Tonight at 10:00 pm EDT, the Redblacks will play the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth stadium.
The last time Ottawa had played in Edmonton, they had a heart breaking grey cup loss to Calgary. Over nine months ahead, they’re back to play Edmonton, but with new faces and names.
The Redblacks will actually play against Trevor Harris, Greg Ellingson and Sir Vincent Rogers. All three of those players spent time in Ottawa and led us to a few Grey Cups.
While the former Redblacks will welcome Ottawa to Commonwealth stadium, the new Redblacks have a near must win in their hands.
The Redblacks are coming off a 30-27 overtime win over Montreal and look to improve to 4-4. Sitting at 3-4, the Redblacks get back Antoine Pruneau on the defense and hope for a big win against Edmonton.
What to look for
In this week 9 matchup, the Ottawa Redblacks who are 3-4 look to improve their win streak to 2 against Trevor Harris and his 4-3 Eskimos.
Defense wins championships
Although the scores do not show it, the Ottawa Redblacks defense have had two straight games where they’ve played phenomenally.
Giving up 44 points in the last two games, the Redblacks defense has only given up 21 second half points in the last 3 games. If the Redblacks defense can take their second half play to the first half also, the team can pull away with a big win.
Along with the great performances in the second half, the Redblacks’ defense have soe of the best tacklers in the CFL.
The duo of Avery Williams and Anthony Cioffi have combined for 74 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, one quarterback sack and one interception. The duo has also been given linebacker, Jerod Fernandez who has played the last three games for Ottawa. The duo between Cioffi and Williams has become a great trio with Fernandez who has had 14 tackles and a forced fumble in the three games played this season.
Along with the great defensive backfield, Ottawa also has one of the best defensive lines in the game of football. The starting four, which contains Avery Ellis, Michael Klassen, Michael Wakefield and JR Tavai has contributed to 10 sacks in the 6 games they’ve played together. To go with the quarterback take downs, the line is pretty quick to get off the ball and tackle a pass catcher or ball carrier. The 4 have combined for 76 tackles, 3 forced fumbles, one interception and one fumble recovery in the games played together.
Watch out for the front 7 in tonights’ game against Edmonton as they are hungry for a few sacks on former Redblacks’ quarterback, Trevor Harris.
Receivers look to silence doubters
The Redblacks’ receivers haven’t been getting enough credit for hat they’ve been doing for the offense. In fact, they’ve been getting disrespected, being compared to last years’ receivers. Get over the fact that Spencer and Ellingson are gone, its a new era here in Ottawa, and we need to embrace that.
The Redblacks receivers this season contain of, R.J Harris, Caleb Holley, Dominique Rhymes, Brad Sinopoli, Julian Feoli Gudino, Seth Coate, Noel Thomas, Nate Behar, DeVonte Dedmon and Rafael Araujo-Lopes.
The group of receivers this year have played well this season, but haven’t been getting a lot of love. The Redblacks receiving group have combined for 1,402 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Playing with two quarterbacks is tough, therefore the receivers haven’t been producing as many yards as they would with one quarterback all season.
Considering there has been games where the quarterback has thrown for less than 150 yards, the receivers here in Ottawa have played unbelievable. So look out for these receivers this week!
JZ MEDIA 