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The Ottawa RedBlacks won the Grey Cup, but the big winner last season was offence across the Canadian Football League.

During CFL Week in March, league vice-president of officiating Glen Johnson was trumpeting the results of recent rule changes that led to the, “highest scoring ever last year, highest quarterback efficiency ratings ever last year, the highest average return on kick ratio.”

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It was all geared toward making things more difficult on defences — a feat that was accomplished to record effect last season.

“They wanted that in Year 1,” Edmonton Eskimos defensive co-ordinator Mike Benevides said of significant rule changes made ahead of the 2015 season.

“But I think in Year 1, the offences hadn’t gotten to the point where they could totally capitalize on it like they did last year.

“And I think what happened across the board is there were a lot of different colleagues I talked to that were trying to use younger guys (on defence). And when the rules changed ahead of that year, all the quarterbacks were hurt, so the efficiency and the scoring goes down. So (the league) reacted and changed things when there wasn’t necessarily anything that needed to change.