Ottawa Redblacks run into win column, beat Calgary in downpour (& 12 other thoughts)

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June 22, 2025

Who knew that all it would take for the Ottawa Redblacks to get their first win of the 2025 season was a trip to Calgary, pouring rain, single-digit temperatures, gusting wind, their backup quarterback, and a heavy dose of their powerful running backs?

It wasn’t pretty at times, but it might as well have been a Picasso as far as R-Nation was concerned, as the Redblacks hung on to beat the Stampeders by a score of 20-12.

Here are all my thoughts on the game.

1) For the third week in a row, the Redblacks had a new quarterback under centre. A week after veteran Matthew Shiltz was less than impressive and with Dru Brown still nursing a hip injury, head coach Bob Dyce turned to Dustin Crum.

Although it had been 603 days since Crum’s last start for Ottawa, it wasn’t as if he’d been injured or out of football. He dressed for every game in 2024 and 2025, handling all the short-yardage duties. Still, it’s one thing to take the field as part of a small package of plays, and it’s another to be the guy directing every snap of the offence.

Given the elements, Crum’s stats mattered less than his decisions. And to his credit, the 26-year-old did everything necessary to secure Ottawa’s first win of the season and the fourth of his career. He was smart about where he put the ball — by my count, there was only one throw at risk of being intercepted — and used his legs effectively, not just to take off and scramble, but also to buy time while keeping his eyes down the field.

Crum looked calm and didn’t panic when things broke down around him. When he passed the ball, it was clear he was going through his reads and making safe decisions. It was also noteworthy that when he did take off and run, he managed to avoid taking big shots. Too often during his time with the Redblacks, Crum has left himself exposed when he scrambles, but against Calgary, he did a good job of knowing when to go down or step out of bounds before absorbing an unnecessarily punishing shot.

His final stats weren’t pretty — nine-of-22 passes completed for 111 yards and a touchdown — but those numbers would look a hell of a lot better if not for seven (yes, you read that right) drops. Crum also ran the ball 11 times for 64 yards, with three of those going for gains of 10+ yards. Most importantly, he never turned the ball over.

All in, it was about as good an outing as anyone could have hoped for given the conditions.

2) Forget recent geopolitical events, Canada and the U.S. work just great together… at least when it comes to Ottawa’s running backs. The circumstances lent themselves to running the football, which is exactly what the Redblacks did. Both American William Stanback and Canadian Daniel Adeboboye were featured prominently in the team’s attack, and both made the most of the opportunities they were given.

Stanback averaged 9.1 yards per carry, turning nine rushes into 82 yards. That yardage total also helped him eclipse a significant career mark, with the 30-year-old passing 5,000 rushing yards.

Not to be outdone, Adeboboye averaged 9.6 yards per carry, turning 10 rushing opportunities into 96 yards. He also chipped in with a pair of catches for 17 yards and a touchdown.

Obviously, not every game will feature such an even split of carries, but it does seem like offensive coordinator Tommy Condell found a formula that’s conducive to winning football, regardless of the weather.

3) With the weather being such a factor, I’m not going to overanalyze the team’s offensive stats. Condell deserves credit for effectively scheming up successful running plays despite the fact that the Stampeders knew what was coming. An early season criticism has been that Ottawa wasn’t running the ball enough, but on Saturday afternoon, Ottawa’s offensive coordinator dialled up 31 runs to 22 passes.

The Redblacks managed 349 yards of total offence and went one-for-three in the red zone. The only play-calls fans might take issue with came in the first quarter following Calgary’s missed field goal. After returner DeVonte Dedmon elected to bring the ball out of the end zone, Ottawa wound up backed up to its one-yard line following a penalty. Running the ball twice in a row might have bought the team some space to punt. Instead, the Redblacks elected to pass on consecutive plays and wound up with an incompletion and a sack that led to a safety. Situationally, it felt like that could have been played that better.

4) It’s never smart to overreact to a single game, and I’m definitely not trying to imply all of the issues we’ve seen from Ottawa’s defence are suddenly solved, but it was an encouraging outing from the group. Defensive coordinator William Fields will appreciate his group’s efforts in being opportunistic and generating five turnovers.

Yes, the rain made the defence’s life easier, but the conditions should take nothing away from a couple of incredible individual performances.

Defensive back Adrian Frye was the player of the game, with five defensive tackles — including two for a loss and one on the goal line that forced a turnover on downs — a forced fumble (his third of the season), and a special teams tackle.

