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It’s official: the Ottawa Redblacks now have the longest losing streak of any CFL team in the modern era.
On Friday night, the Redblacks fell 33-21 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for their 15th straight defeat, a streak that stretches all the way back to the end of last season.
With the loss, the Redblacks surpassed the Shreveport Pirates, who lost 14 straight games in 1994, according to Steve Daniel, a CFL historian and the league’s associate vice-president of football analytics and statistics.
“I would characterize Ottawa as [having] the modern-day record now,” said Daniel.
The fact Ottawa now holds that ignominious distinction is “really disappointing,” said Jimmy Fata, a passionate Redblacks fan who was in Winnipeg Friday night for the record-setting loss.
“I don’t think anybody knows what [the reason] is,” he added. “I wish somebody [knew] what the problem is so we could fix it.”
When the Redblacks play at home, there’s a tradition of cutting a log section (called a “wood cookie”) for every touchdown and then searing a Redblacks logo into it.
“Unfortunately we haven’t been cutting too many biscuits [recently],” said Fata, who’s been part of the crew that saws through the log for years.
Third-longest streak since 1907
In addition to holding the modern-day CFL record, the Redblacks’ streak is also now the third-longest in the entire CFL record book, which goes back to 1907.
Another loss this Thursday against the Montreal Alouettes would see them tie the Hamilton Wildcats — who lost 16 games between 1948 and 1949 — for second place.
Still far off in first place, however, are a pair of Ottawa CFL clubs that lost a combined 25 straight games between 1928 and 1932. (The CFL considers those two squads, the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Ottawa Senators, to be a single entity for historical records.)
According to Daniel, the league evolved significantly after the Second World War.
Football in Canada “professionalized itself” in the post-war period, Daniel said, with teams paying their players “above the table” and becoming “extremely competitive.”
Back when the Rough Riders and the Senators set the 25-game record, the sport was “strictly amateur,” he said.
As for the Wildcats, they were a “late throw-together” club that formed after the existing Hamilton football team left for another league, Daniel said.
They were around for two years and only ever won a single game, he said.
Looking at the 0-9 Redblacks’ latest losing streak, Daniel said he thinks the team needs to continue its “roster rebuild,” mainly on defence.
Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie replaced a lot of players after their eighth loss and made some defensive line changes, Daniel said.
“[On Friday], quite frankly, they played a much better football game,” Daniel said. “I would view that as a step forward.”
‘Through the good and the bad’
One stat sums up the Redblacks’ struggles, Daniel said: they have the lowest percentage of any team when they’ve got the ball in the red zone.
“You get inside the other team’s 20-yard line, a great opportunity to score, and they fail. And they’ve done that over and over again this year,” he said. “Just close, but failing at things other teams succeed on.”
For Fata, it’s essential that fans support their team in moments like this, and he said he doesn’t appreciate “fair-weather fans”
“I look at the team as if you’re raising a child — you support that child through the good and the bad,” he said.
“They got nowhere else to go but up … It is a tough pill to swallow, watching them lose game after game, but [I’m] still a football fan.”
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