By: Don Campbell
Photo: Johany Jutras – #CFLRoadTrip
If Chantal Covington’s duties as Director of Football Logistics for the Ottawa REDBLACKS were limited to just organizing team travel, she would be just about out of a job.
The REDBLACKS begin an unprecedented stretch of four consecutive home games at TD Place Saturday night against the Toronto Argonauts, a run that includes a Toronto Blue Jays-induced switch of locales from Toronto to Ottawa October 6th.
Now, NHL teams have extended homestands. Baseball teams can play at home for more than a week. But football teams . . . well they are lucky if they get home games back-to-back once or twice in a season.
“When I got a call that we just got an additional home game . . . my only reaction was ‘you’re kidding, right?’ . . . that’s all I could think of,” said REDBLACKS quarterback Henry Burris, the current favourite for the East’s Most Outstanding Player nominee. “I mean it’s unheard of . . . for a team to get four in a row at home.
“There were two things I mentioned to the guys in the locker room. One, I have never experienced anything like it. And two, it’s like having back-to-back Labour Day Classics.
Just two points back of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (with a game in hand) and two points up on the third-place Toronto Argonauts, the surging REDBLACKS put their franchise-high three-game winning streak on the line Saturday night at TD Place against the Argos.
Up next, the REDBLACKS were already scheduled to try and put the last-place Montreal Alouettes far back in their rear-view mirrors five nights later at TD Place.
But when the Blue Jays amazing pennant run forced the Argos to go looking for a replacement site for their October 6th game versus the REDBLACKS, Ottawa management was only to happy to offer up their home.
As if that wasn’t enticing enough to host three home games in a row, the REDBLACKS don’t go anywhere after the re-located Toronto game, instead enjoying 10 days off before hosting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers October 16th.
So considering the team returned from Saskatchewan last Sunday, a quick look at the calendar shows that they will enjoy 25 consecutive days without so much as a travel consideration before heading to Winnipeg the middle of October.
That means outside of trips from home to the stadium, treks to the gym across the way on the site, maybe a lunch at Local or, best yet a ride up the East standings, the REDBLACKS are going nowhere.
If that kind of schedule doesn’t set the table for a playoff push, well nothing can top it. That allows such easy planning for practice. treatments, just everything about preparation.
“I honestly felt if the (Argos) game got bumped it would end up at U of T or York or even Hamilton. I never figured it would come here,” said Burris. “I mean we get to spend all this time in our own beds.
“It’s a humungous advantage and one that we now have to take advantage of it. We have to seize the moment.”
For all the blame he took for last year’s REDBLACKS’ debut at 2-16, Burris deserves a load of the credit for the dramatic turnaround.
Many feel he is throwing the ball as well as he ever has, putting more air under his deep balls and letting his much-improved corps of receivers simply run under his passes.
His 69.4 completion percentage is the highest of his career. His 97.4 quarterback rating rivals his best seasons ad is almost five percentage points higher than his career average. His percentage interceptions to pass attempts in the best in his career.
Burris is also on pace to challenge the 5,000-yards mark in passing for the third time in his career and he can still take off and run when he has to.
Never mind the numbers of now injured Hamilton quarterback Zach Collaros, now out for a season with a knee injury.
If Burris can get the REDBLACKS anywhere close to a Grey Cup berth, maybe just a 2nd-place finish even, Burris is without a doubt the Division’s MOP.
So is anything different about the team’s elder statesmen?
“This is more (Burris) just being comfortable with everyone around him,” said head coach Rick Campbell, who refuses to bite on whether his star is really doing anything different. “This is a whole new set of receivers and an improved offensive line.
“It’s more a comfort level thing. He’s played a long time and it’s about getting comfortable with the people he is playing with and the routes the receivers are running.
“(Burris) has bought into this thing for the very beginning. He’s doing everything we are asking him to do.”
