Le ROUGE ET NOIR terminent leur saison régulière contre les Ti-cats

10/25/2024 03:09 PM

The final game of the 2024 regular season holds no playoff implications for the Ottawa REDBLACKS, but they're not leaving anything in the tank at TD Place on Friday night.

Ottawa won't be using their matchup with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to rest anyone before next week's East Semi-Final against the Toronto Argonauts, as the starters are in, and it's all systems go as the regular season draws to a close.

The REDBLACKS ran out of time as they pursued a historic comeback in Toronto last week, but fell just short in a 38-31 final score. Dru Brown threw for 400 yards, and four touchdowns in the effort, with Bralon Addison hauling in a pair of touchdown passes, while Justin Hardy, and Nick Mardner caught the others. Hardy, and Kalil Pimpleton led the way through the air, each eclipsing 100 yards on the day.

While Hardy won't play due to injury, and down too is Bennett Williams, the REDBLACKS get yet even more reinforcements as the playoffs draw near. Star kick returner DeVonte Dedmon, and premier pass rusher Bryce Carter are back in the lineup. Adrian Frye slides in for Williams.

Unfortunately, in the wake of the Toronto game, Marco Dubois and Lucas Cormier were lost for the season.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION

The Ti-Cats laid a beatdown on the Calgary Stampeders in their final home game of 2024, hanging a 42-20 score on the Stamps at Tim Hortons Field. Bo Levi Mitchell's 450-yard, five-touchdown day was the highlight as the future Hall of Famer now enjoys a 5,000-yard season, and the REDBLACKS will need to slow him down to avoid a track meet.

Greg Bell racked up an explosive 139 yards on 15 carries, while Steven Dunbar and Tim White each caught a pair of touchdowns, with Jevoni Robinson hauling in one of his own.

Hamilton will be missing an impact receiver of their own, however, with their Most Outstanding Rookie Shemar Bridges sidelined for the season finale.

With the season series tied at 1-1, bragging rights are on the line between the REDBLACKS and Ti-Cats at TD Place.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Bob Dyce, Head Coach, on the importance of this game despite no standings implications: "It's important for us to play good football. Dru has only been back for a game, and defensively we had our challenges in the first half (on Saturday). So we've got to make sure we're playing good football heading into the playoffs. There's no meaningless games, especially for us right now. We have to get playing clean football and playing competitive, hard football for four quarters. That's our goal going into this Hamilton game, to go out there and play a great game on our field."

Dru Brown, quarterback, on what it will take to snap Ottawa's five-game losing streak: "You have to stay on the field and get plays. I think the most important play every drive is the first, first down. I bet if you looked at the success rate of points after one first down, it's probably pretty high, outside of the anomaly where you have some other things like penalties happen. We've just got to be able to continue to make good decisions, continue to just execute. It starts with me. We've got to get rolling earlier and we should be good."

BROADCAST INFORMATION

7:00 PM ET | TV (ENG): TSN | TSN 5 | CFL+ | Radio: EN: TSN1200.ca, SiriusXM (ch. 167) | FR: 104,7 FM Outaouais