Ottawa Redblacks lose game, Dru Brown to Hamilton Tiger-Cats (& 12 other thoughts)

For the second week in a row, the Ottawa Redblacks lost a game to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, this time by a score of 30-15 at TD Place Stadium.

Yet again, the Redblacks were done in by a severe lack of execution, penalties, and an offence that is the league’’s worst.

Here’s what I saw from my seat in Section NN.

1) Before being blindsided by an untouched blitzing defender, quarterback Dru Brown had completed six of the eight passes he attempted for 66 yards an interception. But that doesn’t quite tell the story. Brown seemed to be forcing balls into tight coverage, as the defence was squatting on the routes Ottawa was running. The passer was fortunate not to be picked off a second time as the Ticats jumped the hitch screen that the Redblacks love running on first down to Justin Hardy with the defender nearly snagging a pick-six.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

2) Upon entering the game for Brown, backup quarterback Dustin Crum injected life into an otherwise stagnant offence. The third-year pro completed his first 11 passes and led Ottawa to a trio of field goals.

The problem is that momentum quickly dried up in the second half. Following those 11 completions, Crum proceeded to complete five passes in the entire second half. Ultimately, the 26-year-old finished with 149 yards and an interception. He also ran six times for 43 yards.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

In regards to the turnover, I’d place less fault on Crum — he threw it up and gave his receiver a chance — and more on Keelan White not getting himself in better position to fight for the catch.

Adams might be appealing if only because with the season slipping away, why not see if some of the promise he’s flashed — in very limited action, to be fair — can be a spark?

3) It’s not an exaggeration to say that Ottawa’s offence is broken. Coming into this game, Tommy Condell’s attack ranked last in points scored, last in big plays (20-plus yard rushes and 30-plus yard passes), seventh in passing yards, seventh in rushing yards, and sixth in points off of turnovers.

The Redblacks somehow average the league’s second-most time of possession, yet have the lowest touchdown drive percentage and go two-and-out 40 percent of the time. Put another way, Ottawa has the ball more than almost anyone else, yet they do the least with it.

Against Hamilton, those trends continued. Obviously, I can appreciate the fact that losing your starting quarterback disrupts any play-caller’s plan of attack — doubly so when there’s a discrepancy between the starter being a pocket passer and the backup being more of a scrambler. And yet, Ottawa has too many weapons to be held out of the end zone for the entire game.

The Redblacks only put up 316 yards of net offence and converted just 32 percent of their second down opportunities. Ottawa had only four first downs in the entire second half — that’s on eight possessions — and two of those came on the game’s final drive when they trailed by 15 points with a minute left.

It’s not the offensive coordinator’s fault when someone drops a ball or when a penalty wipes out a positive play or backs the offence up. It’s also not his fault when a trick play fails because a pass is under thrown. Schematically, however, something just seems off with the Redblacks.

Few would argue that Ottawa doesn’t have guys capable of making big plays, and yet far too often the game-plan seems to have those weapons running sideways and hoping to make people miss rather than stretching the field and finding holes in zone coverage.

With the bye week on tap, if the Redblacks were to make a change, they won’t have a better time to do it.

4) Speaking of bye week changes that should happen, Canadian running back Daniel Adeboboye simply has to be more involved in the offence going forward. All the 26-year-old has done when given the chance is produce. Despite being given just four carries against the Ticats, he churned out 54 yards, including two carries of gains over 10 yards to average a whopping 13.5 yards per carry.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

Looking at 2025 overall, Adeboboye has been given 35 carries and is averaging 7.2 yards per rush. Stanback has 49 and is averaging 5.1.

This isn’t to say Stanback should be benched or not have a role, but perhaps the workloads should be flipped.

5) Even if the Redblacks’ receiving corps could be employed in a more dangerous fashion, as a group, the unit needs to be better. There have been too many drops and guys are struggling to create space. Mistakes like procedure penalties absolutely crush momentum, as was the case with Kalil Pimpleton’s infraction that turned a third-and-one QB sneak into a punting situation.

Justin Hardy led the way with seven catches for 47 yards and should’ve been credited with a touchdown pass if not for under-throwing a ball to Eugene Lewis on a trick play. Lewis was behind the defence but the pass simply didn’t have enough on it.

