Over a period of a year and a half, Lewis Ward was Mr. Automatic, a field-goal kicking machine.
A plaque screwed into the front facing of the Subaru Log Cabin at TD Place — commemorating where his record-setting 45th consecutive field goal landed — tells just part of the story. The former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees kicker went on to successfully kick 69 straight field goals, smashing records for both the Canadian Football League and National Football League. In the first game of 2018 — June 21 — Ward, in his CFL regular-season debut, booted three of four field-goal attempts. He wouldn’t miss the rest of that season, going 48-for-48. Ward was also a perfect 21-for-21 in 2019 before missing a 31-yarder against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 17. Incredible. Simply incredible.
After finishing 2019 43-for-50 on field-goal attempts, Ward was good on 30 of 36 in 2021. But this season has appeared to be a struggle at times. Ward is now 27-for-33 — his percentage of 81.8 per cent is the worst of his four-year CFL career. But things are trending up, as Ward successfully kicked all five field-goal attempts last Friday, his 30th birthday.
“Obviously, it’s definitely been a lot below what I expect of myself,” he said. “We have had some difficult kicks, but basically every kick except for possibly that long one (54 yards into a strong wind) in Hamilton has been makeable. That’s the kind of standard I hold myself to. I don’t think there was anything crazy challenging on the weekend (in Montreal). Going 5-for-5 is definitely a confidence-booster with the season I’ve had. It’s definitely been tough. I kind of felt I was trending in the right direction at the beginning of the year; I was really confident.
“Sometimes I go back to the 2018-19 film; there’s not a whole lot that’s really different there. It’s honestly more being more confident and trusting and just trying to be a bit more myself instead of trying to possibly do too much. Sometimes, when we struggle as a team, I try and put a bit of pressure on myself, like, ‘We need every kick.'”
What Ward has been going through also reflects what the Redblacks have done on the field. As competitive as they were early in the season, losing close ones that could have gone their way, they still got off to a miserable 1-8 start. Now, with two straight wins, they’ve got a Saturday home showdown with the Toronto Argonauts in their sights.
“The season hasn’t gone perfectly, but we can’t do anything about that now,” Ward said. “At the start of the year, we were 0-5 and we could have possibly been 4-1. It’s just unfortunate, frustrating, and sometimes (doubt) will creep in … we’re all human. Now, we have back-to-back wins on the road. Momentum is growing. I told a couple of guys momentum and confidence are pretty powerful. It looks like we’re trending in the right direction for the second half of the year. We’re climbing back out of it. We’ll keep going one by one, and hopefully just keep stacking.”
AVOIDING DEDMON: Two games into DeVonte Dedmon’s return to the CFL, it seems like the strategy is to, whenever possible, kick the ball away from him; don’t let the explosive kickoff/punt returner beat you. Both the Edmonton Elks and Montreal Alouettes used the strategy and Dedmon, who returned to Ottawa after being released by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, has just five punt returns for 86 yards and no kickoff returns. Among the accomplishments for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in 2021 were breaking the record of legendary Henry (Gizmo) Williams for fewest games to record five career return touchdowns (15; Williams did it in 18). In 2021, Dedmon led the CFL with 737 punt-return yards (15.4-yard average) and 1,223 kickoff-return yards (25.0 average) in 11 games. He ran back two punts (73 and 64 yards) and a kickoff (100 yards) for touchdowns. So it’s no surprise opposing teams want no part of him getting his hands on the football.
“Some teams are going to do that, some teams are going to kick to him and trust their guys,” Redblacks head coach Paul LaPolice said. “It’s a small sample size. We’ll see how it goes as the year goes along. He’s a talented player and he gets respect. I know Bob (Dyce, Redblacks special teams co-ordinator) will do a good job of making sure there are opportunities for him to get touches.”
“I feel bad for Dedmon,” Redblacks quarterback Nick Arbuckle said. “I know he wants to make plays so bad, and everybody has been scared to kick it to him. It’s a double-edged sword; I wouldn’t want to be the special teams unit that goes against him.”
THE END AROUND: One key to Ottawa’s success the past couple of games is winning the turnover battle. Against Edmonton, Ottawa’s defence had an interception and a fumble recovery, while the offence gave up just one fumble. Against Montreal, Ottawa didn’t turn the ball over, while recovering two fumbles and making two interceptions. “That’s how you win games,” LaPolice said. “It’s a simple equation; it’s what you have to do to win football games. Hats off to the players who’ve done a great job on defence, getting takeaways and offence, making sure they do a good job in the right spot at the right time.” … Look for Brandin Dandridge, who returned to the Redblacks earlier this week, to start at cornerback Saturday … A couple of Ottawa connections in the fall edition of the CFL Central Scouting Bureau’s Top 20: Defensive back Jonathan Sutherland (Penn State) is No. 10, while University of British Columbia defensive lineman Lake Korte-Moore is ranked 20th. University of Illinois running back Chase Brown (London, Ont.) is ranked No. 1. Brown’s twin brother Sydney (a defensive back, also at Illinois) is ranked third. Pittsburgh wide receiver Jared Wayne (Peterborough), son of former Ottawa Rough Riders LB Patrick Wayne, is ranked fourth. Thirteen of the 20 ranked players play at U.S. colleges … QB Vernon Adams Jr. (acquired recently from the Alouettes) is listed as the B.C. Lions backup behind Antonio Pipkin for Friday’s game in Montreal. Ottawa’s Michael O’Connor, who, with an injury to Nathan Rourke, started B.C.’s last game — Aug. 26 — and completed six of 15 passes for 94 yards, is the third-stringer.
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