One Raven Player Of The Week...And One Raven Who Should Be.

Yesterday wasn't a great day for the city's university football clubs. The University of Ottawa couldn't keep up with Laurier, losing to the tune of 39-21 while Carleton squandered a lead at home to lose to the defending champion Western Mustangs in overtime 26-23.

“We had these guys in the bag,” said Ravens quarterback Mike Arruda, who threw touchdown passes to fullback Mitch Raper and slotback (Phil) Iloki in a wild second quarter, when the Ravens outscored the Mustangs 17-3. “We knew we has these guys after the first half. This should never have come down to overtime." 

“First week (of the schedule) and we’re up 17-3 and I think we took our foot off the pedal. This loss is going to teach us a lot. Maybe the good thing is we sent a scare to the rest of the league. We can feel good about that.”

Sounds a lot like what the RedBlacks went through after blowing a 24-point lead against Toronto earlier this year. If you need learn such a lesson, at least learn it early.

Taking the champs to the wire in such fashion naturally involves a number of outstanding performances and on Ravens player was recognized for his performance; Michael Domagala is the Ontario University Athletics Special Teams player Of The Week.

The Ravens kicker connected on three field goals in the game, while adding a pair of extra points to bring his total output to 11 points for the game. 

His first field goal came in the first quarter, connecting on a 20-yarder to open the game’s scoring. From there, Domagala took it to another level. His second make – a 42-yarder - came in the second quarter to give the Ravens the 6-3 lead, but he saved his best for last. After a Mustangs comeback in the second half gave Western the lead, Domagala stepped up for a game-tying 50-yard make with just one second left on the clock to send the game to overtime.

Acknowledging that relying on stats to tell the whole story can be misleading, another player caught my eye while reviewing the box score.

Let's preface this by pointing that the recipient of the defensive player of the week gathered the following numbers: "Five solo tackles, along with one assisted, to total 5.5 for the game, (later) forcing a fumble. (He) also notched one pass breakup."

Busy day. But I submit it to you Ravens linebacker Josh Walsh.

Photography by Valerie Wutty

Walsh was not the leading tackler on the team. That distinction belongs to fellow linebacker Jack Cassar with nine (and three assists).

But Walsh had eight, also with three assists. He is credited with a sack for an 8-yard loss, two of his tackles were for a total of 11 yards lost, he broke up a pass and intercepted another which he returned for 21 yards.

Maybe stats don't tell the whole story but the part of the story that those tell is pretty convincing.  This is Walsh's third year and, against quality competition, he may have just announced that it's his break out year.

Jo-Anne Polak's Media Guide Page

Inspired by Jo-Anne Polak's selection as a CFL Diversity Is Strength campaign "trailblazers", I thought I would share her bio from the 1989 Rough Riders media guide. It will be easier to read if you open it in another tab. Pardon the inevitable curving at the spine.

The league was quite new to me at the time of the hire. I don't recall being particularly surprised that a woman would get the job or whether a woman in the position created a great deal of controversy.

The only thing I can say is that she is one of the few front office employees from that period (mid 80's to the ugly end in 1996) that is still has the respect of fans from back then.

I only became a fan during "Super Season '88" which concluded with a 2-16 regular season record.

Polak, though, attempted and succeeded in making the fan experience fun regardless of the putrid on-field product. The 1991 media guide (her final year with the team) explains: "Jo-Anne and her staff have instituted an awareness campaign based on player identification, community orientation and unorthodox promotion".

If speaking to someone who's never heard of her, you could begin your description by pointing out that she would be a great fit with the current ownership. Player identification, community orientation and unorthodox promotion have all played large parts in the Redblacks success. Polak applied the same strategy to the Rough Riders 30 years ago.

NFC Quarter Finals: Ottawa Sooners 21 at Sudbury Spartans 14

This game was actually played on July 28th but having been away much of that time, I am only finding out about it now.

The recap below is an abbreviated article from the Sudbury Star and was written by one Ben Leeson. I believe he took the accompanying picture as well. I am copying it from the league's website but am unable to find a direct link to it.

Hunter Holub could have found reasons to hang his head Saturday night. 

His Sudbury Spartans had just dropped a heartbreaker 21-14 decision to the Ottawa Sooners in their Northern Football Conference quarter-final, in a game the Nickel City squad may have won, if not for a dropped TD, a pair of missed field goals and a late fumble. 

...

Hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2015, the Spartans had a slow start against the Sooners, who were missing a couple of strong starters, but remained a quality club on both sides of the ball. 

They showed that when quarterback Danny Mullins led a long first-quarter drive and finished with a short keeper for a TD. The ensuing convert made it 7-0. 

