How an off night for QB Dru Brown played into the Ottawa Redblacks' fifth loss of CFL season
It was more than just the two interceptions Dru Brown underthrew into the hands of Tiger-Cats defensive back Jamal Peters in quarters three and four
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The normally consistent Dru Brown picked a bad time to have his worst half of football as the Ottawa Redblacks’ starting quarterback Saturday night in Hamilton.
It was more than just the two interceptions he underthrew into the hands of Tiger-Cats defensive back Jamal Peters in quarters three and four — the second of which was particularly untimely as it came at the Ottawa 43 and on the first play after a Kalil Pimpleton 105-yard punt return for a touchdown was wiped out by an illegal block penalty when Ottawa was in front 20-13 with a little more than 13 minutes left in the game.
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While the Redblacks held the Tiger-Cats to a field goal off that turnover, they did relinquish the lead they had held since scoring on their opening drive when a roughing the passer penalty moved the ball from the Redblacks’ 30 to their 15, setting the stage for a Kenny Lawler TD catch just three snaps later.
But with still plenty of time for the Redblacks to make their own comeback, they completely unravelled.
The puzzling decision to put William Stanback in place for his first kick return since 2018 backfired when the big running back failed to make a clean catch of Marc Liegghio’s offering. Stanback had to retreat to pick up the loose ball, then could only advance it 12 yards to the Ottawa 19.
That’s when Brown’s play became uncharacteristic beyond his first two interceptions of the season.
Entering the game with a CFL-best 77.4 completion percentage, he connected on just one of five passes, and even that one would have landed on the ground had Justin Hardy not made a great grab.
Of the four misfires, the first was intended for rookie Keelan White and the other three were headed towards Eugene Lewis, who wound up with seven catches for 128 yards but should have had better numbers considering he was targeted 14 times.
Brown wound up completing 24 of 38 passes (63.2 per cent) for 283 yards, but was only 11-of-19 (57.8 per cent) for 146 yards in the second half.
“It’s tough to lead most of (the game) and then not be able to execute at the end,” he told TSN1200’s A.J. Jakubec, before addressing the interceptions. “If stuff like that happens in the second quarter, it kind of blows over. But there’s certain times where you’ve got to be really focused on what your job is. I think even before the last one, we had an opportunity to get the ball out on the perimeter, and I could have thrown a more catchable (pass) so (the receiver) could get north versus someone outside being involved. So I’ve look at all those things.”
When the Redblacks started the season poorly, it could be justified by the fact Brown had missed three of the first five games with a hip injury. But now he’s played half of the team’s games, including two in a row, and Ottawa is last in the league with a 1-5 record and the schedule is one-third completed.
When they host the Tiger-Cats next Sunday, it will be as big as Game 7s come in football.
If Brown doesn’t get back to being himself, the Redblacks could go back to being what they were before he arrived in Ottawa: A team watching the playoffs from the sidelines.
How did the Redblacks do with their penalty problem?
Remarkably, they had a season-low three flags thrown in their direction, and all of them came in the final 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.
One of them was a procedure call on right tackle Zack Pelehos, understandable in that the former Ottawa Gee-Gee was playing in his first game of the campaign after returning from a foot injury.
The second, on former Ottawa Gee-Gee James Peter, was an illegal block that wiped out what would have been Pimpleton’s second return TD in two games. Head coach Bob Dyce threw the challenge flag on that call, but to no avail.
The third was on defensive tackle Mike Wakefield, who was trying to get to Bo Levi Mitchell when he unintentionally came in contact with the quarterback’s legs.
That flag fell with a sense of impending doom.
After they had just stopped the Tiger-Cats on a three-down series in the red zone moments earlier, it was hard to imagine them doing it again.
What was the best part of Ottawa’s game against the Tiger-Cats?
The defence, without question.
It allowed the Tiger-Cats 21 first downs (Ottawa managed 17) and 86 yards rushing, but also limited Mitchell to just 23 completions on 41 attempts (56.1 per cent) and two touchdowns. Both of them were on passes to Kenny Lawler, and few other than the CFL’s league-leader in reception yards would have made the first — a diving grab into the end zone for a 44-yard score against air-tight coverage by corner C.J. Coldon.
The reality is that the Redblacks failed to get a sack and only have seven in six games, and that Mitchell, who entered the night second in passing yards, was not especially sharp. But Ottawa did hold Hamilton to just the one play of 30 or more yards and the Tiger-Cats had scored 86 points in their previous two games.
Adarius Pickett led the Redblacks in tackles once again with a total of nine, including just one on special teams.
Next in line for total tackles was Ayinde Eley and Bennett Willams, who had five each and were making their debuts as the starting WILL linebacker and safety, respectively.
What has to get better for Ottawa?
A few things, but glaring in this one was that the Redblacks had a 38-10 ratio in passing/running plays.
Particularly confounding was that Daniel Adeboboye, who had the biggest game of an Ottawa running back when he rushed 10 times for 96 yards in the lone win over Calgary, was handed the ball just three times.
With a declining workload, Adeboboye’s yards-per-carry average has gone from 9.60 against the Stamps to 6.57 against the Argos to 4.33 in each of the last two games.
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