Speaking of Lewis, it was an uncharacteristically quiet night for the star receiver, with just a single reception for 13 yards. Canadian rookie Keelan White also had one catch, good for 12 yards. Kalil Pimpleton turned five catches into 56 yards, with 31 of them coming after the catch. American Andre Miller snagged four balls for 49 yards.

6) Going back to the second half of the 2024 season, Ottawa’s secondary has been a problem. General manager Shawn Burke overhauled the positional group during the offseason, bringing in a handful of new bodies and the team added a new defensive coordinator in Williams Fields. And yet the issues persist.

Far too often last night, Ticats receivers were catching passes without a Redblacks defender in the vicinity. It was also alarmingly easy for Hamilton’s receivers to get behind the coverage. Alijah McGhee in particular had a tough time, being beaten twice on deep balls.

Finally, if you want one stat that proved to be the difference: the Ticats went two-for-three in the red zone, while Ottawa went zero-for-three.

7) I hope R-Nation appreciates how well strong-side linebacker Adarius Pickett is playing, especially since it was no sure thing he would recover from his Achilles injury in time to start the 2025. Pickett has a team-leading 38 tackles in 2025, including his six against Hamilton. He also had a knockdown and an interception.

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

The Party Starter is doing his part, so hopefully he gets a bit more support soon.

8) Kicker Lewis Ward continues to be the most special thing about Ottawa’s special teams. The 32-year-old was five-for-five against Hamilton, splitting the uprights from 21, 27, 34, 45, and 27 yards out. Punter Richie Leone was also excellent, with his punts averaging a 43.5 yard positional flip.

As for the rest of Rick Campbell’s unit, it was a pretty uninspiring night. The punt return game was non-existent and the fact that Easop Winston tried to return a punt that he fielded five yards deep in his end zone was beyond inexplicable. Given the time remaining in the game, conceding a single point did not matter. Either it was a massive fault in judgment from the rookie in his debut CFL game, or he wasn’t told by coaches to take a knee in that situation. Neither is a good look.

10) The Redblacks had an announced attendance of 15,054, but it sure felt like a whole lot less than that in the stadium. It’s always good to remember that while it varies from team to team, announced attendance typically includes all tickets distributed, not just those scanned the day of the game.

What’s clear is that fan apathy is setting in. The days of a packed house and a rowdy TD Place seem further away than ever. That’s not a slight to those who have continued to attend — they remain plenty loud — but the fact of the matter is much of R-Nation clearly isn’t feeling hopeful and is showing their frustration by staying away. Instead of building off of last year’s return to the playoffs, many in the fan base seems to believe that 2024 was nothing more than an aberration.

Since the 2018 Grey Cup loss, the Redblacks have had a number of tough seasons, with more than a couple featuring a bland product. In a league where so many fans are casuals who tune in to be entertained and excited, if you aren’t winning and aren’t being entertaining, you’re not capturing anyone’s attention.

Sports teams sell hope and right now there isn’t much in R-Nation that things will quickly turn around.

11) It is essential the Redblacks use their bye week as a reset. Whether than means overhauling their systems, making changes to their roster — promoting or demoting players — or shuffling their staff, something has to give. The status quo isn’t working, which means it’s time to pivot.

It’s likely that whatever direction GM Shawn Burke chooses to go could hinge around the health of his starting quarterback. If Brown is indeed expected to return after the bye, maybe less drastic measures are taken. If the opposite seems true, perhaps bigger changes loom.

12) Sitting at 1-6 and at the bottom of the East Division standings, things are looking grim in regards to the making the playoffs. That said, it’s foolish to write off anyone in the CFL, let alone in July.

But Ottawa’s path to the postseason is now narrow. With 11 games remaining, the Redblacks would need to realistically go 8-3 to ensure a playoff spot or at least 7-4 to make things interesting. But before they can even start thinking like that, they need to focus on simply getting their second win of the season.

Their next chance to nail down that elusive victory comes in ten days, when the Calgary Stampeders visit TD Place on July 31 to kick-off Week 9.