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Ottawa Redblacks pushed around in loss to B.C. Lions (& nine other thoughts)

Sometimes, breaking down a game requires nuance and careful analysis. Sometimes, it’s just exactly what it seems: a game that was never truly close and a flattering final score.

In the Ottawa Redblacks’ 38-27 loss in Vancouver on Friday night, the B.C. Lions simply imposed their will and bullied Ottawa in the trenches. The Redblacks couldn’t slow down — let alone stop — the Lions’ offence until it didn’t matter. They also couldn’t protect their quarterback, and thus found themselves in a familiar position — quickly trailing by double digits and attempting to mount a comeback. Unlike last week, Bob Dyce’s squad wasn’t able to complete the rally.

Here are all my thoughts on the game.

1) A week after they needed a herculean effort from their backup quarterback to cap off a furious comeback, the Ottawa Redblacks wasted a stellar outing from Dustin Crum.

Although Dru Brown practiced in a limited fashion this week and was healthy enough to dress for the game as the emergency quarterback, Crum made his third consecutive start. The continued growth shown by the 26-year-old has been fascinating to watch, as Crum was magnificent both rushing and passing the ball.

Yet again, Crum set a new career high in passing yards as he completed 30-of-35 passes (86 percent) for 307 yards and a touchdown. He also ran the ball nine times for 58 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Early in his career — and even earlier this season — it felt like Crum was still not great at gauging when to hang in the pocket to go through his reads and when to take off to run. That no longer seems to be an issue, as Crum hung in the pocket a number of times and absorbed a handful of punishing hits to complete passes. He was also decisive in choosing when to take off and exploit gaps in defensive rush lanes.

When it comes to his ability to pass, Crum’s accuracy has improved dramatically. The Kent State product still has moments when the ball sails on him a bit, but overall, he’s hitting receivers in stride and fitting the ball into tight windows. In fact, over the last three games, Crum has completed 80 percent of his passes and thrown for three touchdowns and zero interceptions.

If there’s one area that’s currently lacking in Crum’s game is that he’s not stretching the field by pushing the ball down it. Against the Lions on Friday night, he only attempted a single deep shot, and it was on the first play of Ottawa’s opening possession. The baffling thing is that it was a beautiful ball that hit his receiver in the hands (although it was dropped).

Last week’s game-winning touchdown was also set up by a beautiful deep strike. And yet Crum’s longest play of the game yesterday was a 25-yarder. Since he clearly has the ability to sling it deep, one has to wonder why those deep passes aren’t happening. Is it reluctance on his part, a result of wanting to be overly cautious in avoiding turnovers? Or is he being coached not to do it? Because it’s clear he has the arm strength, and Ottawa’s receivers are capable of taking the top off defences.

Crum’s performance is all the more impressive when you consider he was constantly under siege. The Lions sacked him seven times, but the pocket collapsed nearly every time he dropped back to pass. The third-year pivot’s lone “lowlight” came on a strip-sack that was returned for a touchdown.

2) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but offensive coordinator Tommy Condell has to get his offence to start faster. The Redblacks’ issues starting slow have been well documented by myself and many others, but in the last seven games, they’ve been outscored 65-4 in the first quarter. That’s not just bad, it’s atrocious. When you’re constantly chasing, you’re not able to dictate the game flow and depending on how big the deficit is, game plans can quickly be tossed away.

Let’s start with the positives. Despite sleepwalking through another first quarter, six of Ottawa’s ten possessions still resulted in points — four touchdowns and two field goals. The Redblacks also went three-for-five in the red zone, which was encouraging. Finally, they averaged a healthy 7.2 yards per first-down play, which in theory should have set them up for plenty of long drives.

Unfortunately, that didn’t really matter as Ottawa only averaged 3.4 yards per second-down play, which is largely why they converted just 39 percent of their second-down opportunities.

Furthermore, for a team that consistently preaches the importance of the running game, they sure do an odd job of implementing it. In total, Condell handed the ball off to a running back seven times, and only once in the entire first half. Veteran William Stanback finished the game with two carries for one yard. Canadian Daniel Adeboboye averaged 5.6 yards per carry but only had five carries. That will never be a formula for winning football.

The other thing that continues to puzzle in terms of Ottawa’s attack is the lack of big plays and the usage of weapons like Kalil Pimpleton and Eugene Lewis. Both are game-breakers, capable of not only flipping momentum but demoralizing a defence with their big-play ability. Yet neither was targeted more than once, and both came on short passes or hitch screens. It’s like having a pair of Ferraris in your garage, but only using them to drive to your neighbour’s house across the street.

Until the Redblacks can start faster, improve their commitment to the run game and generate big plays, they’ll continue to lose games.

3) An offensive line is at its very best when the big men up front are magically invisible to the casual fan, blending into the field as they provide a clean pocket for their quarterback to operate in. They’re at their worst when every snap seems to feature them desperately backpedalling and trying not to be called for holding as they attempt to shuffle penetrating defenders off to the side. Against the Lions, Ottawa’s offensive line was the latter.

A week after Jonah Tavai gave Ottawa fits — racking up a handful of pressures, a pair of tackles for a loss, six total tackles and a sack — it was Mathieu Betts’ turn to torment the Redblacks. The Laval product was an absolute menace, notching four of the Lions’ seven sacks.

What made Ottawa’s inability to provide Crum with a clean pocket all the more frustrating is that the Lions weren’t even blitzing. A number of their sacks came as a result of rushing four, three, or even just two men. Being able to cave in the pocket without sending extra defenders meant B.C. had more players to drop into coverage or to spy Crum with, which they did with limited success.

All in all, it was about as poor a performance as I can recall from the offensive line.

