Ottawa Redblacks learning about composure, the hard way

What's unique about three-down football is how quickly the roof can fall in if a faltering team can't break a run of sustained drives allowed, two-and-outs on offence, turnovers and short fields. The Ottawa Redblacks were blown out for the first time Saturday during their 38-14 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, where they coughed up 32 points in just a shade more than 22 minutes.

Ottawa, prior to Saturday, had been in every game. Now it is 1-4 heading into three-game gauntlet of games against the Calgary Stampeders sandwiched around an Aug. 15 visit from the Edmonton Eskimos. There isn't, on paper, an odds-on winnable game in the offing until a Labour Day weekend visit to Montreal. The question now is when they will start to get over the gumption traps that they practically seemed to create in the first quarter and a half on Saturday.

"I feel like the young guys, the more games we play, the more they're going to catch on to scenarios and stuff like that," running back Chevon Walker said on Sunday afternoon. "They're getting there. They're learning. It took me a little while to learn.

"But it's all about capitalizing. We have to make plays. That's what it boils down to.

"We didn't play the ball we should have played," said Walker, who signed a two-year contract extension on Friday. "Right now we have to go back to the drawing board and get better as a team... I feel like we're good enough to compete with any team in this league; we just have to come out and get it done on a daily basis."

The Redblacks have betrayed a creeping collective callowness at some point in each contest; they've allowed the most yards in the league, 426.5 per game. It didn't react well to the early 'Riders onslaught, even struggling with having the proper personnel on the field; for instance, on one early snap it lined up with 13 defenders and still yielded a first-down completion over the middle.

"It all just all happened so quick," defensive end Justin Capicciotti said. "It was like we just blinked and they were up by so much already. We have to come out stronger. I think we just had some early mistakes and Saskatchewan capitalized.

"I still think we could have bounced back even though they had that first-quarter lead."

'Brain lapses on the players' part'

The upshot is that coach Rick Campbell — who said Sunday, "Our effort has never been an issue; our execution is where we missed it," — spent Sunday trying to impart accountability. The Redblacks' struggles included being penalized 19 times for 167 yards; whatever one's opinion of CFL officiating, seasoned ballclubs learn how to keep games from becoming Flag Day.

"I will say that is just brain lapses on the players' part because we are well-prepared," said left tackle Jerrail McCuller, who was flagged three times for unnecessary roughness on Saturday. "We have world-class coaches here. I'm not going to sit here and let my voice hint that it's a discipline issue because of the coaches. We have to be accountable in the heat of the moment. As players we have to take more responsibility because we're coached to play sound football."

While the new-team gloss is a long way from wearing off in the nation's capital, the reality is the Redblacks haven't become cohesive. It also doesn't have a game-breaking pass receiver — Weston Dressler, anyone? — or an offensive line anchor. Several starters are learning on the job, and that lack of seasoning is hurting. There is still belief in this group's potential.

"This is the first time I've ever played left tackle," the 6-foot-7, 325-pound McCuller said. "They've prepared me well. I have to pick up on the nuances of the CFL game outside of the X's-and-O's and blocking my man. There's more to a football game than one assignment."

Now a team many believed would need to show progress in Year 1 remains stuck at one win going into a trip to play Calgary, which is smarting from giving up a two-score fourth-quarter lead to the B.C. Lions last Friday. Ottawa has three practices to learn from its mistakes before winging west.

"We need to be good on assignments and what we're supposed to be doing, and when there's a chance to make a play we have to make it," Campbell said.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.