Ottawa Redblacks outclassed by Alouettes in home opener (& 13 other thoughts)

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June 14, 2025

On a perfect summer night for football, the Montreal Alouettes rolled into TD Place and hammered the short-handed Ottawa Redblacks by a score of 39-18 to stretch their undefeated streak in the nation’s capital to 11 straight games.

Here are all my thoughts on the game.

1) When your starting quarterback goes down, it’s only natural to expect some kind of drop-off in the level of play you’ll get from your backup. After all, if the backup was as good as the starter, he likely wouldn’t be the backup.

With that said, even if nobody is expecting top-level quarterbacking, you also aren’t expecting the backup to be picked off three times… by defensive linemen.

During the 2024 #CFL regular season, there were 6 pass intercepted behind the line of scrimmage (2 by Matthew Shiltz)

Tonight, Shiltz had 3 passes intercepted behind the line of scrimmage.
#RNation #CFL

— Chris 🇨🇦🏈 Stats Junkie (@statsjunkie.bsky.social) June 14, 2025 at 2:52 AM

Matthew Shiltz did have a handful of impressive throws, most notably the touchdown strike he threw to Bralon Addison in the third quarter, but overall his performance was a letdown. The veteran pivot finished the night with 205 yards, the above-mentioned three interceptions, and a touchdown.

When Shiltz was added to the team in the off-season, it was precisely for these kinds of moments. With Dru Brown unavailable, the hope is that by paying a veteran backup, you’re buying insurance. The kind that might not guarantee wins, but that should at least help keep things afloat until your starter is back. At the bare minimum, your veteran shouldn’t be among the main culprits in a loss. Unfortunately, that was not the case last night.

If Brown is forced to miss more time, it’ll be interesting to see if the team continues to start Shiltz or moves further down the depth chart. Third-year pro Dustin Crum didn’t do much with his lone drive at the end of the game — a dump-off pass for a five-yard loss and a check-down well short of the sticks that had no hope of moving the chains — but if the veteran isn’t getting it done, at some point the conversation has to be seeing what the younger Crum or Tyrie Adams can potentially bring to the table.

2) Speaking of which, Crum has to be better at executing the quarterback sneak. Yes, much of the play’s success is determined by how much push is generated from the big men up front, yet there are things the quarterback sneaking the ball can do to help his linemen out. For example, by getting low and not hesitating to pick a gap once the snap has been received.

Dating back to last season, Crum has had issues with keeping his pads low on the play. It’s almost as if he’s so used to running with the ball that he stays upright to scan the defence and keep his options open. That works on a typical scramble, but a quarterback sneak is not a scramble. It’s fall forward, drive your legs and pray.

Crum is a powerful runner, but he can do more to set himself — and by extension the team — up for success by getting lower when the team runs sneaks.

3) It should be acknowledged that offensive coordinator Tommy Condell’s attack was limited by the fact that he’s working without his starting quarterback, centre, and right tackle. Furthermore, Montreal is arguably the best — and most aggressive — defence in the league. And yet, Condell did himself no favours with some of his play calls.

For example, in the first quarter when it was 3-0 Montreal, Ottawa had the ball on the Alouettes’ five-yard line. Condell dialled up a run to William Stanback. The former Alouette picked up four yards, getting the ball down to the one-yard line. While I don’t hate the QB sneak in that situation, you have to consider just how badly Stanback probably wants to score against his former team. Why not give him another crack? Especially since you knew you were going for it anyway on third down.

Of Ottawa’s 15 possessions, just two gained more than 21 yards. Eight ended in punts, four in turnovers and three in points. Much of the Redblacks’ lack of success can be attributed to the fact that they averaged just three yards per first-down play. When you’re constantly facing second-and-long, it’s hard to sustain drives.

A week after failing to get the always dangerous Kalil Pimpleton involved in the offence, it was good to see Ottawa clearly trying to get the ball into his hands, as reflected by his five targets.

4) To end 2024, the Redblacks’ defence was picked apart and victim to big play after big play. Those explosive negative plays stemmed from a lack of pressure on the opposing quarterback and a porous secondary.

General manager Shawn Burke turned over a number of stones in the offseason trying to rectify those issues — with five offseason additions starting against Montreal — and yet the issues remain.

Ottawa managed a single sack courtesy of Blessman Ta’ala on 32 Montreal dropbacks. Other than that single takedown, on most plays the front seven failed to collapse the pocket or make life uncomfortable for Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander.

Far too often Montreal receivers caught passes with no Redblacks in the vicinity. It’s no surprise that Alexander set a career-high in passing yards (344) because his guys were running wide-open. A full 174 of those yards (more than half) came after the catch. It wasn’t even so much that Ottawa’s defenders were missing tackles — although that happened too — but it was that coverages were just repeatedly blown.

Overall, Montreal averaged 7.7 yards per first down play, and 8.8 yards per second down play. That’s a big reason why they converted 64 percent of their second-down opportunities and scored on seven of their 13 drives.

