Good fortune helps Redblacks’ success
Good health is also a major factor as Burris was there for 95.1% of plays
Of 1,124 Ottawa Redblacks offensive plays this regular season, Thomas DeMarco was at quarterback for 21 snaps and Danny O’Brien for 34.
The other 1,069 snaps were made with Henry Burris behind centre, which stands not only as a testament to the 40-year-old quarterback’s fitness, but also as an illustration of the Redblacks’ good fortune to have their starting quarterback available for 95.1 per cent of their plays. And that helps explain how their offence went from worst in the CFL to first in so many categories.
Burris was far the from the only one, though.
The Redblacks’ team total of 14 full-season starters led the nineteam CFL.
Next best with 11 were the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Redblacks’ opponents in the East Division final at TD Place stadium on Sunday, followed by nine each for the Westfinalist Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos as well as the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, six for the B.C. Lions and five for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Ticats-Redblacks game on Nov. 7 was the only one on the final weekend of the schedule that could have affected the standings, so several other players who started the previous 17 contests received time off instead.
The Redblacks’ “iron men” include not only defensive tackle Keith Shologan, linebackers Antoine Pruneau and Damaso Munoz and defensive back Jovon Johnson, but also Burris, five offensive linemen and four of their five starting receivers.
“We’ve been able to share the wealth this year, but the fact that we have been able to stay healthy and have the consistency on the field has brought consistency in our play and has made this offence consistent with the number of points that we have been able to produce,” Burris said following practice Thursday.
Burris said consistency in the lineup began to pay off around mid-season, when the Redblacks defeated the Roughriders at home and, after a bye week, took their show on the road, beating B.C. and Saskatchewan to improve to 7-4 on the way to 12-6 overall and first place in the East standings.
“We went on the road in those two games and we answered the call on the important occasions, when the pressure was on us,” said Burris, who in those three contests passed for 1,063 yards and six touchdowns.
“We stood in the face of adversity and we dealt with it. We found ways to make plays at the critical times, we moved the ball when we needed to move it and we were able to mix it up and do a lot of great things against some great teams in some very difficult situations on the road.”
Nitpickers will note that the Roughriders were just 3-15, while the Lions were 7-11 before getting bounced from the playoffs by the Stampeders in the West semifinal.
We went on the road in those two games and we answered the call on the important occasions.
Still, any football team can only win the games on its schedule and, with the offence producing a league-leading total of 5,693 passing yards for Burris and 1,000-yard seasons for four receivers, the Redblacks won eight of their final 10.
Overall, nine of 18 games were decided by a touchdown or less. The Redblacks went 7-2 in such matchups with Burris starting every time.
“We are told every week to keep the quarterback (standing) up,” centre Jon Gott said. “The quarterback runs the whole show for us, so we need the quarterback that has been playing all the games, and it’s Burris right now. It’s great to have him playing every game. It’s just comfortable. We’re all comfortable out there with each other.”
Comfort is the opposite of what seven other CFL clubs faced with regard to quarterbacking this season. Burris was the only passer to start all 18 contests, although Bo Levi Mitchell could have if the Stampeders’ last contest hadn’t been meaningless, but that was it.
Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell, after attributing his veteran QB’s remarkable durability to hard work and good genes, said he wasn’t in the habit of thinking about “what if,” as in what if the blow to Burris’s right shoulder by the Argos’ Ricky Foley in a game on Oct. 6 had been harder or what if the injury to Burris’s left knee from a low hit by the Blue Bombers’ Jamaal Westerman on Oct. 24 had been anything more than minor.
Those were the two biggest scares of the season for the Redblacks. Fortunately, because those hits came at the end of the fourth quarter and the end of the second, respectively, Burris missed only one play each time.
“I don’t think you can play that way or coach that way,” Campbell said. “You’ve got to put the best guys out there and let them play. We’re looking for another good 60 minutes on Sunday.”