out of position. Even when an Ottawa defender was close, they often failed to tackle properly, either taking poor angles to the ball carrier or choosing not to wrap up, leading to numerous missed tackles.
Chandler Worthy shakes off the contact to get into the endzone 👀#CFLGameDay pic.twitter.com/HPOxFolzqn
— CFL on TSN (@CFLonTSN) October 26, 2019
The Redblacks’ defence allowed Toronto to rack up 450 yards of net offence (357 in the air, 93 on the ground), average 8.3 yards per play, throw for five passing touchdowns, convert 52 percent of their second down opportunities (11-for-21) and go 4-of-5 in the red zone.
Of the Argos’ 15 possessions, six generated 53 yards or more. Six lasted at least five plays and seven resulted in points.
For those looking for positives, linebacker Kevin Brown was a standout, with a game-high 11 tackles.
7) A week after going 4-for-4 in field goal attempts and nailing a career long 56 yarder, Canadian kicker Lewis Ward missed his only attempt of the night, a 38-yard kick pushed wide left that resulted in a rouge.
American punter Richie Leone continued his stellar season, smashing 10 punts for 450 yards, with a net field position flip of 40.2 yards.
In terms of kick coverage, Jean-Philippe Bolduc led the way with a pair of special teams tackles.
8) With the loss, the Redblacks find themselves in sole possession of the worst record in the CFL and have secured the No. 1 pick in the 2020 CFL draft.
As losers of 14 of their last 15 games, even if the Redblacks beat a Montreal squad next week that will likely be resting starters, Ottawa can at best tie the Argos’ record (should they lose to Ticats), but by virtue of being swept in the season series, Ottawa will finish ranked lower.
When the book is mercifully closed on the Redblacks’ 2019 season next week, this year’s squad will be in consideration as one of the all-time worst assembled in Ottawa history. What the consequences and fallout of that are remains to be seen.
It won’t only be the general manager and coach under the microscope next week either, for many players on the roster it will be the last time they represent the nation’s capital as well.
Santino Filoso is originally from Ottawa and has written about the Redblacks since 2013. He is the only CFL writer currently living in Brazil (as far as we know).