Ottawa’s offence sputtered deep in its own end near the midway mark of the second frame, however, allowing Sudbury to take over at the visitors’ 34-yard line. A 14-yard catch and run by Josh Cuomo put the locals inside the 20, where they came within a hair of scoring a major of their own when Holub found James Howatt open in the end zone, but Howatt couldn’t quite hold onto the pass. 

Spartans kicker Massimo Cimino then attempted a field goal, but booted it just wide.
Sudbury’s defence stymied Ottawa on another drive down the field, sacking Mullins to end the half. 

Holub had just missed Poirier with a long pass when the first-year quarterback aired it out for No. 20 again, this time connecting for a 87-yard score and bringing the crowd to its feet. Cimino’s PAT tied the score, 7-7, with 7:50 left in the third quarter. 

The Spartans missed on another field goal attempt later in the third. 

Ottawa restored its lead (with) Daniel McGrowder’s eight-yard reception in the fourth quarter, then scored again on an option pitch to Mike Leno. 

The Spartans embarked on a strong drive late in the contest that culminated in Holub’s wild scramble for a 21-yard TD, narrowing the score to 21-14, but could come no closer.

The Sooners will travel to Toronto on August 11th to challenge the powerful GTA All-Stars in the league semi-final. Tough gig; The All-Stars beat the Sooners at home earlier this year 39-16.

Killer Instinct, Or Lack Thereof

From the August 2nd game recap:

After a tumultuous first half, (quarterback McLeod) Bethel-Thompson led the Argos back from a 38-14 deficit with the go-ahead touchdown with one second left (in a) 42-41 win over Ottawa to set a wild pace for Week 8 of the CFL season.

The Argos swarm wide receiver Armanti Edwards after he caught the game-winning touchdown pass with one second left Thursday night.  (RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR)

How brutal was that? Losing any one game in that fashion would be painful. As I listened to post-game interviews and read recaps, it occurred to me that it's particularly painful because blowing leads has been a trend with this franchise since inception and shows no sign of going away.

Head Coach Rick Campbell has never been able to make his teams play 60 minutes consistently. All they've been able to do is repeat the same platitudes about "needing to close games out" and "learning from this" post-game. 

The saving grace has been that these blown leads have not all turned wins into losses but they have been frequent enough throughout the team's short history that it's clearly just a part of who they are. 

Rick Campbell is said to be as even-keel as anyone. He preaches that no loss is a complete disaster, no win makes you unbeatable. He keeps his players well-grounded but I now believe the other side of that coin is that he's unable to generate a sense of urgency in his teams when it's needed.

Let's go back to the team's very first game back in 2014. Up 21-7 at the end of the first quarter, they would ultimately lose 36-28 in Winnipeg. The next week, they would lead Edmonton 7-2 at the half and lose 27-11.

All right, that was an expansion team. The following year, the team won 12 games and hosted the Eastern final. That led to the incredible 2nd-and-25 moment, the excitement of which causes us to forget that the team created the need for that miracle in the first place. Ottawa led 25-17 after three quarters only to see the game tied when Henry Burris and Greg Ellingson connected for 93 yards.

But they got to the Grey Cup! Unfortunately they lost it 26-20 to the Edmonton Eskimos when they gave up a TD with just over three minutes left. They had led 20-18 after scoring the game's first 13 points.

Hugh Charles #28 of the Ottawa Redblacks is hit by Cauchy Muamba #8 of the Edmonton Eskimos during first half Grey Cup 103 action at Investors Group Field on November 29, 2015 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

TREVOR HAGAN / GETTY IMAGES

In 2016, winning at home inexplicably became a challenge. Among many home losses, one was a game that went into overtime against Hamilton which Ottawa had led 27-12 at halftime.

The Redblacks did win the Eastern Final in 2016, again needing a late touchdown to seal it. They had led 25-3 but their lead was reduced to 28-23 when Kienan Lafrance ran a touchdown in late to close things out.

Ottawa Redblacks' Kienan Lafrance (27) gets tackled by Edmonton Eskimos' Kenny Ladler (37) during second half CFL Eastern Final action, in Ottawa on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

That, of course, led to an exciting overtime Grey Cup victory against Calgary. It went into overtime even though at one point Ottawa was ahead 27-7 early in the second half.

The 2017 season kicked of with a rematch against Calgary which also went into overtime and resulted in a tie. Ottawa led that game 28-14 with about seven and a half minutes left in the 4th quarter.

Two weeks later, Ottawa hosted Toronto, led 12-1 at halftime but lost 26-25. When they hosted Saskatchewan later in the year, Ottawa led 17-0 with a little over four minutes left in the third quarter but ultimately lost 18-17.

And here we are in 2018, still "learning" and giving post-game speeches about needing to play 60 minutes.

Five years in, those speeches are starting to lack credibility. Display sustained competence for a few weeks in a row and perhaps these blown leads will start to look like the exception rather than the trend.