Roughriders 32, Renegades 25 The Renegades watched Kerry Joseph leave the field after the 12th play of last night's devastating loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
They may not see him step between the lines again until training camp next spring.
Ottawa's No. 1 quarterback was injured at the conclusion of a 46-yard scramble up the middle, suffering what was referred to as a sterno clavicular joint sprain more so by the way he fell than the actual tackle made by Roughriders DB Santino Hall.
Joseph stayed in the game for two more plays but even the pain caused by barking signals was too much.
He was replaced by Darnell Kennedy, who will have to string together a three-game winning streak to keep Ottawa's fading playoff hopes alive if Joseph can't return.
"It's probably a week to an end-of-the-year thing for him," said coach Joe Paopao. "We'll just have to see."
Joseph, who has already missed much of the season with a foot injury, was glum after the game.
"My sternum," he said, referring to the injury. "I couldn't tell you the extent of it ... it's just real sore right now. I have to talk to the trainers, and we'll go from there.
"After the run ... it was the way I fell on it. It's just misfortune."
Injured starting QB or not, it's unfathomable the Renegades could muster just one point in the first half of a game that meant so much to them.
If not for the interception return for a TD by cornerback George McCullough and two outstanding returns by Jason Armstead, they may not have scored another.
"Not an excuse," veteran tackle Chris Burns said of the Joseph injury. "I don't have any answers. We just didn't click. We didn't do what we've got to do. I don't have the stats, but it was not very pretty. And not just the first half, the whole game.
"Thank God for the special teams and defence. On offence, we didn't do s--t."
And so now, with three games left, the Renegades are all but eliminated from the playoff race in a year the Grey Cup will be staged in their own backyard.
To Burns, it's all quite confounding.
"I've been on teams that sucked before, and this isn't one of them," he said. "That's the most frustrating part. This is not a bad team. We just can't keep the offence on the field.
"That's a good team over there, but we've got to beat them. It's frustrating. That's the word we've been using for a long time now, but it's just really, really frustrating."
HIGH AND OUTSIDE: That's the CFL for ya. The first half of last night's game was a disgusting pile of dog barf. And the final 30 minutes was entertainment at its finest ... The fourth-quarter touchdown grab by Renegades WR Curtis Jackson was simply sensational -- and it very well could have been overturned if teams could challenge calls in this league, as on the replay it sure looked like the ball touched the ground ... On the defence's very first play in two weeks, not a single Renegade laid a hand on Kenton Keith as he ran 71 yards up the middle for what was quickly and cleverly identified in the press box as an "untouched" down ... Just how overmatched was the Renegades' secondary against the Saskatchewan passing game was evident on a 16-play drive that started in the first quarter and ended with a one-yard Chris Szarka TD in the second. The march was prolonged by three penalties on Ottawa DBs -- two to Serge Sejour and one on Anthony Malbrough -- for illegal defensive manouevres ... The Roughriders were biding their time before they went back at Dave Donaldson, but ultimately they again isolated on the hobbled Canadian cornerback for a critical, second-half scoring play.
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM...: To replace Sandro Sciortino, did the Renegades sign Brian Holmes or Scott Norwood? Holmes was wide right on his first two field-goal tries. There looked to be a problem with either the snap or the hold on the first, a 28-yarder with the wind at Holmes' back. But he was also short on the second, a 41-yard attempt with the breeze in his face that sparked some serious booing from the Southsiders ... No word of a lie -- during a four- or five-minute span in the second quarter, the teams almost went consecutive plays without drawing a penalty flag. The kiddies games at half time was a welcome break. At least they had some flow ... Pat Woodcock's first reception of the game was for four yards with 2:44 left in the opening half. It was also his last for the Renegades ... Roughriders DB Davin Bush dropped to the ground to do pushups after dropping what should have been a sure interception off Darnell Kennedy late in the second quarter ... Crossed wires -- as P.A. announcer Stuntman Stu urged the crowd to get on its feet and encouraged the "OFFENCE, OFFENCE," the Renegades players and coaches were attempting to silence the fans so the guys on the field could hear Kennedy's cadence.
GOING DEEP: After numerous skipped passes and stalled drives, third-string quarterback Brad Banks finally started warming up on the sidelines by playing toss with team equipment manager Greg Batty. The way the offence was going at that point, the Renegades should have put Batty into the game.
don.brennan@ott.sunpub.com
