MONTREAL — The Ottawa Redblacks are still searching for their first win, and now sit in some very lonely company.
Ottawa suffered its 10th straight loss to open the season Thursday night, dropping an ugly 46-16 decision to the league-leading Montreal Alouettes before 22,482 at Molson Stadium.
“Our margin for error is small,” Redblacks quarterback Jake Maier said. “And I think that when a play doesn’t go our way, you can feel it a little bit more as a football team that’s trying to find their footing.”
There were several that didn’t go the Redblacks’ way on Thursday. Most sportsbooks listed the Alouettes as 13.5-point favourites, but even that gap wasn’t wide enough.
Maier struggled with two interceptions, completing 14 of 23 passes for 126 yards. Backup pivot McLeod Bethel-Thompson entered in the fourth quarter and wasn’t much better, completing four of nine passes for 55 yards and a pick.
In their first season under head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie, the Redblacks became just the ninth team to lose its first 10 games of a season.
They’ve dropped 16 straight contests dating back to Sept. 5, 2025 — the longest skid since the Hamilton Wildcats also lost 16 straight in 1948-49, almost a decade before the CFL was formed.
What’s left to play and coach for, Dinwiddie said, is keeping their jobs.
“I just told all the guys, we’ve got to look in the mirror and everybody’s got to do their job better. That should be our focus individually,” said Dinwiddie, who left the Toronto Argonauts last off-season after winning two Grey Cup titles across five seasons as head coach.
Ottawa, playing with a league-high 17 players on the six-game injured list, also extended its losing streak against the Alouettes to 14 games (since Oct. 10, 2022).
Davis Alexander threw for 260 passing yards and two touchdowns on 20-of-23 completions for Montreal (9-1), improving his record to 20-1 as a CFL starter.
Travis Theis rushed for 88 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries while making three receptions for 33 yards. Tyson Philpot caught two touchdowns and had 75 receiving yards and defensive back Kabion Ento forced a pair of turnovers, returning one interception for a TD.
The Redblacks gained a large portion of their yardage thanks to Montreal’s lack of discipline, as the Alouettes totaled 12 penalties for 90 yards.
They also opened the scoring and appeared in rhythm early.
Short-yardage QB Bryson Barnes — following a pass interference penalty — rushed for a one-yard touchdown on the team’s fourth attempt from the goal line.
Maier then carried the Redblacks downfield on Ottawa’s next possession, but Montreal defensive back Nate Beauchemin intercepted an end-zone pass, and the Alouettes quickly made the Redblacks pay with a touchdown at the other end.
“That’s complementary football. Any time that happens, that’s momentum,” Alouettes coach Jason Maas said. “You want to capitalize on every turnover, and particularly those.
“It was into the end zone, we got the ball back and go down and score. Those are huge.”
Things then went from bad to worse for Ottawa.
Redblacks holder Noah Gettman dropped the ball on a kick attempt before Ento stripped him, returning the fumble 49 yards to set up a one-yard TD run by Terry Wilson.
Ento was at it again three minutes later, easily picking off Maier’s pass intended for Kalil Pimpleton and running for a 29-yard TD to take a 21-7 lead with 8:49 remaining in the half.
“We started the game really well. I thought they made a really good play in the corner of the end zone there to kind of get the momentum back in their favour,” Maier said. “And then just another unfortunate play here where Ento stepped in front of (Pimpleton) and took it the other way.
“Nobody’s fault besides mine and not recognizing that that’s the coverage that they were playing, and I just felt like that’s where the game really flipped.”
Maier has started all 10 games for the Redblacks this season. Dinwiddie wasn’t ready to say whether he would make a change ahead of next week’s meeting with the B.C. Lions.
“We’ve got a 10-day week,” Dinwiddie said. “I didn’t think (Bethel-Thompson) looked that sharp in there, right?”
With the season all but lost, Ottawa defensive back Alonzo Addae said the message moving forward is to continue to fight.
“We’re professional football players and we’re getting paid to play a game, so we can’t just lay down and quit,” he said. “Keep the fight, keep the spirit high and continue to play out the rest of the season. We’ve got games left, nobody in the league is going to feel sorry for us.”
The Redblacks have eight more opportunities to earn a win.
Alouettes: Visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Aug. 28.
Redblacks: Host the B.C. Lions on Aug. 30.