TORONTO – On a night where Greg Ellingson had his dancing shoes on, the Ottawa Redblacks also carved out a piece of history.
On Wednesday, in a painfully long game at BMO Field that saw plenty of confusion and flags from the officials, Ellingson had more than 200 yards receiving, with two spectacular long dashes deep into Toronto territory, sidestepping many Argos along the way. It was a huge key in the Redblacks’ 30-20 win over the Argos in a CFL East first-place showdown. The Redblacks are undefeated with three wins and a rare tie.
With the game tied at 20-20 in the fourth quarter, punt returner Tristan Jackson, playing his second game in an Ottawa uniform, took it to the house, squirming past a couple of tacklers before finding open field and scoring the first-ever special teams touchdown for a Redblack – 40 regular-season games into their existence.
“It was all about the guys up front,” said Jackson. “I missed a big return earlier in the game so I tried to make a play. Thanks to the guys up front, it made my job easier.
Просто рекомендуем – управление закупками и снабжением. Что такое расчёт складских площадей. Что такое расчёт грузовой стоимости от профессионалов.
“A couple of guys say I’ve lost some step so I was thinking, ‘Just don’t get caught, don’t get caught, pick your knees up and let’s go.”
Anthony Coombs put the Argos on the scoreboard and up 7-0 with 4:17 left in the first quarter when he jumped over the top of a pile of bodies into the end zone.
“It’s going to be nice, we don’t have to talk about that anymore, we finally got that monkey off our back,” said Redblacks coach Rick Campbell of the special-teams touchdown. “It was a huge momentum play and good on Tristan making the play for us.”
A pass interference call on Toronto’s AJ Jefferson on a ball intended for Ellingson marched the ball 44 yards downfield. Two straight Toronto sacks — one by former Redblack defensive end Shawn Lemon— pushed Ottawa out of field goal range.
Toronto extended its lead to 13-0 (with a missed convert attempt) when Cody Fajardo snuck into the end zone.
On a Trevor Harris pass, Ellingson zigged and zagged and zigged and zagged some more to elude four defenders, running the ball 69 yards downfield and setting the Redblacks up for a four-yard touchdown run by Nic Grigsby. A Chris Milo convert made it 13-7 with less than seven minutes left in the first half. Milo made it 13-10 on the last play of the first half.
“Everybody’s unselfish,” said Ellingson of his big game. “Anybody can have their day in any given game. It just happened to be this game. We designed it to have a lot of screens and make them miss tackles and that’s how it worked out.”
On the opening drive of the second half, Ellingson caught a Harris pass, danced around a couple of defenders and went 77 yards to the one-yard line. Harris lugged the ball into the end zone and Ottawa had a 17-13 lead. In the first minute of the second half, he already had five receptions for 176 yards.
Antoine Pruneau appeared to snuff out a Toronto drive with an interception in the end zone, but Abdul Kanneh was flagged for illegal contact. Redblacks coach Rick Campbell challenged the play, but the original ruling stood. The Argos scored one play later when Brandon Whitaker took a six-yard pass from Ricky Ray and ran untouched into the end zone. A convert made it 20-17 for Toronto.
Harris took a big hit from Lemon early in the fourth quarter, costing the Argos 15 yards. It helped moved the Redblacks into field goal position and Milo tied the game with 11:46 left. A play earlier, it looked like Ottawa got a break when Toronto didn’t challenge what may have been a fumble by Ellingson which tumbled into the end zone.
Milo hit the left upright from 48 yards out – three points that would have put the Argos in an even deeper hole.
On Toronto’s next series, Pruneau made a great defensive play deep in Ottawa territory. On the next play, Ray was sacked by Aston Whiteside and Damaso Munoz.
It seemed like there was constant confusion from the officials. It didn’t look like it was the best night for ref Andre Proulx and his crew. Questionable flags were thrown and it appeared that their interpretation and application of the rules was a bit wonky at times. It also took away from the flow of the game and probably put plenty of TV viewers to sleep – not exactly what the CFL is looking for. Twice, the Redblacks were penalized for “illegal participation.” It’s not a call you see often. Both times, it was a Redblacks player – Ernest Jackson, then Antoine Pruneau – on the field with a play on and their helmet off.
The Redblacks didn’t help themselves with some mind cramps of their own. On a second-and-one situation late in the third quarter, the Redblacks were flagged for illegal procedure, one of a number of mental lapses. After three quarters, Ottawa had already taken 16 penalties for 124 yards.