OT: Ottawa REDBLACKS 2018-2019

[Larionov]

Soooo, the East is really bad once again this year.

Hamilton has dominated their way through three games, outscoring their opponents by almost 100 points so far. Montreal and Toronto are each winless and have been blown out by the Ti Cats.

I'm hoping Ottawa can at least make the playoffs this season, which I think they should be. We lost a ton of talent in the offseason - not just Harris, Ellingson and Spencer, but also a late retiree and a late offensive coordinator departure. It's such a messy offseason, but so far so good.

Ti-Cts are feasting on a weak early schedule. Two of their wins are over the Als and Argos, who will be the two worst teams in the league by a mile. Ti-Cats also get Montreal again next week, so they'll be 4-0 but I would argue a pretty untested 4-0.

Meanwhile, our off-season may not have been nearly as bad as advertised. Yes, we lost guys in free agency, but every one of them was a) American, and b) over 30. Here's a good example - losing Sir Vincent Rogers at left tackle in free agency looked less than ideal to say the least, but dude went to Edmonton, tore his tricep in training camp, and has now been lost for the year to surgery. Injuries happen in this game to anyone, but they especially start to pile up in older players. Our GM would never say it publicly, but when Sir V went down he had to be thinking to himself, "THAT is why I didn't want to spend big money on an older import player."

The thinking in the CFL is that it is driven by quarterbacks and Canadian starters - everyone else is disposable to varying degrees. Yes, we lost Harris, which I still think feels a little odd, but so far he appears to have been adequately replaced by Davis and Jennings, and we didn't lose any starting Canadians. Our defence, in the meantime, looks really solid - everyone forgets that we returned all our starters on D, along with a great defensive coordinator in Thorpe. (We're going to lose him eventually to a head coaching gig elsewhere.)

I'm pretty confident that it will be yet another Ottawa - Hamilton East Final. From there, you're only one win away from the big game...

 

[Senscore]

Not a good start tonight

 

[mianjo]

Not a good finish either

 

[Larionov]

We were outcoached tonight, plain and simple. We didn't have a gameplan to deal with Winnipeg's strong front four, and as a result our play calling was predictable and weak. When Davis was clearly struggling, Campbell refused to go to Jennings, which might have sparked the team. Our return game was disastrous because a guy hadn't been coached properly, and we took far too many penalties. And, to top it off, Winnipeg's brilliant offensive coordinator, Paul Lapolice, toyed with us all night - he routinely dialed up the right call to put us off balance or take advantage of bad personnel choices. (Hello, Randle!) Oh, and Rick Campbell lost a challenge because he tried to challenge a call that wasn't eligible for a review. You get paid to know that stuff, coach. Embarrassing.

Time for a frank meeting in the coaches room and a resolve to get better for next week, because those guys let their players down tonight big time.

 

[operasen]

Looking for Jennings to see some time. Maybe a Madu replacement as well

 

[Tundraman]

RB's offense not too good so far they might tire out their own D if this keeps up. Harris is not looking very explosive as a returner. He's gone right into traffic when he had chances outside with lead blockers waiting for him to run there

 

[Tundraman]

Going for 2 with the score 9-9 was questionable at best but then after 20 yards in penalties can't you switch to the kick or is there a rule that says that once you decide to go for 2 you can't change your mind? If not it was weird.

 

[Al14]

Our RedBlacks need a new QB.

Apparently, a new defence too!

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

All around really sloppy game.

The refs in this league are something else, though. The Alouettes had gifts after gifts given to them on one drive.

Going for 2 with the score 9-9 was questionable at best but then after 20 yards in penalties can't you switch to the kick or is there a rule that says that once you decide to go for 2 you can't change your mind? If not it was weird.

You can’t change.

 

[mianjo]

Drinking a 10% beer and it's not helping,

 

[mianjo]

Winnipeg Blue Bombers
28-1
Half Time

Ottawa Redblacks

 

[Al14]

Drinking a 10% beer and it's not helping,

RedBlacks should go back to drinking gatorade, the beer is NOT HELPING them either!

 

[thinkwild]

Pretty brutal. But lots of roster changes this week too. Jennings so far is no Dom Davis. But maybe unfair a little to judge such a new roster against such a top team. But the two wins to start the season is looking to be a little misleading as the reality of losing so many top players last year appears to be setting in. Sens can probably brace for a similar splash of cold water

 

[MikeC62]

This season and this team is an absolute joke, every last player on this team should be embarrassed to be a part of it. Can anyone explain why a team that make the Grey Cup final somehow needed to be blown up and totally rebuilt. Yeah get rid of the QB who is currently #2 in passing yards, the WR who is currently #2 in receiving yards, and the RB who is currently #5 in rushing yards. Along with Sinopoli, those were 4 of the most dynamic offensive players in the league and we proceed to lose 3 of them. Anyone who thought Dominique Davis was a starting QB clearly knows nothing about football, and bringing in proven loser Jennings who has already lost one starting job to a nobody isnt going to make things better. The GM making these decisions needs to be relieved of his duties and never be allowed to be in charge of a CFL team ever again.
Did I miss the news report that Eugene McPauper bought up this team and order a salary dump? I can just imagine every other CFL fan in the country having a good laugh at how incompetent this team is, they actually make the Senators look like a professionally run team. When is Ottawa going to have an ownership group in any of their sports teams committed to winning, instead of committed to the bottom line. When is Ottawa going to have an ownership group that is committed to being a Professional Ownership Group. When is Ottawa going to start having real sports teams. And they have the gall to keep sending me emails, imploring me to buy tickets. Why? You arent committed to winning, you are only committed to cutting expenses. Well, I fully intend to follow your example, you cut expenses and so do I.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Gee, you liquidate every star player on the team and get back nothing and end up looking like a joke team?