4) Speaking of disappointment, that was an ugly outing from William Fields’ defensive unit. Any time your defence gives up four straight touchdowns to open the game, it’s going to be a long day at the office.

To highlight just how poor Ottawa’s defence played, the Lions didn’t even punt until the fourth quarter, and the only reason they went four-of-five instead of 100 percent in the red zone was due to a ball thrown behind an open receiver.

B.C. averaged 8.8 yards per first-down play, which led to them converting 56 percent of their second-down opportunities. The Lions moved the ball on the ground, averaging 4.2 yards per rush, and through the air, where they averaged 11.8 yards per pass.

Lions’ quarterback Nathan Rourke was excellent, completing 81 percent of his passes for 308 yards and a touchdown, but he also faced almost no pressure. The Redblacks generated a single sack in what was yet another lacklustre outing from their front seven. Ottawa’s pressure problem is two-fold. To begin with, they rarely generate pressure. As a group, Ottawa’s entire defensive line has 13 sacks through 13 games. Second, on those rare opportunities when they manage to collapse the pocket, they often literally let those moments slip through their grasp, failing to secure the takedown.

Compounding the lack of pressure is that the Redblacks’ zone coverage was overly soft for long periods of time. Soft coverage combined with sloppy tackling is never a recipe for success.

It’s not that Ottawa’s defence didn’t have chances to influence the game; it’s that they repeatedly failed to take advantage of them. On B.C.’s opening drive, the Redblacks had them in third-and-goal from their two-yard line. Instead of getting a turnover on downs, they conceded a touchdown. Later, at the end of the half, Ottawa again had the Lions in third-and-one from their four-yard line, but allowed Rourke to sneak the four yards into the end zone.

Forcing a stop in either one of those moments could have been a massive shift in momentum. Instead, the only turnover the Redblacks forced came with three minutes left to play and the game already well out of reach.

The loss to the Lions marked the ninth time this season that the Redblacks have given up 30 points.

5) In terms of defensive leaders, defensive back Shakur Brown led the way with nine tackles. Deandre Lamont played safety and made six tackles. In his return from injury, defensive back Adrian Frye had three tackles. Linebacker Adarius Pickett notched two tackles and had a sack, while fellow linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox made five tackles and had a knockdown.

6) It was an impressive outing from receiver Bralon Addison, as he had a game-high 11 catches for 132 yards, with 61 of them coming after the catch. He was also handed the ball on a pair of RPOs (run/pass options) for three yards.

As for the rest of the receiving corps, Justin Hardy turned ten targets into nine catches and had another highlight reel catch, this time in the third quarter for a diving touchdown.

A week after catching the game-winning touchdown and letting everyone know how much he enjoyed the trash talking and looked forward to dishing out more, Eugene Lewis had a tough afternoon with a single reception, a mid-third-quarter hitch screen that gained two yards. As mentioned above, Pimpleton also only had a single catch — good for 11 yards — while Canadian rookie and Vancouver native Keelan White recorded a pair of catches for 21 total yards. Canadian Luther Hakunavanhu finished without a catch as his lone target — a deep shot off play-action on the game’s first play — was dropped. Stanback and Adeboboye each finished with three catches, for 8 and 23 yards, respectively.

7) Loved to see the Redblacks attempt — and recover — a surprise onside kick. Heads up play by Canadian defensive lineman Aidan John to swat the ball out of bounds to secure the recovery.

Overall, it was a strong outing from Rick Campbell’s unit. Kicker Lewis Ward nailed a pair of field goals from 47 and 24 yards out. Punter Richie Leone was only called upon three times but averaged a net positional flip of 42.3 yards per punt. A week after giving up a punt return touchdown to these same Lions, Ottawa limited B.C.’s longest punt return to just five yards. Linebacker Davion Taylor led the way with two special teams tackles.

The lone negative was seeing Bralon Addison hurt on the team’s second attempt at an onside kick. Addison was rocked by a blindside crackback hit that was unpenalized. It’s the type of contact that is always a flag due to how dangerous it is, so it was shocking to see it ignored.

8) It’s easy to see why so many members of R-Nation are venting their anger online. Since losing the 2018 Grey Cup on Edmonton’s skating rink of a field, the Redblacks have managed just 23 wins to 62 losses. Those six seasons have also failed to feature a home playoff game, and their single trip to the postseason (last year) resulted in a 58-38 blowout loss to the eventual Grey Cup champions.

In 2025, things were supposed to be different, and the team came in with plenty of positive momentum. The roster seemed bolstered by smart off-season additions, and key pending free agents were retained. And yet in seven of their thirteen games, the Redblacks have never even held a lead.

Frustration is high amongst fans because it seems like nothing is working. Ottawa’s changed coaches, changed general managers, changed coordinators on both sides of the ball, and changed quarterbacks. And yet still, wins remain elusive.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that anger turns to apathy quickly. Something must be done to give fans hope.

9) With the loss, Ottawa drops to 4-9 on the season and lets another chance to gain any ground on a weak Eastern division slip away.

A victory would’ve moved the Redblacks into a temporary tie with Montreal for second place in the division and a game up on Toronto. Instead, Ottawa remains, at least, a full game back. If the Redblacks can’t finish second, they’ll need to fight for third place with the Western teams chasing a crossover spot – Winnipeg, B.C. and Edmonton – all of whom Ottawa has lost to.

With five games remaining, Dyce’s squad essentially needs to run the table to guarantee a postseason berth. If they want to keep things interesting and fan any sparks of hope that remain amongst R-Nation for 2025, they’ll need to beat Winnipeg when they host them at TD Place next Saturday.

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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).

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