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Ottawa Redblacks are who we thought they were (& eight other thoughts on losing to Montreal)

On a day when families across the country gathered to share delicious food and be grateful for the blessings in their lives, the Ottawa Redblacks failed to give R-Nation much of anything for which to be thankful.

The same issues that have plagued the team for the entirety of the 2025 campaign — a toothless offence, a stout defence victimized by a handful of big plays, and sloppy special teams play — once again reared their ugly heads.

Here are my thoughts on Ottawa’s dispiriting 30-10 loss to the Alouettes.

1) With the team choosing to shut-down Dru Brown for the remainder of the 2025, Dustin Crum made his sixth start of the season in Montreal. Unfortunately, Crum’s career record against the Alouettes fell to 0-4 and the 26-year-old is now 5-15 record as a CFL starter.

It’s not so much that the third year pivot played poorly — he simply didn’t make enough game-changing plays. It was far from his most efficient outing, but it also wasn’t his worst. Crum completed 66 percent of his passes for 162 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. He also scrambled seven times for 36 yards on the ground. Although he fumbled twice, Ottawa managed to recover the ball both times.

The main issue against the Alouettes was symptomatic of what Ottawa’s offence has been all year long regardless of who is under centre: there was a distinct lack of explosive plays.

Crum never bothered pushing the ball down the field and it didn’t look like he had many deep options with which to work, which is why it’s no surprise his longest pass of the night went for just 21 yards.

Crum didn’t get much help from his teammates, either — his offensive line struggled at times to handle the pressure Montreal brought, but he also had some throws that were simply inaccurate.

With Tyrie Adams finally dressed on the game day roster, it was somewhat surprising that he didn’t see any playing time when the game was out of reach. Teams can’t sit everyone to see what they have in their depth players just because they’re eliminated from postseason contention, however, given that Adams has only started one game — a win against Edmonton — during his four years in the nation’s capital, it would behoove the Redblacks to give him an extended look so they can approach how they will handle their quarterback position this offseason.

Right now, the team has no definitive answers as to what Adams is or can be, and with Brown not suiting up again this year, why not give Adams one of the next two games to state his case?

2) I’d like to find something nice to say about Tommy Condell’s offence, but it’s getting harder and harder to find silver linings. For the 14th time in 16 games, the Redblacks were held to less than three points in the first quarter. Yet again, they quickly trailed by double digits (11-0) and never recovered.

Condell’s offence mustered a whopping 220 yards of total offence, averaging 4.5 yards per play. Obviously the four turnovers (three on downs) played a factor, but the main culprit is that despite having a plethora of talent play-makers, the Redblacks continually fail to put their players in positions where they can showcase their skills.

Of Ottawa’s 13 possessions, eight gained less than 20 yards. The Redblacks converted only 25 percent of their second down opportunities and went one-for-two in the red zone.

Most damning of all, after starting slow (again), the Redblacks finished worse, managing a single rouge over the game’s final 30 minutes.

3) To illustrate how poorly Ottawa used its weapons, Justin Hardy finished Thanksgiving with zero catches and his only touch was a toss sweep run. Eugene Lewis caught his first — and only — pass of the game in the fourth quarter. Lewis’ 10-yard reception was the perfect example of how the Redblacks fail to maximize the skills of their stars because Lewis was thrown a two-yard screen in which he picked up eight yards after the catch.

The season-long theme of throwing quick, short passes and praying a receiver dodges multiple defenders was yet again on display in Montreal. Bralon Addison’s one catch went for four yards. Canadian rookie Keelan White had four receptions for 22 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per catch. Even the explosive Kalil Pimpleton — who made seven catches — saw 32 of his 47 receiving yards come after the catch.

The Redblacks don’t stretch the field vertically, they do so horizontally. Ask any defensive coordinator what they’d prefer to defend and I’m sure they’d all say the same thing.

I don’t know why it took 16 games, fullback/tight end Marco Dubois was involved in the offence for the first time this season, catching two passes for 38 yards, 34 of which came after the catch. At six-foot-four and 230 pounds, Dubois is a huge target and has repeatedly proven himself to be amongst the fastest players on team. It’s a shame it took until now for him to be more than an afterthought in Ottawa’s attack.

4) The Redblacks’ lone offensive bright spot was veteran American running back William Stanback. After being lightly used all season long, the 31-year-old was somewhat consistently fed the ball and turned 11 carries into 73 yards. Stanback’s punishing running style resulted in three runs of 10-plus yards. He also caught four check downs for 41 yards, 36 of which came after the catch.

As for Canadian back Daniel Adeboboye, he was given two carries for a total of seven yards.

5) Even if William Fields’ defence didn’t make enough splash plays to tip the balance of the game in Ottawa’s favour, his unit punched above their weight and deserved a better fate.

Ottawa’s defence limited Montreal to just 13 first downs, and nine of Montreal’s 12 possessions gained less than 24 yards. The problem was the Alouettes kept doing just enough (they converted 48 percent of their second down opportunities) to tack on field goals and gradually stretch their lead. They were also two-for-two in the red zone, which was a deciding factor and managed to get behind the defence for a long score.

Leading the way for the Redblacks was Fresno State product Cameron Lockridge. The 25-year-old’s first career start at field-side cornerback resulted in five tackles, two of which were for a loss.

6) As has been the case for much of 2025, Ottawa’s special teams negatively impacted the outcome of the game by gifting the other team points.

This week it was a blocked punt in the first quarter that was returned for a touchdown and Lewis Ward’s fourth miss in the last two weeks. Ward did connect on one kick from 40 yards out, but missed from 47. Of Ward’s 10 missed field goals in 2025, eight of them have come from beyond 43 yards.

When Leone wasn’t having his punts blocked, he averaged a 40.6 yard field positional flip per kick. Pimpleton averaged 7.8 yards per punt return and fresh off watching his collegiate team lose the Panda Game, University of Ottawa product James Peter led the way for Ottawa’s kick coverage with three special teams tackles.

Despite having an “onside kick” recovered when Montreal kicker Jose Maltos beamed a kick off Canadian linebacker Zach Philion for a four-yard recovery, no damage was done as the Redblacks’ defence held and forced a punt.

7) The loss in Montreal was Ottawa’s tenth in a row against the Alouettes. Just like their meeting in Week 2, the Alouettes once again led from start to finish.

What will rile R-Nation up is that this one immediately went downhill and honestly felt like Ottawa was never truly competitive. The Redblacks have a long way to go if they want to once again be a factor in their own division, and that can’t happen until they get a win against their rivals down the 417.

8) With the loss, Bob Dyce’s team is now 4-12 and is that much closer to locking up right to choose first overall in the 2026 CFL Draft.

Up next for the Redblacks is the team’s last home game of the season at TD Place Stadium against these same Alouettes to wrap up the home-and-home series.

Kickoff is slated for 3:00 p.m. EDT and there will be tailgating allowed on the Great Lawn Lansdowne. That, and the fact that there are only two games left in this miserably disappointing season, are things R-Nation should be grateful for.

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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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