Penalties, poor offence, as Redblacks lose fourth in a row

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The Ottawa Redblacks embarrassed themselves Monday afternoon.

It was downright shameful that they made it rain flags on a wet day at Percival Molson Stadium when they warned a million times what would happen if they did.

When defeating the Montreal Alouettes could have gone a long way toward them hosting the East Division semifinal, the Redblacks did all they could to lose.

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Mostly, they ignored the pleas of head coach Bob Dyce to play disciplined football — a request he made countless times while they blatantly and irresponsibly established themselves as the most penalized team in the CFL through the first 15 weeks, and then picked up again over the last few days as the Redblacks head down the home stretch — and instead drew flags at the most alarming pace yet.

They refused to control themselves in the first half — when the majority of their nine penalties for 97 yards were of the “preventable” variety — while greatly helping the Alouettes to a 13-3 lead at the intermission.

For the opening 30 minutes, before whatever was said in the locker room at the break, it was like they repeatedly gave the middle finger to Dyce, who praises and protects them daily, in what became a 19-12 final that represented their fourth straight defeat.

After such a very strong first half of the season, they are now 8-7-1 and one point behind the Toronto Argonauts with two weeks left in the CFL’s regular season.

If the Redblacks lose to the Argos when the teams meet on Saturday, they finish third in the division and will return to Toronto a couple of weeks later for the East semifinal.

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Even if the Redblacks win next Saturday, a loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Oct. 25, and a Toronto win in Edmonton later that same night, leaves Ottawa in third.

Along with losing a potentially lucrative playoff gate, the Redblacks would be in tough to advance from a do-or-die game at BMO Field.

Ottawa is 6-1-1 at home and 2-6-0 on the road.

But at this point, does making it to the East final in Montreal on Nov. 9 even matter?

Again, the Redblacks can not control themselves when it comes to the Alouettes.

Look at what has happened in three showdowns this season:

WEEK 3: Ottawa 21 at Montreal 47 (Redblacks: Nine penalties, 115 yards. Alouettes: Seven penalties, 85 yards).

WEEK 16: Montreal 24 at Ottawa 12 (Redblacks: 11 penalties, 137 yards. Alouettes: Six penalties, 55 yards).

WEEK 19: Ottawa 12 at Montreal 19 (Redblacks: 12 penalties, 122 yards. Alouettes: Seven penalties, 59 yards).

In three games, the Redblacks have been outscored 90-45 by the Alouettes largely because they have taken 32 penalties for 374 yards while Montreal has been flagged 20 times for 199 yards.

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“Obviously, it’s the same challenge we faced earlier, with regards to penalties,” Dyce told TSN 1200’s A.J. Jakubec. “I’m never going to question these guys’ effort, but you’re going to be disciplined at this time of year and not put yourself in deficits.”

Asked what he’s going to do about the problem, Dyce replied: “We’ll take care of that this week.”

One move is to send defensive back Monshadrik (Money) Hunter the way of Ryquell (Rock) Armstead.

On the Week 3 trip to Montreal, Hunter took a couple of bad penalties (and played poorly) before suffering an injury that kept him off the roster until Week 17.  He started at safety in that game and played decently, but on Monday, he was up to his old tricks.

In the first quarter, the Redblacks took four consecutive penalties — two by special teamer Silas Stewart that bookended a pair on the same play by Hunter for grabbing a facemask and unnecessary roughness, moving the ball from the Ottawa 23 to the six.

One snap later, Alouettes backup quarterback Davis Alexander (who was starting in this meaningless game for Montreal), scored the day’s only touchdown on an end run.

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Hunter doesn’t learn.

Later in the half, after he was once again getting tough with an Alouettes player around the Redblacks bench, Hunter had to be pulled aside by Dyce and scolded publicly like a child.

The problem with cutting Hunter is that the Redblacks have two safeties, Alonzo Addae and Ty Cranston, on the injured list.

But if for nothing other than making it rain flags on a wet day in Montreal, Money can no longer be trusted.

WOE IS THE OFFENCE

It was a rainy day in Montreal, but that can’t be an excuse for why the Redblacks offence was so bad — because it has been bad for a while as the team has scored just 61 points in its last four games (15.1 average).

Even in the team’s 41-27 victory over Toronto five weeks ago (which also was played in rain, by the way), the offence crossed the goal line only twice, as Damon Webb had two Pick Sixes.

To take it back further, six games ago the Redblacks lost 38-12 to the B.C. Lions in Victoia and the offence scored once, bringing the number of TDs scored in the last six games by Tommy Condell’s group to five.

On Monday, the group failed to visit the end zone on three trips inside the Als’ 15, once because of an unsportsmanlike penalty by rookie Nick Mardner.

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Redblacks QB Jeremiah Masoli floated one interception around the Montreal 20-yard line while completing 19 of 34 pass attempts for 216 yards — after going 6 of 10 for 57 yards in the first half.

“It’s tough, you know, not being able to put it in the end zone for our defence, and just play that complementary football like we wanted to,” Masoli told Jakubec. “We’ve got to figure it out.”

Ottawa has scored just two touchdowns in its last three games.

The offensive “stars” for the Redblacks on Monday were Kalil Pimpleton (eight catches for 74 yards) and running back Khalan Laborn (10 carries, 55 yards).

ADDED IT TO THE LIST

The Redblacks suffered an injury to another key player when right tackle Dariusz Bladek went down in the first half. He was replaced by Dontae Bull, the former first-overall pick who, according to the undependable stats, has played in only six games this season — and not because of injury. With left tackle Dino Boyd (pectoral) out for the season and veteran centre Cyrille Hogan-Saindon and second-year player Drake Centers also on the injured list, pickings are getting slim where the Redblacks have to be at their heaviest.

To end on a brighter note, barring any setbacks the Redblacks should be getting Dru Brown, Jovan Santos-Knox and possibly Justin Hardy back for Saturday’s game, and their last shot at guaranteeing the first playoff date at TD Place since Nov. 18, 2018.

But who’s counting?

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