The Ottawa Redblacks aren’t making any excuses, they don’t want anybody to feel sorry for them.

But enough is enough, right? After yet another painful loss, 33-30 to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday night at TD Place, the Redblacks have just one win and a tie in seven games.

A year ago, they won the East Division with a losing record, 8-9-1. After a strong start to the season, they were awful for most of the rest of the year, before the light switch turned on and they won the Grey Cup.

Said coach Rick Campbell: “We have to keep fighting. This is a tough sport played by tough guys. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”

But is fighting enough, don’t we hear that game after game, loss after loss?

The way things are going in the East, it’s a pretty good bet a West team crosses over as the third playoff team. There’s also a decent chance Ottawa needs to win at least seven games to make the playoffs.

Before they face the undefeated Edmonton Eskimos on Thursday, something has to change. It’s not a simple fix. How do you teach a team how to win? Do you start dumping coaches as some have suggested?

The offensive playcalling has come under fire, probably deservedly so. In a second-and-short situation, it seemed like an odd call to have QB Ryan Lindley try to find a hole off tackle, maybe bounce it to the outside. But isn’t that similar to a play the Calgary Stampeders and backup QB Andrew Buckley have plenty of success with? Double tight ends late in the game? Do you get rid of offensive co-ordinator Jaime Elizondo? If you do, you’d better have somebody better in mind. And does it make any sense to change offensive schemes and philosophies in the middle of a season?

How about the defence? The defensive backs, a group that called themselves DBlock, built their reputation on being aggressive, challenging receivers. What happened to that? They give 10-yard cushions now.

Guys like Winnipeg QB Matt Nichols are poking big holes in that coverage. Do you get rid of defensive co-ordinator Mark Nelson, whose game planning has been a big factor in the success the Redblacks enjoyed in 2015 and 2016? Makes no sense.

What about the decisions? With less than a minute remaining in the game, going into a strong wind, the Redblacks looked to push the ball downfield — in the air. The problem with that is incompletions stop the clock so if you go two and out, well, you lose.

Campbell explained: “I wanted to go win the game. And I wanted our players to think we could go win the game. I wasn’t going to run the ball, have them call time out and punt it.”

We like the aggressiveness. But if that was the intent, we don’t like the play-calling, especially a desperation heave down the right sideline on second down. They needed to work the clock, knowing if they gave the Bomber any time and any kind of field position, it was game over.

The quarterback needs to make better decisions ... quicker. Trevor Harris hangs onto the ball too long. And he gets hit too often.

Friday, the Redblacks gave up a couple of singles on kickoffs. The Redblacks were hoping the strong-legged Justin Medlock would boot the ball through the end zone without it being touched, resulting in no points. Didn’t work out that way, though.

There is a strong belief in each other. Belief, though, soon has to turn into results. The fans are getting restless, frustrated and angry.

“You can call me crazy, but I believe in this team,” Harris said. “We’ll keep fighting and we’ll put together a string of wins. We’re a good team. When adversity comes, some teams break, some teams break records.”

“We’ve dug ourselves quite a hole,” Campbell said. “We’re able to play with anybody. We have to find ways to get on the right side of the score.”

“I definitely think we have the skills, the players, the talent, the coaching to pull ourselves out of this hole,” linebacker Taylor Reed said. “All we can do is go back to work Sunday.”

On full display Friday was the team’s inability to create turnovers.

“Instead of multiple guys wrapping up, we have to strip at the ball,” Reed said. “DB-wise, we can’t be happy with PBUs (passes broken up), if the ball’s in the air, we have to come down with the ball.”

“We had made many opportunities to put the nail in the coffin and we came up short,” defensive lineman Zach Evans said. “It’s like deja-vu. We keep losing by a couple of points. (Defensive line coach Leroy) Blugh always says to never get too high, never get too low — stay on an even keel and keep coming at them like it’s the first play of the game or the last play of the game.”

Easier said than done.

REPORT CARD

Offence C

The stats aren’t horrible: QB Trevor Harris had 27 completions for 263 yards. Running back William Powell had 85 yards on the ground, including a 52-yard dash for a touchdown. But something’s not clicking. They need somebody to be an Ernest Jackson (Juron Criner?), they need somebody like Chris Williams (get the ball to Diontae Spencer) to spread out the field. They also need Harris to make quicker decisions.

Defence C

They got burned early when Keelan Johnson bit on a stop-and-go by Winnipeg’s Ryan Lankford, who went 79 yards for a touchdown. The bend-but-don’t-break strategy worked OK, but there was a bit too much bending. The defence needs to be stripping the ball out of hands and needs to be more aggressive in its coverage, making more “big plays.” Sherrod Baltimore had six tackles. Avery Ellis had two sacks, but Ottawa still needs to get more pressure on the QB.

Special Teams B

Winnipeg got six field goals out of Justin Medlock, but Ottawa’s Brett Maher made both his three-point attempts. Downfield coverage was pretty good. Newcomer Quincy McDuffie returned a missed field goal 50 yards.