The home misery continues for the Ottawa Redblacks.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats came into a rainy TD Place Stadium on Wednesday night and handed the host side its 11th straight loss in the nation’s capital.
With third string quarterback David Watford starting his second game in a row at the offensive helm, Hamilton’s defence was able to push the team to their second straight victory and into first in the East Division.
Included was an 88 yard interception return by cornerback Jumal Rolle.
In the low scoring affair, Watford finished with 115 yards and a touchdown while leading the team in rushing with 54 yards. Despite Watford’s low totals, his offensive production still gave the team what they were looking for, a lack of turnovers.
Ottawa’s offence could not get rolling at any point in the game. At the half the home team was able to only register 26 passing yards on nine drives.
Halfway through the season, the Redblacks sit last in the league for both total yards and points, leaving them with a CFL worst 1- 5 record.
“I don’t know if people really understand,” said head coach Paul LaPolice. “They go home after the game and go, ‘Oh, yeah, you won or you lost, what are you doing the next couple of days?’ Well, you’re going right back to the office and trying to find a chance to win.
“Obviously, I’m frustrated. I was very disappointed. We need to respond.”
For the Redblacks, this game went from bad to worse as the two quarterbacks who dressed both wound up injured in the fourth quarter. After starter Dominique Davis came up limping on the Rolle interception, Matt Nichols was brought in to play. His night would not last long either.
Scrambling on second down, Nichols got up immediately holding his wrist, heading to the sideline. With seven minutes left in the game, wide receiver Nate Behar was forced to fill in as the emergency quarterback.
The lone bright spot for Ottawa seemed to be their special teams units and DeVonte Dedmon who returned a punt 60 yards for the Redblacks’ only points on the night.
Dedmon is fourth in the league for punt return yards with 236 and leads the league in kick return yardage with 582.
Ottawa’s major question moving forward is at quarterback. If Davis is out for significant time, and Nichols is still dealing with his wrist injury, this leaves Caleb Evans or Taryn Christion, both rookies, to fill in until recent signee Devlin Hodges finishes his quarantine.
As for Hamilton, their injuries and issues at quarterback and poor offensive line play has not slowed their season as they have won four of their last five outings turning around the team from their 0-2 start.