Can backup QB Matt Shiltz lead Ottawa Redblacks to first home win over Alouettes since 2018?

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On Friday, the Ottawa Redblacks will try to break a bad habit they’ve carried for 2,498 days.

They will attempt to beat the Montreal Alouettes at TD Place for the first time since Aug. 11, 2018.

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Can backup QB Matt Shiltz lead Ottawa Redblacks to first home win over Alouettes since 2018? Back to video

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For that 24-17 victory seven years ago, Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris completed 44 of 54 passes for 487 yards, but only one touchdown.

Current Redblacks Eugene Lewis and William Stanback were members of the Alouettes at the time, as was Matt Shiltz, who was a backup QB in his second year in the Canadian Football League.

Shiltz signed up for the same job with the Redblacks this past winter, but he’s been elevated to the starting role for Week 2 of the 2025 season by a hip injury to Dru Brown.

According to footballdb.com, it will be Shiltz’s 90th CFL game, but just his 14th start.

“It’s a great opportunity, obviously,” the 32-year-old former Butler Bulldog said after Thursday’s walk-through. “It’s tough seeing Dru go down when you see how much work he puts in and know how much work he puts in during the offseason. But, like any other position in sports, it’s a ‘next man up’ mentality, and we really have that team environment, not only in the whole locker room, but especially in the quarterback room.

“We know how much work we all put in, and in that quarterback room the thought is that we’re better together, that it kind of takes a village to make the game plan each week and get out there and compete. So we’re all excited.”

Dustin Crum and Tyrie Adams will emerge from offensive co-ordinator Tommy Condell’s QB room as available backups, while Brown will not dress for the game.

Over his CFL career, Shiltz has completed 64.2 per cent of his passes for 4,795 yards and 21 touchdowns, along with 20 interceptions.

Listed as two inches taller and 10 pounds heavier than Brown, the 6-1, 210-pound Shiltz has also shown he is capable of doing damage with his legs.

In 10 games with the Calgary Stampeders last season, he had 14 carries for 133 yards and a touchdown.

How does Shiltz compare to Brown?

“I think they’re a great complement together,” said Lewis, who could write a great storyline of his own by tying the all-time CFL record with at least one TD catch in 10 consecutive games. “I played with Shiltz in Montreal for a few games. He’s probably one of the only quarterbacks I’ve had multiple touchdowns with in one game … two bombs against Toronto. I know what he’s capable of. He’s going to play ball. He’s going to give us a chance, an opportunity to help him and help our team.

“For Shiltz, just being a little taller probably helps him see things a little more, the contour of the defence a little more. Other than that, he has a cannon. He’s always had a cannon. And, if he sees something, he’ll let it go.”

The fact that Shiltz is a veteran should help him remain composed against Montreal’s elite defence.

“I’ve played with a lot of quarterbacks, and I know, when some young guys get in there, they’re a little more jittery because things are going fast,” Lewis said. “But Shiltz has been in this league for a while. He has started some games. He’s done his job. So for him this is like reading a book. He goes out there, and he controls the huddle. He knows what’s going on, he understands the terminology, and he knows the offence. He’s been with Tommy before (in Hamilton), so it’s kind of a blessing that he’s as prepared as he is for this whole team.”

Shiltz will also be working with arguably the strongest group of receivers in the league.

Lewis, Justin Hardy, Bralon Addison and Canadian rookie Keelan White helped Brown pass for 413 yards last week against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and that was with the explosive Kalil Pimpleton targeted just twice.

“I talked to Matt and just asked him to be Matt,” Redblacks head coach Bob Dyce said. “We’ve got a lot of talent around him, and I asked him to be kind of like a point guard. You guys, remember (former Utah Jazz) John Stockton? He just put the ball in people’s hands. I know Coach Condell is going to put Matt in a situation to be successful, and he’s just got to be him, use the skills that God gave him, and play consistently.”

Asked if it had been frustrating to play in the CFL for eight years without getting the chance to be a full-time starter, Shiltz offered a different viewpoint.

“I don’t know if it’s frustration,” he said. “It’s just kind of the hand that you’re dealt. You do believe in yourself. You’re a competitor. You believe you can be a starter in the league. You believe you can have the keys to the offence and be a guy who can go out and win games each week. But you’ve got to take those things in stride. You’ve got to make the most of every opportunity. You never know when it’s going to be your last one. So go out there with grace in your heart and have fun.”

How important is tying the consecutive games TD record to Lewis?

While the great Terry Evanshen had his CFL record of catching at least one pass in 181 straight games broken by Donald Narcisse, who caught a pass in 216 consecutive games during his career (1987-1999) with the Roughriders, Lewis is excited about the chance to equal another Evanshen mark.

