Le ROUGE et NOIR se préparent à affronter les Elks sur leur propre terrain
A mere five days after their thrilling 37-34 victory over the Edmonton Elks on the road, the Ottawa REDBLACKS will look to make it back-to-back wins, this time on home field.
The winless Elks make their way to TD Place, tonight, with the REDBLACKS eyeing a 4-2 start to the campaign. It’s a 7:00pm kickoff, under the stadium lights.
Dru Brown’s 480-yard passing performance was not only the best of his career, but fourth-best in Ottawa CFL history, as he tossed touchdowns to Justin Hardy, and the debuting Kalil Pimpleton. The latter’s 74-yard catch and run highlight a prolific night through the air for Ottawa; with Pimpleton racking up a team-high 153 receiving yards, to go with 131 from Dom Rhymes, and 110 from Hardy. The offence came through in the clutch with eight seconds to play, setting up Lewis Ward’s 38-yard walk-off winner.
On defence, Jovan Santos-Knox registered a pair of sacks, and Mike Wakefield got to the quarterback once, also forcing a fumble that was recovered by DeAndre Lamont, and Adarius Pickett scooping up an Alonzo Addae forced fumble.
The short week wasn’t kind to Ottawa on the injury front, however, with DeVonte Dedmon, and Zack Pelehos being forced out of tonight’s game. Bralon Addison returns after sitting with an achilles strain on Sunday. Jacob Ruby starts at right tackle.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
The Elks kept pace with Ottawa offensively, as McLeod Bethel-Thompson threw for 272 yards, and a pair of touchdowns to Hergy Mayala, and Arkell Smith, respectively. Eugene Lewis’ team-high 89 receiving yards were one more than Mayala, while Ottawa was able to bottle up the Edmonton rushing attack.
Nick Anderson led the Elks with nine tackles and a sack, and Kordell Jackson was able to pick off Brown in the third quarter. The debuting Shawn Oakman recorded a pair of tackles for loss, along with Derrick Moncrief. Elliott Brown was credited with a forced fumble.
It will be a new-look Elks team, who parted way with General Manager and Head Coach Chris Jones, this week. Jarious Jackson assumes the role of Head Coach, and longtime CFL great Geroy Simon takes over the GM post.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Bob Dyce, Head Coach, on avoiding distractions for the rematch: “What we have to continue to focus on is not their coaching change. It doesn’t affect how we prepare. We have a definite golden recipe on what we need to do to be successful, and that’s what we focus on.”
Dru Brown, quarterback, on earning a place in Ottawa’s history books: “It’s awesome. I don’t want to say it doesn’t mean anything, but if I would have done a few things better, obviously that number would be more. I’m sure if you asked any of those guys on that list, they’d probably say the same thing. It’s impossible to play a perfect game, but that’s the standard you want for yourself.
Adarius Pickett, defensive back, on the importance of winning games early in the season: “The division has always been open. I don’t know why people think that it hasn’t. If you look at the games that have been played, nothing is set in stone. Last year when I was in Toronto, we were 16-2. It didn’t matter, we lost (to Montreal in the division final). So the division remains open. It’s only gonna be one team that goes to the Grey Cup from the East and one team that goes to the Grey Cup from the West. You got to play football. You got to take it one week at a time. You can’t look all the way down the line. You know what the end goal is, but you got to take care of business week to week.”
BROADCAST INFORMATION
7:00 PM ET | TV (ENG): TSN / TSN5 | CFL+ | Radio: EN: TSN 1200, SiriusXM (ch. 167) | FR: 104,7 FM Outaouais
