“Our fans have been with us through thick and thin, and we really want to give them a home playoff game.”
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What did the Ottawa Redblacks do during their well-timed, third and final bye week of the season?
Mostly, they kept busy clinching their first Canadian Football League playoff spot in six years and signing three players to contract extensions.
What they did not do, however, is get completely healthy.
Quarterback Dru Brown, middle linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox, safety Alonzo Addae and return specialist DeVonte Dedmon are among the players from an injured list at least 12-names long who will need a little more time to recover and will miss Monday’s afternoon game in Montreal.
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Linebacker Frankie Griffin and cornerback Brandin Dandridge are among those expected to be ready to go when the Redblacks attempt to end a three-game losing streak against the first-place Alouettes.
“Dru has had some really good progress with his ankle,” head coach Bob Dyce said Thursday, the team’s first day back at practice. “But, I would say this: Anytime you have an injury, and we’ve got a couple of guys like this, you want to make sure they’re 100 percent ready before they go. You don’t want to press or things like that. You want to make sure that mentally, they’re 100 per cent, and the physical part, because both components have to go together. You want to make sure someone can perform at their highest level, and so their bodies will dictate when they’re ready.”
The Redblacks also have the luxury of having at least part of their post-season fate determined after their playoff reservation was delivered last Friday night, when any chance of a crossover by a West Division team was eliminated.
At stake now is home-field advantage in an East Division semifinal against either the Toronto Argonauts or Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
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Both Ottawa and Toronto have three games left, with the Redblacks having 17 points and the Argos 16.
Hamilton has two games left and sits with 12 points.
“It was a little weird,” Redblacks quarterback Jeremiah Masoli said when asked about clinching a playoff spot while sitting at home. “But we were expecting it. We’ve been working hard to earn that record, to get that playoff spot. Obviously we wanted to have it a different way, but, still, you know, we were able to earn that place in there.”
Masoli, who will get the start in Montreal, struggled in the team’s last game, a 29-16 loss in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sept. 28.
He completed 26 of 36 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown, but he also threw three interceptions.
After spending most of the season either recovering from the injury that ended his 2023 season or as the back-up to Brown, the 36-year old veteran is still searching for the groove that made him an all-star with the Tiger-Cats.
“I think we’re building, I think we’re doing better,” Masoli said when asked how he felt about the state of his game. “I think just playing with the guys more and getting more reps with them, feeling more comfortable about anything, any looks, any uncomfortable looks that we really don’t get in practice. Those are the things that you build through chemistry and trust and experience. And so I think we are building that, and it’s there. We’ve just got to execute. You kind of got to get out of our own way some of the times, and just play ball.”
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Asked about the importance of home-field advantage in the playoffs, Masoli said it would be huge.
“First off, for the fans, right?” he said. “Our fans have been with us through thick and thin, and we really want to give them a home playoff game. With that being said, they set the atmosphere and really make it tough on the opponent to communicate. It’s just fun, right? That atmosphere of football for me, I love it. That and the Grey Cup. There’s no better feeling of walking out and everybody’s either for you or against you, and it’s what we’re looking forward to here.”
GOING DEEP: Not able to fully participate in Thursday’s practice was receiver Justin Hardy, who against the Roughriders caught five passes for 111 yards to take over the CFL lead in receiving with 90 grabs for 1,241 yards. “We’re going to see how he responds,” Dyce said of the veteran’s injury. “We’re certainly not cancelling him out for this week. “One thing with Justin: he’s such a professional that he doesn’t necessarily need to be out there. He’s going to know where he needs to be. Getting practice reps is always important, but, at the same time, when you have a guy like that, you know he’s going to be in the right spot, so he can afford to take a couple of days off in terms of preparation for the rest of the season” … Signing extensions over the bye were kicker Lewis Ward (three years), fourth-string QB Tyrie Adams (one year) and long-snapper Peter Adjey (two years). “It’s nice,” Ward said. “It maybe relaxes the mind a little bit for the next couple of years. But I think that was probably only a 24-hour thing nice over the bye week. Coming back, we’ve got a couple games left in the playoff run here, so that’s kind of the main focus.”
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