If you’re looking for bright spots, the Redblacks did limit Montreal to just two-of-five in the red zone and star linebacker Adarius Pickett continues to shine in his return from a ruptured Achilles tendon, collecting five tackles and a fumble recovery.

Defensive back C.J. Coldon made three tackles and also picked off a pass for the second game in a row.

5) A couple of impressive receiving streaks came to a sudden halt against Montreal. Eugene Lewis was sitting on a nine-game touchdown streak, one short of the all-time record of 10 set by Terry Evanshen in 1967-68. His best shot at keeping the streak alive came in the third quarter when he was interfered with on a deep pass that set up the ball on Montreal’s one-yard line. If not for the defender illegally interfering with him, there’s a good chance Lewis not only makes the catch, but punches the ball across the goal line.

Justin Hardy carried a streak of his own into the game, by virtue of having five games in a row of 100+ receiving yards. The CFL record is 8 in a row held jointly by Hal Patterson (1956) and Terry Greer (1983). That mark is safe for now, as Hardy managed to turn the three targets he saw into a pair of catches for just 20 yards.

As for the rest of the receiving corps, Bralon Addison had a game-high six catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. Pimpleton finished with four catches for 42 yards and Canadian rookie Keelan White managed two catches for 22 yards, including a reception that moved the chains on second down.

6) Hands up if you would have guessed that after two games, William Stanback would have just 16 carries for 55 yards to his name. For a team that constantly preaches a desire to be physical and impose their will on opponents, the Redblacks have failed to ensure a steady workload for their bruising veteran running back.

After not being given a carry in Week 1, Canadian back Daniel Adeboboye was handed the ball twice but also found no room to run, managing a total of five yards. Adeboboye did find a bit more space to work with in the passing game, catching three passes for 14 yards.

Part of the issues Ottawa is experiencing stem from poor blocks by the offensive line, combined with the fact that they’ve played two excellent defences. There’s also been a lack of commitment to the run game in terms of play-calling.

But as soon as Ottawa gets their running game back on track, the wins will follow.

7) Overall, the offensive line held up against a fearsome Montreal pass rush. For the second week in a row, veteran Jacob Ruby was at centre and rookie American Darta Lee played right tackle as the duo continued to fill in for Peter Godber and Zack Pelehos.

Where the unit needs to improve and fast is in terms of their run blocking. The Redblacks ran the ball a total of 15 times, yet between handoffs to running backs and quarterback sneaks, the team only had one run longer than three yards. Being stuffed at the goal line on a pair of QB sneaks is also something that simply shouldn’t happen.

8) Ottawa’s undisciplined play continues to cost them. In Week 1, Bob Dyce’s squad was flagged 12 times for 126 yards. In last night’s game against Montreal, the sloppy play continued with the Redblacks being flagged 11 times for 105 yards. Were penalties the reason Ottawa lost the game? Absolutely not. But did they help? Again, absolutely not.

Veteran defensive back Robert Priester was penalized twice for illegal horse-collar tackles, while the offence took a time-count violation, two offsides and procedure penalties. It’s hard enough to win without digging yourself a hole, which by now you hope the team has realized.

9) It was a solid turnout from R-Nation for the team’s home opener. 21,441 were on hand at TD Place but the home faithful didn’t have much patience with their team’s lack of production, as evidenced by the boos that rained down as the first half came to a close. In 2024, the Redblacks set a franchise record going 7-1-1 at home, and if they hope to equal that in 2025, they’ll have to run the table at home for the rest of the season.

10) Maybe it’s just me, but am I crazy for thinking it’s weird how every single highlight the CFL’s official account tweeted out seems just a bit too zoomed in?

For contrast check out some of the highlights the Alouettes’ account was tweeting:

To me, one looks MUCH better than the other, and it’s not close.

11) For a game that finished as a blowout, it’s easy to overlook the fact that it was, in fact, a one-score game at the start of the fourth quarter. Things clearly fell apart in the final 15 minutes, but the team does deserve some credit for hanging with Montreal for as long as they did. Make no mistake, the Alouettes are the class of the East until someone proves otherwise and given the injuries at significant positions that Ottawa is dealing with, they were always in tough.

12) While there’s no need to press the panic button quite yet, there are warning signs that things could go off the rails if changes aren’t made. Something needs to give in the secondary and in terms of the lack of pressure from the defensive line and linebackers. There also needs to be an adjustment in terms of willingness to stick with the run game, especially if Dru Brown continues to miss time. Finally, there have to be consequences for the litany of flags. Until those issues are addressed, the team will continue to struggle.

13) Up next for the Redblacks is a Saturday afternoon game at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. Due to the schedule changes implemented following the pandemic, Ottawa hasn’t played there every year, but the Redblacks have won their last three games in Calgary (2019, 2023 and 2024). That said, if they want to bag their first victory of the season, they’ll need to be much sharper next week.

The post Ottawa Redblacks outclassed by Alouettes in home opener (& 13 other thoughts) appeared first on 3DownNation.



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