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Asked what more the team needed to do after a solid offensive performance — Lulay completed 19-of-32 passes for 325 yards, Arceneaux had five catches for 152 yards and Brandon Rutley had 17 carries for 91 yards before an injury knocked him out of the game — Lions’ coach Wally Buono said: “I don’t think punching it in was the problem. We had too many dropped balls.

“And at a critical time, we get a time count. Not only do you lose the down, you lose an opportunity to go for seven (points). We moved the ball all the way down, we get a time count. In critical games, you can’t get in that position and lose your down. We did.”

There was also a huge fumble by receiver Bryan Burnham when the ball was knocked out of his hands by Antoine Pruneau and recovered by the Redblacks at their 31-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

Give credit to Ottawa for being resilient, but the Lions did enough good things to win.

“We weren’t consistent enough, we played really well in spurts,” said Lulay. “They had to earn that win, they had to put a long drive together. No one said it’s easy, a lot of these games come down to the wire. They just made a handful more plays than we did late in the game.

“We battled. Look we’re on the road, we’re up by three with less than two minutes to play, you’ll take that most times.”

Then there were the injuries. Offensive lineman Jovan Olafioye (knee) left the game early. Rutley was forced out with a knee injury. Dynamic returner Chris Rainey was also forced to the sidelines for a bit (with ice on his ankle at one point).