There have been a lot of people around the CFL, maybe some fans, too, asking, ‘What’s wrong with Henry Burris?’

Maybe he’s injured or maybe just too old?

The 39-year-old Ottawa RedBlacks quarterback says he’s fine, smarting only from the four losses his team has absorbed in this young CFL season, especially the 38-14 tail-whipping they got from the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday.

“I’m good,” said Burris after the RedBlacks practised Thursday at TD Place. “They were asking Peyton Manning the question, ‘Why do you throw so many ducks?’ He was like, ‘Hey, they still count as touchdowns.’

“You’re trying to get the laces on the ball, then you have to let it rip. Sometimes it comes out that way. I’m fine. I’m just fine.”

Fine as in healthy fine, not fine as in happy with his performance. Burris says he needs to be better and it needs to start Saturday in Calgary, when the 1-4 RedBlacks take on the 4-1 Stampeders, whose only blemish was a 25-24 setback to B.C. last Friday.

“I’ve been 1-4, I’ve been 1-5 before,” said Burris. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. That’s what I want people to know. The first five games isn’t going to win us a Grey Cup. It sets the bar for the team we can become. We’ve seen the bad football on tape. We don’t need to make those errors again.

“In the end, it all comes back on me. I’ve been in this league 17 years, I’ve been through this before. We’re going to find a way to come out of this.

“I’ve made some bad throws, had some bad reads – those kind of things lead to inconsistency and that’s what we’ve had so far. I am the numero uno when it comes to offence. As a quarterback, you always have the ball in your hands. When it comes to being the face, 9.9 times out of 10 the starting quarterback is the guy everybody looks at – especially when things aren’t going good.”

Asked to rate his performance so far this season, Burris said: “I don’t think it’s good because our offence isn’t doing well. Until we’re playing good offensively, I never feel good about the way I’m playing. I’m always trying to look for ways I can get better to help our offence.

“Having the two interceptions, regardless of how they occurred, I have a direct attachment to that.

“I really can’t give myself a grade at this point. I want to make sure from this point on that we’re steadily improving and playing the football we can play.”

At times, Burris and his receivers have been on a different page. It’s all about reading opposing defences and reacting. In some cases, Burris reads one thing and the receivers read another.

“Whenever teams run a defence, I know what they’re running,” said Burris. “I have a good feeling for where the holes are. It’s about all of us seeing the same thing and having confidence in each other. Getting on the same page, having trust, that’s what’s going to help us.

“When guys don’t have a lot of repetition, when it comes to running a route, they resort to what they know best. Yeah, they know what Cover 3 looks like down south or what their adjustment was when they played in B.C. or Edmonton or Winnipeg last year. But we need to be thinking the same way.”

It’s not like the RedBlacks have stunk this season. They could well be sitting with three wins right now. But there was no doubt about the loss to the Roughriders, who led 24-0 early.

“It motivates you,” said Burris. “There’s no silver lining to a game like that. Everybody will say you’re not far away, you’re close, you’re close. When you’re losing, those aren’t the things you need to hear. We have to get better. We found ways to hurt ourselves in those close games we lost. Thankfully, we’re in the East, we’re still in second place.

“Getting embarrassed like that was probably the best medicine for us. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. We got our butt kicked. We can do some great things. We’re not that far away. The bottom line is we have to start making it happen consistently right now.”

Calgary would be a good place to get that going.

Tim.baines@sunmedia.ca