‘That’s our Achilles heel’: Ottawa Redblacks felled by ’embarrassing’ red-zone execution

Photo: Gord Weber/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

Greek mythology is taking centre stage at the box office these days thanks to Christopher Nolan’s epic film ‘The Odyssey,’ but the Ottawa Redblacks’ own nod to the Trojan War isn’t helping ticket sales.

Ryan Dinwiddie’s troops attempted to storm the walls of the Montreal Alouettes’ end zone on five occasions on Friday night. The invasion of the red zone proved fruitful only once, with the other four trips resulting in an interception, a turnover on downs, and two field goals. That included multiple gaffes on short-yardage plays or third-down gambles with goal to go.

“I think that’s our Achilles heel right now, our short yardage, and it hasn’t been good to us,” Dinwiddie acknowledged post-game.

“We probably should have had two more touchdowns down there. The short yardage, we have one guy block it the opposite way, and we’ve been running to his side the whole time. Things like that are catching up to us, and that’s why we’re not finishing some drives.”

Two things separate the Redblacks from the eponymous hero of fatal flaws. For one, Achilles was a fearsome and revered warrior, undefeated in battle prior to his shocking downfall. Ottawa remains winless through seven games, a model of hapless inefficiency. The legendary half-blood was also slain by a single arrow in his exposed tendon, whereas the CFL’s last-place franchise might as well be a pincushion.

After their latest display of ineptitude, the Redblacks are just 11-of-26 in the red zone this year, a measly 42.3 percent. Third-down gambles, on which they went four-of-seven against Montreal, aren’t much better, with a season-long success rate of 57.1 percent (16-of-28). Those two compounding factors have contributed to a goose egg in the win column and proved critical in the 34-13 loss.

“The story of it for me was really poor execution inside the five-yard line,” quarterback Jake Maier acknowledged. “Between the 10s — the rest of the CFL field, if you may — it almost felt like we scored a bunch of points tonight just in terms of how many first downs we were getting in, and we were staying out of second-and-long for the most part. We were doing a lot of things that we said that we wanted to do, but then once we got inside the five, really poor execution by all of us, and to an embarrassing level, to be truthful to you.”

The ineffectiveness started on Ottawa’s very first offensive drive, as Maier marched his team 56 yards on eight plays to get into scoring position. Then, on second-and-four from the Montreal six-yard line, the embattled QB was forced to rush his delivery, and Ayden Eberhardt couldn’t reel in an ill-placed pass in the end zone. The team settled for a 13-yard field goal.

Their next trip down the field actually bore fruit, as Daniel Adeboboye followed a lead block from 292-pound defensive lineman Jelani Stafford to score on second-and-goal after a nine-play, 58-yard drive. That play would prove to be an anomaly for Ottawa on multiple fronts.

Late in the same frame, the Redblacks found themselves in nearly the same situation on second-and-goal from the two-yard line. This time, Adeboboye was held up for no gain and nearly stripped by Tyrice Beverette. Though the turnover was overturned on review, right tackle Julian Pearl foiled his team’s attempt to go-for-it with an illegal procedure penalty, and Lewis Ward was trotted out for another chip shot.

The field goals ceased in the second half. Facing a daunting deficit, Dinwiddie began to roll the dice on third down, but successes outside the red zone didn’t translate within it. After a 21-yard catch by Justin Hardy on third-and-three put Ottawa in scoring position, Maier was sacked on first down, threw an incompletion on second down, and then was intercepted by defensive end Joshua Archibald on third down at the five-yard line. The Redblacks failed to pick up the blitz off the left side, which caused the quarterback to double-clutch and put the ball in harm’s way.

“I just felt like our defence was giving up some points and felt like we needed a touchdown there because we were down quite a bit. I thought we had to be aggressive. That was our approach going into it,” Dinwiddie said. “We had some good third-down conversions, then we went down there and didn’t finish. That’s disheartening right now.”

History repeated itself yet again at the start of the fourth quarter. After Keelan White was stopped on a screen pass on second-and-inches, Archibald came through untouched between Pearl and first-overall pick Giordano Vaccaro to tackle running back Greg Bell for a loss on third down at the Montreal five-yard line. Yet again, a trip to the red zone ended in a turnover.

“When the chips are down, and you have big third-down situations or second-down situations, and defensively, they’re doing a good job of really forcing the issue and showing you some funky looks and trying to screw up your IDs and the way you’re blocking it, I think sometimes that just kind of gets us,” Maier admitted. “Obviously, there are things that I can do better just in terms of decision-making. There are times where I have a handful of options on a given play, whether I throw it left, I hand it off, I throw something right. I have some options. Just unfortunately, we just weren’t good at executing at all in those spots.”

“We’ve got to look at different avenues. Maybe throw it,” Dinwiddie echoed. “It’s costing us, and we preach details from the get-go in camp, especially in the red zone.  We’re not getting it done down there.”

Ottawa made substantial changes on the defensive side of the ball following Friday’s loss, firing coordinator Will Fields and replacing him with Jeff Reinebold. For all their struggles stopping the Alouettes, though, the result might have been dramatically different had the offence not left 22 points out on the field in a 21-point loss.

“Obviously the scoreboard is going to look what it looks like, but, man, you get stopped three times inside the five-yard line. What if you score all three times? That’s the biggest what-if and woulda, coulda, shoulda aspect of this game,” Maier acknowledged.

Equally dramatic changes to the offence don’t appear to be on the horizon. Maier, who completed 34-of-41 passes for 311 yards and an interception in the loss, has maintained Dinwiddie’s trust throughout the losing skid. Despite persistent issues, the offensive play-caller would also appear to be safe for the foreseeable future, given the Redblacks’ massive investment in him as head coach and general manager, as well as the restrictive operations cap.

Solutions will have to be found in the same details that perplexed them against the Alouettes, as they look to salvage a lost season.

“It’s what it is. It’s reality. We’ve got to find a way to get a win,” Dinwiddie said. “Still not out of it yet, but we’ve got to get on a streak. I said, ‘Let’s just worry about winning one game. Let’s go 1-0 and take it from there.’”

The Redblacks (0-7) will return to action on Friday, August 7, when they visit the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.