Ottawa Redblacks’ Justin Hardy to miss final, so he’s ‘100%’

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The Ottawa Redblacks will be without their standout player when they host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the regular season finale on Friday.

After his back “flared up” during practice earlier this week, receiver Justin Hardy will miss the meaningless game as a precaution, ranking-wise, in what is being painted.

“The most important thing is we want to make sure he’s 100 percent ready next week,” said Redblacks head coach Bob Dyce, whose team will travel to Toronto on Nov. 2 for the semifinal of the Canadian Football League’s East Division . “Hey, we’re getting him out. We have Dre (Andre Miller), who has played a lot of football for us, so we’ll just put him in the lineup.'”

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Hardy, a unanimous choice as the Redblacks MOP, was able to set a number of records against Hamilton.

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While he leads the CFL in catches with 97, he is 127 yards shy of overtaking BC’s Justin McInnis and becomes the first Ottawa player to win a league-winning yards title since Tony Gabriel in 1977.

Hardy’s 1,343 yards is also just 116 yards shy of Greg Ellingson’s 2017 Redblacks single-season record and 128 shy of Gerald Alphin’s 1989 Ottawa football record.

In his past four matches, Hardy’s yardage totals have been 103, 117, 111 and 102.

“When you talk to Justin, all he cares about is the team performance… He doesn’t worry about that,” Dyce said of personal performance. “He knows the most important thing for next week is to make sure he is 100 percent. So he’s not going to sacrifice himself, and we’re certainly not going to sacrifice him just for the sake of records.”

Breaking a five-game slump by beating the Ticats, who will miss the playoffs but have won five of their last six, is not a priority for the Redblacks. Playing good football is central to them.

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Other roster changes for Game 18 include receiver Bralon Addison starting at running back as a replacement for Khalan Laborn. Addison is joined by return specialist DeVonte Dedmon, who comes off the injured list and is playing his first game since Week 13.

Also making an appearance for the first time since Week 13 will be defensive stalwart Bryce Carter.

“We want to make sure we have all of our playmakers on the field,” Dyce said when asked about the position change for Addison, who has carried the ball 19 times for 113 yards this season but will make his first start in the backfield . . “Bralon has a great history in this offense and, as I’ve always said, he’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever had. He has a great sense of protection and knows all the nuances in this offense.”

By scoring 25 unanswered points in last week’s 38-31 loss to Toronto, the Redblacks showed signs of emerging from a fog in which they had won just one game in two months.

They hope to follow a similar path blazed by the Argos, who trailed 31-3 at halftime against the Redblacks on September 7 before winning the final two quarters 24-10.

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Since then, the Argos have recorded four wins in five games.

“This team has always done a great job of fighting until the final whistle,” Redblacks guard Drew Desjarlais said. “Taking advantage of any positive momentum will always help. We came out of that game (last week) obviously not happy with ourselves and the missed opportunity to play here at home in the play-offs. But eventually we started to get it going a little bit, and I hope we can carry some of that energy into this week.”

Dyce emphasizes the importance of ‘performing at a high level’ against the Ticats and points to the ‘opportunity’ the Redblacks have in front of them.

“All you have to look at is a situation like Marco (Dubois),” Dyce said of his beloved special teams player, who suffered a season-ending broken collarbone last week. “Here’s a guy who’s been here since 2018 and went to the Gray Cup that year. We qualify for the play-offs and he won’t get that chance (this year). So you have to make the most of every opportunity, because you don’t know when you’ll get the next one.”

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That also does not mean that the Redblacks are worried about injuries against Hamilton.

“We know this is a game where we focus on being our best,” Dyce said. “It’s just that simple. In practice you can sustain an injury in the same way. So we go out with the same focus that we would have every week to be at our best.”

Dedmon is looking forward to embracing the competitiveness of a game again.

“They come into this ready,” he said of the Ticats. “They’re going to pull out all the stops to try to derail us going into the playoffs. “We’re going to try to build momentum going into the playoffs and they’re going to do everything they can to stop us.”

Quarterback Dru Brown says Friday’s game against Hamilton is important because “it’s next.”

“I don’t think we show up to differentiate which games matter and which games don’t,” Brown said. “We show up because we like to compete and that’s what we do.”

GO DEEP

In other moves for the Redblacks, Adrian Frye replaces Bennett Williams (main) at linebacker, while Carter takes the roster spot for fellow countryman Drake Centers, whose left offensive tackle spot will be manned by Jacob Ruby and Dontae Bull. Keaton Bruggeling replaces Dubois and Daniel Oladejo replaces Justin Howell (knee).

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