‘THE TIME IS NOW’: With lineup changes, Redblacks hope to get back on track in Montreal

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MONTREAL – The Ottawa Redblacks should remember it well – on September 3 at TD Place when they served a humiliating 51-29 stink of a loss to the Montreal Alouettes.

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A little over a month later, the Redblacks hope to write a new chapter in their season, going on tour to play the Alouettes in a Thanksgiving game.

“(The Montreal game) is etched in our brains,” Redblacks defensive lineman Cleyon Laing said Sunday. “I don’t think it was a good representation not only of the defense, but of our team in general. I think many of us have had some sleepless nights in terms of what happened. The most important thing is not to let that happen again. “

The Redblacks are at a point in the season where each loss takes them further away from the possibility of earning a playoff position in the East Division. Even with a 2-6 record, the Redblacks are still not out of it. A win over Montreal would give them the same number of wins as the Als, who are in third place, who still have a game in hand.

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“The focus is definitely on Monday, but it’s also about realizing that the time is now,” Laing said. “It is time to realize that we are almost at the point of do or die. Having 14 games this year … I want to play more, I think everyone else in the dressing room wants to play more.

“He’s an opponent from the East, he’s a good football team,” Redblacks head coach Paul LaPolice said. “And their track record is similar to ours, so we have to make sure we do our job.”

Heading into their ninth game of a season full of adjustments and adaptation, the Redblacks will go with their ninth different offensive line setup. Veteran right guard Nolan MacMillan is out and has been placed on the six-game disabled list. He will be replaced by Juwann Bushell-Beatty. The Redblacks will also go with their third and fourth quarterbacks, Caleb Evans and Taryn Christion, after Dominique Davis and Matt Nichols landed on the six-game disabled list. Evans has started the past two games, looking great and poised in a 34-24 win over Edmonton and good, but at times shaky, in a 35-16 loss to Toronto on Wednesday. Important on defense: Cornerback Sherrod Baltimore returns to the lineup after being out since Game 1 with a quadriceps injury.

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The loss of MacMillan stings.

“He’s been pretty beaten up and he’s got some things going so we have to be on the lookout for whether he’ll be able to play in the next few weeks,” LaPolice said.

Removing a Canadian from the lineup and replacing him with Bushell-Beatty, an American, means the Redblacks have to start a Canadian elsewhere. Then Michael Klukas replaces Kenny Stafford as catcher.

Perhaps the biggest move on the offensive side of the ball is the running back, with De’Lance Turner replacing Timothy Flanders.

“We just wanted to see if we could get a little spark at the running back position,” LaPolice said. “It’s not Timothy’s fault, you have all these lineup changes and sometimes we haven’t blocked things well enough for him. We’ll see what De’Lance gives us. “

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Establishing a running game is something the Redblacks have failed for much of the season.

“I don’t know if frustrating is the word, I think we’ve done some good things in the running game, but obviously we’d like to be more successful,” center Mark Korte said. “We have added some things in the last few weeks that are starting to come together. There is certainly optimism that as we continue to come together as a group and build that continuity, success in the running game will follow. “

You also need to reduce errors. Losing the giveaway / takeout battle is never a formula for success.

“When we go through these things, there are no new lessons that we are learning,” catcher Anthony Coombs said. “It’s all the things we know, we can’t beat ourselves. And last week was a good example of that. We were in the game. And then we made the mistakes that got us out of the game. Moving forward each week, we are trying to put together a game plan where we put our team in the best position to win and make a smart play. The most important way we can move forward is to understand that there is nothing spectacular that the other teams are doing. We are simply making the wrong mistakes at the wrong time. And we have to fix that. “

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Evans will have to make better decisions on Monday; the rookie quarterback threw three interceptions against Toronto, with two of them going the wrong way for touchdowns.

“You take off two of those passes and it’s a decent game,” LaPolice said. “He also has to get us in position to get to the end zone, which he didn’t do a great job in the last game. There were a couple of things that, if he gets it right, we score early touchdowns and change the complexion of the game. We have to get him to see things, process them, mix that with his athletic ability and his ability to create and translate that into points. “

When asked about Evans, Coombs said: “I’m really impressed because you have to keep in mind that he never had a preseason game. And it’s a lot to ask our rookie quarterback to come out and win the game or change the season. I thought that first game against Edmonton, he played absolutely incredible. Against Toronto, the performance was a little different, but we didn’t put all of that down on them. We could have done a lot to help you. We never blame a person. When the offense doesn’t meet our standard, it’s a collective thing. It’s exciting to see someone so young and inexperienced being able to produce at the level they are at. “

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With back-to-back games against Montreal, the Redblacks can turn a season that has included a five-game losing streak.

“For the most part, we are a pretty safe group,” Laing said. “We all have confidence in each other and we are all confident in our ability to play soccer, offensively defensively and on special teams, we’ve shown flashes of that. The biggest hurdle we’ve had is not just showing glimpses of it, but showing it throughout an entire game. “

When asked if the 2021 season was anything like what happened in 2019 (when the Redblacks finished 3-15), Korte said: “Not really (feels like 2019). Caleb has played very well. He has all the tools to be great in this league. If you were a baseball player, people would call you a five-tool player who can do it all. There are many reasons for optimism around here. “

We’ll see if the optimism turns into touchdowns on Monday.