Jun 30, 2022
Naylor’s Kickoff: Lions meet Redblacks in clash of improved teams
Both the BC Lions and Ottawa Redblacks have been among the most impressive teams this young season, even though Ottawa is 0-2. And each team's turnaround starts at the quarterback position. Dave Naylor has more setting up Week 4 in the CFL.
By Dave Naylor
Here’s how quickly things can change in the Canadian Football League.
When the Ottawa Redblacks hosted the BC Lions last September, it was a battle of teams going nowhere.
The Lions won by a score of 45-13, just one of five victories they earned on a season that unravelled as it went along.
Ottawa was already playing out the string in a year in which both their starting and backup quarterbacks were lost to season-ending injuries.
Nine months later, a lot has changed as the Lions and Redblacks meet at TD Place Stadium on Thursday night.
Both the Lions and Redblacks have been among the most impressive teams this young CFL season, even though Ottawa is 0-2.
The improvement on both these teams has been immense. And it starts, as it so often does, at the quarterback position.
The cupboard was bare in Ottawa by the end of last season, which made the Redblacks aggressive in free agency under new general manager Shawn Burke. Burke used his connection from Hamilton to sign free-agent quarterback Jeremiah Masoli after the Tiger-Cats made their commitment to Dane Evans.
Masoli represents a massive upgrade over anyone – and there were many – who took a snap for Ottawa between the end of the 2018 season, when Trevor Harris departed, and the start of this season.
Seasoned and still in his prime, Masoli brings a presence Ottawa has badly needed. Playing behind a completely rebuilt offensive line and some nice offensive pieces, the Redblacks look like a team that can compete with anyone in the East.
They sit at 0-2 on the season, but both of those losses came in hard-fought games against the two-time defending Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The Bombers may not be what they were, but Ottawa should have won the first of those two meetings, and could have won the second. Essentially, it appeared the gap between the two teams is gone.
Surprisingly, the Redblacks matched the Blue Bombers in physicality, an area in which Ottawa hasn’t measured up in recent years.
The Redblacks are essentially a team that’s been built from scratch, mostly by taking advantage of the CFL’s extremely liberal free agency.
The question concerns whether this collection of talent can come together to get over the hump in close games. They couldn’t against the Blue Bombers. But that’s the kind of thing that sometimes takes time.
The Lions, meanwhile, aren’t such a different a group than the one that limped down the back half of the schedule and straight out of the playoffs in 2021.
The one big exception being at quarterback, where Michael Reilly is gone to retirement and 24-year-old quarterback Nathan Rourke is setting the world on fire.
The young Canadian has thrown for more than 700 yards and seven touchdowns, without an interception, through two games. Beyond statistics, Rourke’s body language displays tremendous certainty when he has the football in his hands, as if nothing on the field could catch him by surprise.
His completion percentage sits just a touch below 88 per cent on 74 throws. That’s impressive for anyone but is especially so for a guy who only completed 58.7 per cent of his passes during three years at Ohio University.
Rourke has evolved as a passer to fit the CFL game, less dependent on his legs to run and take hits like he often did at Ohio. He attributes working with local kinesiologist Rob Williams with improving his mechanics, his confidence and, ultimately, his accuracy.
His completion average has also been aided by his willingness to complete short, high-percentage throws, allowing his receivers to convert them into productive plays with yards after catch. Against the Argonauts last week, he also demonstrated his ability to throw the ball deep when defensive backs start to creep on his shorter throws.
Besides drawing lots of media attention, Rourke has instantly made the Lions a factor in what looks to be turning into a four-team dogfight in the West Division.
Most preseason projections saw Winnipeg, Calgary and Saskatchewan fighting it out for supremacy in the West. But through the first two weeks of the season, the best team in the CFL has been the BC Lions. And it’s not even close.
Ottawa is coming off a bye and has had two full weeks to focus on derailing the Rourke express.
By the time this game is over, we will have learned a lot about both teams.