Sherrod Baltimore is ready to take on divisional opponent as we reach mid-season

This season has been a little more of a struggle than past seasons, but the defense doesn’t show fear as they get set to play 6-2 Hamilton Tiger Cats this Saturday at 4:00.

The Ottawa Redblacks sit at 3-5 going into week 10 of the CFL season, but the record doesn’t show the amount of success our Redblacks’ defense has had this season. At week 10 of the season, the Redblacks defense is red hot, only giving up 60 points in the last few games, while being successful getting turnovers.

Even though the defense looks as if they’ve been playing together for a few years, they havent been. Its almost the opposite as that. The majority of the defense this season were actually signed by the Redblacks during this season.

With the Redblacks’ defense mostly new to eachother, the veteran players like Antoine Pruneau, Jonathan Rose, J.P Bolduc and even guys like Avery Williams and Sherrod Baltimore have all taken roles to improve and mentor the younger guys as we get moving in the season.

Jerod Fernandez is a key example of a young guy stepping up. Being signed early July, the team had already played 4-5 games and as a 25 year old CFL rookie, he hadn’t been familiar with the league or the team when he’d been signed. He took the role to be a middle linebacker between both Anthony Cioffi and Avery Williams and has had a forced fumble in the last two games and has had an extremely great rookie season. Baltimore: Fernandez is a baller, he has like 2 or 3 turnovers in the last few weeks and he has so much potential, its crazy.

Today at Redblacks walkthroughs, I had the time to ask Baltimore about Jerod Fernandez and the whole next man up system here in Ottawa…

Baltimore: In Ottawa, you have to be ready because they give everyone opportunities. I feel like Ottawa is a great place for players to grow their careers.

Baltimore has also built a great relationship with Jonathan Rose who is a defensive back for Ottawa. Baltimore: On the field with him is crazy, our communication on and off the field is awesome, and I cant wait to play with him again.