What we've learned about the Ottawa Redblacks through two games of the CFL season

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The soundtrack of post-game quotes emanating from the Ottawa Redblacks on Friday was more like a broken record than the missed opportunity of tying one.

For the second straight week, their own fingerprints were all over the weapon that killed their chances of breaking into the win column this season.

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They added a new mode of death with four turnovers on three interceptions, but the word “penalties” is prominent in the obit of their 39-18 loss to the Montreal Alouettes

The Redblacks aren’t 0-2 just because they were flagged 11 times for 98 yards against the Alouettes and now have taken a total of 23 penalties for 224 yards — or slightly more than the length of a football field per game.

In their home opener, for instance, they proved to be inferior to their nearest division rival in almost every way.

But the handkerchiefs tossed Ottawa’s way remain a pressing problem for a team that also led the Canadian Football League in penalty yards last season.

“We have to understand that we can’t let two turn into four,” receiver Eugene Lewis, who was unable to bring his consecutive games touchdown streak to a CFL-record tying 10 games, said of the number in the loss column while there’s still a zero under the W. “It’s still early in the season. This doesn’t define us as a team, but we’ve got to be way more disciplined.

“We can’t have as many turnovers, we can’t have the penalties because that’s always a recipe for losing. We know that, and we know what we’ve got to do to get better.”

Lewis blamed the fouls for interrupting the team’s “rhythm” on drives.

“When we did have a positive play, we’d go back minus five,” he said.

But even more damaging than the four offensive penalties — a time-count violation by quarterback Matt Shiltz, an illegal procedure call on rookie tackle Darta Lee and the offsides committed by receivers Bralon Addison and Kalil Pimpleton — were the five by the defence.

While head coach Bob Dyce pointed a finger at himself for not doing a better job of getting the players to realize the “challenge” penalties created — “When you work hard to earn things, you can’t give things away,” he said — he does pound the message into them daily.

What else does he plan to do?

“I have ways,” Dyce said. “We’ll go forward and take care of that this week.”

That could be bad news for American defensive back Robert Priester, a five-year veteran who has won a couple of Grey Cups with the Toronto Argos.

Against the Alouettes, Priester was Ottawa’s co-leader in defensive tackles with five, but two (not one, but TWO) were illegal horse-collar personal fouls that came just snaps before a Montreal field goal and touchdown.

If that wasn’t enough, in the third quarter Priester was called for unnecessary roughness — a penalty Dyce has labelled “selfish” — in the scrum that started when teammate Adarius Pickett was flagged for roughing the passer.

Would the Redblacks release Priester, who was signed as a free agent in the offseason, and move Bennett Williams, who is used mostly on special teams, into his job as the boundary side DB?

Williams, who is primarily a backup for Pickett at strong-side linebacker, did sub in for Priester at one point against Montreal, a game in which he was one of the Redblacks’ most productive players with two total tackles, one for a loss and a forced fumble.

We’ll learn what repercussions Dyce imposes when the Redblacks return to the practice field in preparation for next Saturday’s game in Calgary against the Stampeders.

What did Shiltz prove in his first start for the Redblacks?

Well, for one thing, the extra couple of inches he has on Dru Brown wasn’t much of an advantage.

Two of his interceptions were deflected at the line of scrimmage, while the other was gobbled up by defensive end Lwal Uguak on the first offensive play of the second quarter.

“It’s frustrating as heck,” Shiltz, the 32-year-old veteran backup, said of the interceptions. “As a quarterback, you think you’re seeing the field. You’re not necessarily making a bad decision (when) throwing it to the other team, it’s more so defensive linemen making those plays at the line of scrimmage. It’s something that we’re going to have to watch to see how we can mitigate those.”

Shiltz completed 68.8 per cent of his passes (22 of 32) for 205 yards, which included a third-quarter TD toss to Addison that kept the Redblacks in the game.

But, by his own admission, Shiltz didn’t do enough to help Ottawa pull out a victory.

“And that’s goal number one,” he said. “You always want to put your best foot forward, especially in that backup role, and getting an opportunity to show what you can do. And, then, most importantly is mind everything out there for your team and want to get the win for them. Obviously, we didn’t play good enough as an offence, as a team, and Montreal did.”

Dyce liked seeing the offence have more success in the second half after producing just three points in the first, but the penalties were still on his mind when he gave his overall assessment of the game.

“At the end of the day, there’s no moral victories or anything like that,” Dyce said. “Our job is to work and be a consistent, physical football team and not hurt ourselves.”

As for an evaluation of Shiltz’s play without the benefit of looking at the video, Dyce again referred to the flags.

“There were obviously a few timing or procedural things, but we practised with this group all week, so that should have been worked out,” he said.

How close did Lewis come to tying the record?

It was in his hands.

Shiltz hit Lewis at the goal-line with a 30-yard third-quarter toss, but, while Montreal’s Lorenzo Burns was called for pass interference to set up the Redblacks’ first touchdown on a Dustin Crum one-yard plunge, Lewis noted it should have never reached that point.

“I dropped it,” he said. “I ain’t gonna lie to you. Literally, a touchdown hit my body. I even kind of timed it up for that. I thought I was gonna catch it and just drop in the end-zone. I’ve done it before. It just popped out.”

Lewis said the streak wasn’t on his mind in the fourth quarter.

“Honestly, at that point I was thinking about winning,” he said. “When you’re doing that much, that’s when you don’t want to be selfish because then people will start noticing that you’re just thinking about yourself. So if I went to the sideline and said, ‘Listen, we’re down 20, let’s just try to get the touchdown now,’ that’s not right. If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen. If it’s not gonna happen, it’s not gonna happen. Like I told Coach Bob Dyce, let’s start another one.”

How can the Redblacks finally reach the win column next week?

“We’re grown men,” Lewis said. “We’ve been playing this game for a long time. We get paid to do this, and we gotta do what we’re asked to do. That’s part of having a job. The penalties will never help you in any sport. Hockey, football, basketball, soccer, anything. You don’t want to have penalties because, at the end of the day, that’s a recipe to lose the game.”