Patrick Doyle/CFL.ca
OTTAWA — Jermaine Robinson wasn’t going to make any mistake on this one.
The REDBLACKS defensive back was known by some fans for his dropped interception in overtime of a Week 3 tie with the Calgary Stampeders — a game that ended in a 26-26 tie.
On Saturday night in the nation’s capital with the game tied at 20, Robinson jumped a first-down pass over the middle by Mike Reilly and made no doubt about it.
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The interception set up a game-winning field goal by Chris Milo, sending Ottawa into the bye week 4-2-1, in first place in the East Division, following a 23-20 comeback win over the Edmonton Eskimos.
“It feels good to get that confidence back to know I can make that play,” the third-year defensive back told OttawaREDBLACKS.com after the game.
“Every bye week’s gonna be nice when you get a win,” he added. “You get a day off here and you get to take a deep breath, and you get that confidence back.
“We just lost tune and we get that confidence back – OK, we know we can win, we just need to finish games. That’s what we didn’t do the last two weeks and that’s what we did this week.”
Robinson called the game-changing play ‘a collective play for the defence’, his teammate Antoine Pruneau’s tight coverage on Adarius Bowman allowing him to fall off the route — “he had good coverage so I was able to fall off and be a robber.”
In the end, though, it was a total team effort for the REDBLACKS.
After the REDBLACKS led through most of the contest, Henry Burris’ pass was deflected off the foot of Chris Williams and into the hands of Eskimos linebacker JC Sherritt. Sherritt returned the interception for six points the other way, giving Edmonton a sudden seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Burris and the REDBLACKS were unfazed.
“We were doing everything we could to make sure we pulled off that game,” said Burris, who finished his night with 341 passing yards on 26 of 39 passing with two touchdowns and the aforementioned interception. “We continued to believe in the things we were doing.
“Both teams were in a rut and just fighting hard to get out of it . . . those are true champions on that side of the ball and it’s big to pull off the comeback after losing to them three times last year including the Grey Cup.”
“We were doing everything we could to make sure we pulled off that game.”
Henry Burris
Jermaine Robinson’s interception was all the difference on Saturday (Patrick Doyle/CFL.ca)
Burris, last year the Most Outstanding Player, silenced some of his critics with a strong performance in his second start back from injury.
Williams came through in a big way by beating his man in single coverage and getting himself open for the game-tying touchdown in the final minutes.
And all game Mark Nelson’s defence got in the grill of Mike Reilly, who had to be stymied one last time after Ottawa re-took the lead.
“It would have been a shame if we let this one get away,” Head Coach Rick Campbell said afterwards. “We did a lot of heavy lifting, meaning doing a lot of good things on defence and playing well on special teams.
“We were doing well on offence as well and to find a way to get it done in the end and close it out for us, it was a huge win for us.”
In the end, while it hasn’t always been pretty, Campbell says the REDBLACKS are where they need to be after seven weeks going into their bye — getting better as they go.
“Of course we want to be better,” Campbell added. “The key thing is we find ways to get better each week as players and as coaches because as you go through Labour Day and that whole mid-season, the teams that keep finding a way to keep playing better football — those are the teams that are going to rise in the standings.”
The REDBLACKS return to action in Week 9 with a home date against the Montreal Alouettes on Friday, Aug. 19.
– With files from OttawaREDBLACKS.com
