Redblacks' Dyce on loss to Argos: 'We have to produce in the second half'

Ottawa Redblacks head coach Bob Dyce has circled second-half performance as an area for improvement after falling to last place in the Eastern division with Sunday's loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

The Redblacks suffered a 44-31 defeat in Toronto, dropping them to 3-6 on the season.

Ottawa entered halftime trailing the Argos 28-24, which bucked a concerning trend in the past month where the team has struggled to score in the opening half of games. However, they were outscored 16-7 in the second half, which left Dyce looking for answers once again.

"It was a good start, a lot quicker than we've had in the last couple of weeks, but at the end of the day, we have to produce in the second half," Dyce told TSN Radio 1200 Ottawa on Monday.

In three of the four games prior to Sunday, the Redblacks failed to score more than eight points in the first half, and while they went on to win two of those contests, it required a Herculean effort in the second half.  

"The expectation is that we will be starting games like [we did on Sunday] moving forward," Dyce said. "There's no magic formula to this, it's just a matter of being in the right state of arousal when the game starts and maintaining it throughout."

One bright spot for Ottawa in the defeat was the play of rookie quarterback Dustin Crum, who had the best game of his young career - he threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns, and completed 81 per cent of his passes - all career highs. 

"It's great to see Dustin's evolution. Obviously a big part of that was shoring up the pass protection, and he felt a lot more comfortable in there," said Dyce. "He took some vertical shots that we were looking for and we were able to connect on a couple of them.

"He's a good drop-back passer... I think some of the initial early success he had running the ball kind of overshadowed that fact so it's great to see him continue to get better."

Dyce was excited about the play of the offensive line at times in the game on Sunday, and is looking forward to possibly adding Dontae Bull into the lineup on Saturday against the Montreal Alouettes. 

Bull was the first overall pick in the 2023 CFL Draft, but has not yet suited up for the Redblacks. 

"Obviously excited to get Bull onto the roster here, he got a little bit of a taste being our extra offensive lineman in our big packages," Dyce said.

The Redblacks surrendered fiver sacks against Toronto, and Dyce has highlighted pressure on the quarterback as an issue that may not have an easy answer even as they prepare to get Bull in the lineup.

"As a group we have to identify what the main challenges [with quarterback pressure] are, and I think we have it narrowed down to a couple of things but it's not always the offensive line," said Dyce. 

"There's a lot of different things that go into it and we have to solidify that area because over the last couple of games we have had too much pressure on the quarterback."

The Redblacks have now lost three straight, and return home with a key matchup against the Alouettes on deck. They trail Montreal by two-and-a-half games in the East division standings. 

"It's extremely important [to beat a divisional opponent], they're an Eastern team, we're sitting at 3-6, we have to start making hay in the East and there's a great opportunity here with Montreal coming into town to start doing that," Dyce noted.