Dru Brown attempts to follow up Ottawa’s highest-scoring performance in nearly 30 years when the Redblacks visit the Winnipeg Bombers on Thursday night.
Brown matched his career best of five touchdown passes as Ottawa rallied from a 21-point first-quarter deficit last week to post a 46-42 road victory over the host Toronto Argonauts.
It marked the Redblacks’ biggest offensive splurge since a 56-46 loss against the short-lived Birmingham Barracudas on Sept. 1, 1995.
Brown completed 26 of 31 passes for 373 yards as Ottawa (3-6) won its second straight game following four straight setbacks. He threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Justin Hardy with 41 seconds left for the game-winning score.
“Theoretically, it should be like that when everyone is doing their job, including myself,” Brown said. “We were able to get great field position at times and kind of punch it in.
“If everyone does their job, that’s how it looks.”
Hardy caught seven passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns and Bralon Addison had seven catches for 115 yards and one score. William Stanback thrived on the ground with 84 yards on 17 carries.
Meanwhile, the Blue Bombers (4-4) have dropped four of their past five games.
Winnipeg fell 28-27 to the host Calgary Stampeders on Saturday and the loss was highly painful. Calgary’s Rene Paredes booted a 40-yard field goal as time expired to win it.
“It’s frustrating, man. So frustrating,” said Blue Bombers star running back Brady Oliveira. “I mean, are we really a 4-4 football team? I truly to my core do not believe we are a 4-4 team. I truly believe we’re better than our record shows. We’re really close, but we’ve got to play an entire four quarters.”
Oliveira stood out with 168 scrimmage yards – 68 yards on 12 rushes and 100 yards on nine receptions and quarterback Zach Collaros was 21-of-26 passing for 214 yards and one touchdown.
Winnipeg veteran guard Pat Neufeld said there’s no reason to panic.
“We’re not even halfway through the year yet,” Neufeld said. “There’s no worries or anything, it’s just we’ve got to really start digging in and making sure we’ve got the details covered.”
The Blue Bombers have won nine of the past 12 meetings. Ottawa last won in Winnipeg in 2018.
–Field Level Media
