Beating the Toronto Argonauts Saturday afternoon at TD Place would be a big deal to Avery Williams. It matters to the veteran linebacker and to his Ottawa Redblacks teammates; it really matters.
Not just because a win would pull the 3-8 Redblacks within two victories of catching the 6-5 Argonauts for first place in the CFL’s East Division, but also because Williams feels like the team owes its fans. Over a three-season span on their home turf, the Redblacks are 1-19 in their past 20 games. To a lot of the fans who’ve shelled out money for their tickets, it’s not good enough. To Williams, one of the team’s heart-and-soul players, it’s also not acceptable.
“Getting a home win, that’s the most important thing,” said Williams. “It hurts we haven’t done it in awhile. We understand what we have to do; the fans really deserve a win.”
After a 1-8 start to their season – to be fair, six of Ottawa’s losses were within reach of winning – the Redblacks won their past two games on the road – against Edmonton and Montreal. Beating the Argos, a team that’s coming off back-to-back wins over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, is do-able – it’s not like Toronto’s season hasn’t had some strong bumps along the way. And if it happens, if the Redblacks can win, what’s already been a bizarre season in the CFL’s East Division, will get a bit loonier.
“We were losing game after game after game and everybody was pointing out we weren’t that far off,” said Williams. “That’s the crazy part of playing in the East this season – nobody is out of it, no matter how grim the season has looked. It’s really hard to win pro football games; a lot of people don’t understand how hard it is. You can’t get lackadaisical. We were 1-8 a few weeks ago and everybody was writing us off. Now we could be fighting for first place.”
“Whenever you’re facing a divisional opponent in the second half of the season – after Labour Day – the intensity and importance is turned up,” said quarterback Nick Arbuckle, who has won both his starts with the Redblacks since being acquired from Edmonton in July. “The fact everybody in the East division is so close in terms of the win-loss record adds even more importance. We’re only going to get two more shots at Toronto; right now we have a 1-0 lead on them in the series. If we do what we need to do and take care of business on Saturday, we’re going into our last game already having won the series and the tiebreaker.”
It wasn’t long ago (July 31) the Redblacks beat the Argos 23-13. And if you look at the stats, Ottawa isn’t so different from Toronto. The big difference? While Ottawa is 0-5 at home, Toronto is 4-3. Asked how his team could figure out a way to win at TD Place, Redblacks coach Paul LaPolice said: “Simple. Play better than the opponent and score one more point than them. We’re not putting a lot of pressure on ourselves; we just have to play better and do the things winning teams do at home.”
For Arbuckle, there’s some extra significance attached. It’ll be his first start in Ottawa; it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Arbuckle signed with the Redblacks in 2020. But the season was wiped out because of the pandemic. In 2021, the Redblacks released Arbuckle when they couldn’t agree on a restructured contract and, instead, signed Matt Nichols to be their starter. Arbuckle signed with the Argos, then was dealt to the Elks. Now, he’s back, looking to prove like he belongs – in Ottawa and in the CFL.
“This is probably the most fun I’ve had playing in a long time,” he said. “(The players) believe in each other, we feel really prepared. When you feel ready for the game, that allows you to play loose and free and have fun.”
What the Redblacks have done the past couple of weeks has helped ease some of the burden that goes with losing week after week.
“The success that allows you to relax also comes from being relaxed in the first place,” said Arbuckle. “It’s not like we were able to go out there and beat Edmonton feeling tense, doubting ourselves and not having a good time. We went in ready to win, believing we could close it off at the end and win. We’ve continued to build on that.”
“You’re happy when you win two games in a row,” said LaPolice. “You’re in a better mood after you win. But it’s a week-to-week business. We have to make sure we handle our business and make sure we play … we don’t think (everything is good) just because we won two games in a row. We still have to work as hard as we can.”
THE END AROUND: Praise Martin-Oguike returns to the Redblacks lineup as a starter. The defensive end has been out since July 16 with a hand injury. Asked about getting back into the lineup, Martin-Oguike said: “It was very frustrating being hurt and not being able to help, but we have a lot of great guys – that makes things better. (This game) is going to be fun – with the rivalry and the history between the two cities.” … DB Brandin Dandridge, who agreed to return to the Redblacks earlier this week, is listed as a starter at cornerback. Also on Ottawa’s Game Day roster: WR Anthony Mahoungou, RB Jackson Bennett and OL Ucambre Williams. Out of the lineup: K Jose Maltos, OL Zack Pelehos and OL Randy Richards … The first CFL Simulation of the season is out. The Redblacks are given a 60.23 per cent chance of making the playoffs, with their odds of winning the East Division at 4.56 per cent and their odds of winning a Grey Cup listed as 1.98 per cent.
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