CFL.ca staff
Quebec City – For the Ottawa REDBLACKS, it feels like their pre-season is finishing before it even started.
They play their second and final exhibition tilt Saturday night at Stade TELUS-Université Laval against the Montreal Alouettes. But for Montreal, this is only the first time they will see game action as they have one more contest next week before the regular season begins.
In a unique scheduling quirk, the REDBLACKS opened the pre-season schedule on Monday in a loss to the Ticats. Now, the team plays another game just five days later before having almost a week and a half off until the opener.
This game could provide crucial intel on the opponent for both sides as the two teams will face each other again on June 25 to kick off the regular season.
“I’d rather have it this way, where we’re the early team than the late team. It’s a little bit of a grind for our guys right now in that none of these are home games and we’re travelling and they’re five days apart,” said REDBLACKS head coach Rick Campbell. “That’s a little bit of grind on the guys but we talked about that.
“We push hard and work hard through this. I think when we come out the other side, we’re going to have a pretty good picture of what our football team is going to be about and have a full week of working on ourselves while the other teams are going to play another game.”
The long break in between game action could prove to be either a blessing or a curse for Ottawa. Having that much time off in between games could result in lost momentum or gameday intensity.
For both Ottawa and Montreal, everyone who is healthy will be dressing. The Als placed Tanner Marsh on the six-game injured list earlier in the week but welcomed back Dan LeFevour that same day. Head coach Tom Higgins said that LeFevour is likely to dress but probably won’t play. This way, he can still participate in pregame and be involved on the sideline but still feels LeFevour needs more practice time before seeing any action.
The game also marks the coaching debut of Alouettes legend Anthony Calvillo. The receivers coach has been learning on the job but now has a greater appreciation for other positions on the roster.
“Each position is unique. For me as a quarterback when I played, I knew where everybody had to be, period, but I didn’t know how they had to run their routes, what were their splits, I didn’t know all that,” said Calvillo, who his players refer to as A.C. or Coach A.C. “So as a receivers coach, I have to make sure that I know their splits, their depth in their routes, their adjustments on splits, all of the different formations. So it’s a different challenge.”
The REDBLACKS aren’t putting in too much stock into their blowout loss on Monday. Campbell says it’s important to be smart in the pre-season and use it as a time to evaluate.
“When you’re in competitive sports you always want to win. You’re always happy when you win and disappointed when you lose but we don’t want to ever lose sight of the fact we’re here to evaluate,” said Campbell. “We’re here to play well and understand the schemes we’re trying to run so that you can get prepared for the regular season. Especially in the pre-season, you can’t get too high or too low”
Campbell also said that he’s looking forward to having fun in Quebec City, a place neither he or many of his players have been. The team will have a chance to play in a stadium that’s new to them and Campbell hopes that it will maintain the good vibe around camp. He says he will lean on his veterans a bit more during the team’s final pre-season contest.
“We’ve had a couple good days of practice here. The guys have been upbeat and energetic, which is good. We’re also going to have a little bit more focused approach on playing guys a little bit longer and getting a good look to see where we’re at.”