Middle linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox was constantly around the ball, making eight tackles. Canadian safety Charlie Ringland had five tackles and snagged his first career interception. 2024 second-round pick Daniel Okopoko made four tackles and had a sack. Muftah Ageli, the 33rd pick in the 2025 draft, had two tackles and notched his first career sack. Finally, linebacker Frankie Griffin knocked down a pair of passes, both times while coming in hot on the blitz.

5) For all the defence did right — two turnovers inside the red zone, five total turnovers, and limiting Calgary to just 33 percent on second down — some things still need to be cleaned up. For example, even in the rain, there were still far too many guys running wide open in the secondary. Contested catches rarely happen, which is something that needs to change immediately. Furthermore, giving up 160 yards on the ground is never ideal.

6) On a day when no receiver had more than two catches, the receiving corps still deserves plenty of credit… for their blocking. As a group, Ottawa’s pass-catchers were a huge factor in why the team was so successful running the ball. It speaks to the character of the players when they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty in the run game. Everyone blocked well, but in particular Bralon Addison, Justin Hardy, Eugene Lewis and Keelan White all had some noticeably good blocks.

The strong blocking is what saves the group’s performance otherwise being graded as dismal, because although it was raining, the number of drops was inexcusable. In total, Ottawa’s receivers dropped seven passes. Lewis dropped a pair (including an easy touchdown), Kalil Pimpleton dropped two (including one that would’ve been for a huge gain), while White, Stanback and Gosselin each dropped a pass that hit them square in the hands.

Pimpleton led the team with 31 yards, followed by the Canadian rookie Keelan White, who had a team-high 17 yards after the catch.

7) Kudos to the entire offensive line. Dino Boyd, Drew Desjarlais, Jacob Ruby, Dariusz Bladek, and Darta Lee were indispensable in ensuring the Redblacks came away with the win. Any time you average 7.7 yards per rush, the big men up front are earning their paycheque. As a unit, Ottawa’s offensive line repeatedly managed to get to the second level and get hands on linebackers and defensive backs, which helped push the pile. Overall, the Redblacks finished with 239 yards on the ground.

The pass protection was solid as well, with the group conceding just a single sack on 22 dropbacks. I want to take a second to give an extra shoutout to Ruby. The veteran has been filling in at centre, a position he didn’t play at all in 2024. The fact that he didn’t have a bad shotgun snap in pouring rain deserves mention.

8) In terms of special teams, I thought the unit played very well aside from the above-mentioned decision by Dedmon to attempt to return Calgary’s missed field goal in the first quarter. On one hand, I understand that Dedmon is an electric returner and that in slippery conditions, the possibility of him busting a long return is real. On the other hand, conceding the rouge would’ve put Ottawa in much more favourable field position. Whether he was told to bring the ball out or whether he simply chose to, the decision backfired and led to a safety. Given how close the game was, that decision loomed large for almost 60 minutes.

As for the rest of the group, kicker Lewis Ward connected on four of his five attempts, splitting the uprights from 34, 22, 27 and 33 yards out. His fourth quarter 48-yard attempt clanked off the left upright. Richie Leone punted five times, and his 92-yard rouge was crucial in stretching Ottawa’s lead late in the game.

Former Gee-Gee James Peter led the way in kick coverage, amassing three special teams tackles. Like Ruby, long snapper Simon Chaves deserves props for snapping well despite the weather.

9) Here’s your weird stat of the game: the Redblacks never returned a kickoff. After winning the toss, Ottawa deferred to start the game, which meant they kicked to Calgary. Coming out of the half, Dyce smartly chose the wind, which meant the Redblacks again kicked off.

10) I loved that Ottawa used their black home uniforms on the road. The look is so much better and sharper than their current road whites, although I’ve been told those are in the process of being overhauled.

11) The announced attendance at McMahon Stadium was 15,684, but if there were actually a couple thousand fans present, I’d be surprised.

As much as I completely understand nobody wanting to sit in cold, rainy weather in June, you only get nine regular-season CFL home games per year. Not to mention the Stampeders were 2-0 heading into a game they were favoured to win, so I would’ve thought there would be a bit of a bigger crowd given the number of tickets sold/distributed. With that said, full credit to every single person who did show up.

12) With the win, Dyce’s squad improves to 1-2 on the season and stretches their winning streak at McMahon Stadium to four in a row. The victory moves the Redblacks into second place in the East division as both Toronto and Hamilton are currently winless. For all the noise in recent weeks surrounding the team’s slow start to 2025, Ottawa has a chance to be .500 next week when they welcome the 0-3 Argonauts to TD Place.

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