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Harris completed 44-of-54 passes for 487 yards. The 44 completions (tying Anthony Calvillo, 2008) was just one behind the CFL single-game record of 45 set by Henry Burris as a Redblack in 2015. Just one of Harris’ passes was for a touchdown and he also had an interception on a pass that was tipped at the line into the arms of Chris Ackie, who ran into the end zone for a Montreal touchdown.

The statistics show the game shouldn’t have been close: Ottawa had 587 yards of net offence, compared to 241 for Montreal. Time of possession was a whopping 36:14-23:46 in favour of the Redblacks. Yet it was close, much too close — with Powell’s 10-yard touchdown run to the left coming with 15 seconds left. At the half, the score was 8-5 for Montreal.

“I got the ball, I was scanning the field and saw an opportunity outside 1-on-1 with the defender,” said Powell. “I figured I could just make him miss and get into the end zone.”

“It’s a big win,” said Redblacks coach Rick Campbell. “I never take winning for granted. It was good we were able to step up. It was one of those games that was going back and forth. The thing that was frustrating, in the first half particularly, was we were moving the ball well enough — we were able to do a lot of stuff — but we kept turning the ball over. Taking care of the football is a key and we’ll work on it.”

With 12 seconds left in the first half — third-and-inches deep in Montreal territory — the Redblacks opted to try a trick play with backup quarterback Dominique Davis tolling to his left and trying to connect with receiver Marco Dubois in the end zone instead of leaning forward for the first down. The pass went incomplete and Ottawa wound up with no points out of it.