Who'da thunk?

 

[Stylizer1]

Gee, you liquidate every star player on the team and get back nothing and end up looking like a joke team?

Who'da thunk?

Ownership has made a ton of money over the last 5 seasons. Paying all of our stars what they were worth would not have resulted in more wins because the rest of the rosters quality would have been compromised. Live off season ticket for a couple of seasons while building back up the roster. The CFL is the only league i can think of where one season you could be worst on the league and by next season make the championship game.

 

[Larionov]

It's a QB driven league, so losing your starting QB is of course going to have severe consequences. The lack of direction is compounded by not having a full time offensive coordinator - they are doing it "by committee" now among the offensive coaches, and it clearly isn't working.

My sense is that the Trevor Harris negotiations got a little tense, and at some point our GM convinced himself that he really didn't need this guy, he's not really that good, he's a product of our system, we can replace him with someone cheaper, blah blah blah. That is turning out to have been a disastrous decision, and in light of the dumpster fire we see evolving now I think it's fair to ask if it might end up costing Desjardins his job.

 

[Stylizer1]

It's a QB driven league, so losing your starting QB is of course going to have severe consequences. The lack of direction is compounded by not having a full time offensive coordinator - they are doing it "by committee" now among the offensive coaches, and it clearly isn't working.

My sense is that the Trevor Harris negotiations got a little tense, and at some point our GM convinced himself that he really didn't need this guy, he's not really that good, he's a product of our system, we can replace him with someone cheaper, blah blah blah. That is turning out to have been a disastrous decision, and in light of the dumpster fire we see evolving now I think it's fair to ask if it might end up costing Desjardins his job.

The CFL has a lack of startng QBs in general.

 

[bert]

This season and this team is an absolute joke, every last player on this team should be embarrassed to be a part of it. Can anyone explain why a team that make the Grey Cup final somehow needed to be blown up and totally rebuilt. Yeah get rid of the QB who is currently #2 in passing yards, the WR who is currently #2 in receiving yards, and the RB who is currently #5 in rushing yards. Along with Sinopoli, those were 4 of the most dynamic offensive players in the league and we proceed to lose 3 of them. Anyone who thought Dominique Davis was a starting QB clearly knows nothing about football, and bringing in proven loser Jennings who has already lost one starting job to a nobody isnt going to make things better. The GM making these decisions needs to be relieved of his duties and never be allowed to be in charge of a CFL team ever again.
Did I miss the news report that Eugene McPauper bought up this team and order a salary dump? I can just imagine every other CFL fan in the country having a good laugh at how incompetent this team is, they actually make the Senators look like a professionally run team. When is Ottawa going to have an ownership group in any of their sports teams committed to winning, instead of committed to the bottom line. When is Ottawa going to have an ownership group that is committed to being a Professional Ownership Group. When is Ottawa going to start having real sports teams. And they have the gall to keep sending me emails, imploring me to buy tickets. Why? You arent committed to winning, you are only committed to cutting expenses. Well, I fully intend to follow your example, you cut expenses and so do I.

While this is a pretty extreme take its pretty much exactly how I feel and why I didnt re up my seasons. It was Desjardins press conference after they lost all the FA's that sealed the deal, he was confrontational with the media after they asked him why he let the #1 QB the #1 WR and the #1 RB on the team go after going to the grey cup. I found it shocking and put me off very much. Then to hear how they handled the Offensive Coordinator and why he left and put the blame on him... It really reminded me of the sens.

 

[OttawaSenators11]

Jennings and Davis aren't even close to Harris' caliber.

boarder-line starters both of em.

Was a freaking awful off-season both GM and Ownership should be ashamed of themselves!

 

[Stylizer1]

While this is a pretty extreme take its pretty much exactly how I feel and why I didnt re up my seasons. It was Desjardins press conference after they lost all the FA's that sealed the deal, he was confrontational with the media after they asked him why he let the #1 QB the #1 WR and the #1 RB on the team go after going to the grey cup. I found it shocking and put me off very much. Then to hear how they handled the Offensive Coordinator and why he left and put the blame on him... It really reminded me of the sens.

What happened with the O lone coach?

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

It’s very fair to question the GM decisions from this summer right now. We lost so many quality pieces this summer and didn’t replace them with much.

 

[bert]

What happened with the O lone coach?

Offensive coordinator left in a controversial way. I am sure there are some articles out there. The organization blasted him for lesving after, no class.

 

[Stylizer1]

Offensive coordinator left in a controversial way. I am sure there are some articles out there. The organization blasted him for lesving after, no class.

I thought that there was more to it. I read that when it happened.

 

[aragorn]

Great to see the Tiger-Cats in first place, it could finally be their year after be so close for so long.