Over two games the 2022 Ottawa Redblacks have proven to the rest of the CFL that they have indeed improved from the past two CFL seasons. They have proven that they are a team, and a team that can give a good fight to the rest of the league, something that couldn’t be done in 2019 and 2021 in Ottawa.
Despite going 0-2 in their series with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers the Redblacks key off-season additions as well as the players coming back to Ottawa have all been playing great football, showing real potential in the nation’s capital.
Quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has surpassed the 300 yard passing marker in each of the Redblacks games thus far while the new look offensive line has paved a way for running back Devonte Williams to run free while Powell was out, Jaelon Acklin and Nate Behar led the receiving core with 361 combined yards and the Redblacks defence has been great, holding the Winnipeg offence to 19 in both games, only allowing 38 total points.
Comparing these two first games of the season to losses R-Nation has seen in the recent years make the 2022 Redblacks team look great, but with the Grey Cup on all of the players minds this year, the real comparison needs to be to the 2016 Redblacks team that won the Grey Cup. Sure they finished the regular season ugly with an 8-9-1 record, but the 2016 Redblacks team had all of the pieces to win a Grey Cup and they did. One thing that this 2022 Redblacks team lacks so far in the season is the ability to score in the red zone, which is something Burris and his 2016 Redblacks team had a lot of success with, of course finishing the year off with a big red zone score to Ernest Jackson.
Through two games the Redblacks have allowed four touchdowns and only scored one. They’ve had no problem making big plays and moving the ball down field but they continue to settle for field goals, giving Lewis Ward the opportunity to have another historic season. One player that has the potential to make a big change on the offensive side of the ball this week as the Redblacks kickoff against the B.C Lions would be William Powell, a running back that has found himself in this position once before with the Redblacks from 2015 through 2018, and a running back with a proven resume to score touchdowns. He’s coming back from injury for tonight’s game and should improve the offence heavily, giving LaPolice a solid run game to rely on, enough to open up more of a passing game, which would also open up the opportunity to score points in different ways.
One way could very well be to Darvin Adams.
Adams is a receiver that was talked about heavily in the off-season once he was signed by the Redblacks, and everyone saw him being a potential number one receiver for the team, but with Jaelon Acklin tearing it up over two games its as if we’ve forgotten about the kind of impact Darvin Adams is able to make, and what he’s actually doing in red and black already. Over the first two games he’s already made a few big plays having caught 9 passes for 135 yards, but what’s lacking on the stat sheet is touchdowns.
Coming off of a bye week, Adams is ready to provide the Redblacks with touchdowns, or the opportunity to score touchdowns at TD Place.
“We said all week, we’ve been moving the ball, we look good on paper but we haven’t been getting in the end zone so the main focus is instead of Lewis kicking for 3 points we want him kicking for 1 point to have 7 point drives, thats been the main focus, we’re going to have to work a little harder this week to make it happen.” Adams told JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic following Wednesday’s walk through.
Catch the Redblacks at home at TD Place against the B.C Lions at 7:30 tonight as they look to bounce back from their 0-2 start coming off of a bye week.
JZ MEDIA 