It wasn’t the trip to Regina the Ottawa REDBLACKS were hoping for, as they fell 26-24 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a heart-breaker on Sunday.
Once again in the Dustin Crum era, the REDBLACKS were right in the thick of it as the clock ticked toward zero. A massive defensive stand late in the fourth gave Crum the ball deep into Riders’ territory, and after a pair of big runs from Jackson Bennett left them just short of a major, Lewis Ward trotted onto the field to take the points.
Unfortunately, for those rooting for the visiting side, Mario Alford, who the REDBLACKS had kept under wraps the whole night, finally broke loose, giving the Roughriders immediate field position. A couple of quick plays later, the boot of Brett Lauther sent Saskatchewan home happy with a 54-yard field goal.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this group of guys,” said Head Coach Bob Dyce. “They continue to fight every single play, and as you can see, we’re never out of any game. We didn’t start as fast as we would have liked, but at the end of the day, we [had the lead] in a critical situation. I have to change my call [on the kickoff], I let the guys down.”
The offence had been spinning their wheels for much of the evening, doing just enough to get into field goal range a number of times, but never further. That was until the fourth quarter when the potential was unlocked.
“It shows the good job that Khari is doing,” Crum explained. “As the game goes on, he gets a feel for what the defence is doing and schemes them up a little bit. He gives me a lot of easy throws and quick completions to work with.”
The fight-back is something everyone is happy to see, and it’s a great foundational building block, but the next step is there for the taking. Offensively, the potential has been seen, and everyone knows how good they can be, but finding that next level of consistency is absolutely crucial.
“Guys fighting to the end has been our character,” Crum said. “At the end of the day, we have to be cleaner, especially on offence. At times, we were moving the ball, but we have to be more consistent to sustain drives and finish in the endzone.”
“There’s always some plays that you would like to have back. There were some good things, just taking what the defence gave us at times, and doing a good job at moving the sticks. We just have to sustain drives, it’s all about finishing in the endzone.”
On the other side of the ball, the defence came to play once again. Despite key players on the sideline, including Brandin Dandridge, they held the Roughriders to 362 yards, and scored Ottawa’s only touchdown on the night, coming on a scoop-and-score after stopping a quarterback sneak.
The tenacity of the defence reared its head again in the fourth quarter, stopping another quarterback sneak deep into positive territory.
“We’re trying to do our part,” Santos-Knox said. “If we execute, we’re playing well, so guys were flying around out there, but we still have to cut down the explosive plays.”
Heading to Toronto for the first time in Week 10, there’s only one option for this squad: press forward, and learn from it.
“We’re going to move forward and learn from this game, first and foremost,” Santos-Knox said. “Everything we want is still in front of us, we just have to lock in and win these close games. We’re fighting until the end.”