“You have to have a balance,” Lewis said. “As a player, it’s hard to put yourself in this situation, to (tie) a CFL record like this, but you also don’t want to make it the main focus because there’s a bigger focus on winning the game. As an individual, doing what I’m doing in my career, yes, I really want to get this. I know God has this plan for me, and it’ll be hard to get here again. But, at the same time, I can’t let that be one-minded and not understand that the main goal is to win this game, regardless of what happens. But, like I always say, if everybody does their job, and I do what I’m supposed to do, I pay attention to the details … everything’s going to work out for the best. But obviously, yes, it is something that I do really want to get. This is a big thing. And I just thank God for letting me be in this position.”

In case anyone thinks the pursuit of the record is only a topic of conversation in Ottawa, Lewis has heard from former Alouettes teammates suggesting it won’t happen on their watch.

“It’s all love at the end of the day, but everybody’s aware, trust me,” he said, while acknowledging that he could equal the standard against the team that gave him his CFL start. “Personally, to come full circle, I never thought it would have been against Montreal, when I’m in Ottawa. I would have never scripted it that way.

“People have got to understand: These other teams don’t want me to get it, these other teams are trying to stop me from breaking a record. It’s not like I’m going out there and they’re like, ‘OK, yeah, let Gene get the record, and then we can just keep playing the game.’ Nah, they’re trying to stop me. They don’t want to be the team that gave it up.”

And the Redblacks want to be the team that helps him tie it.

But Shiltz doesn’t feel any extra pressure to connect with Lewis in the end-zone.

“Those opportunities, they’re going to happen naturally, just with who Geno is to just with our offence,” Shiltz said. “You want it for him as a person, but, at the same time, if you ask him, he’s the most selfless person on the planet. He’s going to say that, as long as we come out on top with a win, he’s going to be happy. So that gives me that comfort, that you don’t have to try and force feed him anything or do anything.”

How important is it to the Redblacks that their losing streak against the Alouettes ends now?

Along with dropping 10 straight at home to Montreal, Ottawa’s overall losing streak to the Alouettes is at eight games.

Has beating them become a mental thing?

“I worry about what’s ahead of us, not the past,” Dyce said. “And I think, if someone’s worried about the past, there’s a mental block because of things that have happened, they’re weak-minded individuals. And there are no weak-minded individuals in this building. So the past is the past. We’re worried about setting our future.”

Middle linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox denies any thought that the Alouettes are in the Redblacks’ kitchen.

“I think we just have an eagerness to get it done,” he said. “I don’t think that guys are thinking too much about the things that happened in the past because we’re a new team this year. It’s probably on the minds of the fans, as it should be, but we just want to go get a win.”

As good as the Redblacks were at home last season with a league-best 7-1-1 mark, the one loss was by a 24-12 count to Montreal in Week 16.

“We’ve got to have a sense of pride,” Lewis said. “We’ve got to kill that streak. We’ve got to go out there and understand the sense of urgency, understand what’s going on, and help each other. This is our home field. We can’t let people come to our home field and just do whatever they want. We had a great record last year at home. So we have to keep that going.

How important is it for the Redblacks to cut back on penalties and establish a running game?

In last week’s loss to the Roughriders, the Redblacks were flagged 12 times for 126 yards, while Saskatchewan took just five penalties for 85 yards.

“What we’ve talked about is making sure we’re not doing anything to hurt ourselves,” Dyce said. “We fight hard for every yard we get, and we can’t afford to give any free ones back. The guys know we’ve got to make sure we protect the team … especially the URs (unnecessary roughness) or objectionable conducts … Those are selfish penalties. And, at the end of the day, none of us wants to hurt the group. So it’s got to be deep inside our consciousness to avoid those types of situations.”

The Redblacks also need to improve on the 30 rushing yards they had against Saskatchewan, which would help Shiltz.

“For us to be successful, both lines have to be dominant,” Dyce said. “There has to be certain physicality. I think anytime you’re successful, running the ball takes pressure off the guy who’s back there slinging it, and sets up a lot of other things in the game. We want to make sure we establish a run, give William (Stanback) or Daniel (Adeboboye) their opportunities to carry the ball and soften (the Alouetttes) up, lean on them, and wear them down throughout the four quarters.”

What did the team owners say to Redblacks in their on-field speech Thursday?

In what has become a tradition, team owners Roger Greenberg, John Ruddy and John Pugh provided their annual address at the conclusion of the final practice before the home opener.

“They said we have their full support,” Santos-Knox said. “If you see where TD Place is today from where it was a couple of years ago, it just shows you how much the owners are invested, and I think the players should be appreciative of that and understand that we have some great owners here that want to win. We want to win for them because they put as much into this as we do.”