The Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat the Ottawa Redblacks 34-16 at TD Place on Friday night. Ottawa was outscored 21-0 in the second half and fell to 0-15. Head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie said postgame he has not been through a stretch like this one.
"I've never been in this situation before, so I'm speaking from a raw wound. I don't know. ... Maybe we feel more weight and more pressure than we should, and we can just open up and play free. But we have those conversations in the locker room, right? There's a lot of grown men working really hard to get in positions to play good football. And it just feels like there's a different leak in the boat each week."
First Half
Dinwiddie said his team controlled the opening half and came away with too little. Ottawa led 16-13 at halftime. "I thought we had a good first half. We should have been up more than 3 going into it," he said. "I thought defense gave us a chance, but we got to make more of our opportunities in the first half."
Ottawa scored on three Paul Geelen field goals and a one-yard Bryson Barnes touchdown run before halftime. "We got to get touchdowns instead of field goals ... There's just too many opportunities that we had an opportunity to kind of separate ourselves a little bit," Dinwiddie said.
Hamilton's Touchdown Drives
Hamilton scored touchdowns on its final three scoring drives, two on Harrison Frost passes to Kenny Lawler and one on a Jake Dolegala run. Asked about the defensive breakdown, Dinwiddie pointed to the run game and quick throws. "They were running the football, and then they had their RPOs, and they didn't have to push the ball down the field, right? They were just finding their low-level checkdowns and moving the chains," he said.
He also addressed the pass rush. "I didn't think our pass rush made those quarterbacks uncomfortable by any means. So we got to find ways to get better, and we got to make the quarterbacks uncomfortable. We got to find ways to get pressure. Now is it manufactured pressure with secondary blitzes? We got to find an answer there."
Second-Half Offense
Dinwiddie said the winless club opened the third quarter with back-to-back two-and-outs. "Early in the second half, when we go 2-and-out back-to-back, it's like, man, that was our opportunity to really kind of put our stamp on this game," he said. "You can't expect the defense to just stand on their head the whole second half."
He took blame for his play-calling. "I didn't think I called the best game in the second half. Probably should have simplified a little bit and let our guys play a little bit more," he said.
Fans
Dinwiddie said he has been struck by the fan base's response. "I think our fans have been great. I know they probably want me out of the door, and I don't blame them, right? We haven't won a game, and I apologize to those guys. I haven't done a good enough job," he said.
He pointed back to the crowd at Ottawa's previous home game. "It wasn't a big crowd, but they were loud, and you could see it in the 4th quarter. It was nice playing in front of that environment. I think they did give us some juice in the last game, and we didn't give them nothing to really cheer for tonight. Appreciate their loyalty, and it doesn't get unnoticed."
Defense
Jeff Reinebold has run the Ottawa defense since Aug. 1, when the club relieved Will Fields of his duties at 0-7. Dinwiddie said the group should build on what it has rather than overhaul it. "I think defense, let's build off what we got, get some youth going," he said.
Ottawa forced one turnover, an Alonzo Addae interception. "We didn't get any turnovers outside of Zo's right before halftime. We got to find ways to get the football and not make it so easy on the quarterback on the other side. We got to disguise some things, and we got to hit them," Dinwiddie said.