2015 Ottawa Redblacks season | |
---|---|
General manager | Marcel Desjardins |
Head coach | Rick Campbell |
Home field | TD Place Stadium |
Results | |
Record | 12–6 |
Division place | 1st, East |
Playoff finish | Lost Grey Cup |
Team MOP | Henry Burris |
Team MOC | Brad Sinopoli |
Team MOR | Forrest Hightower |
Uniform | |
The 2015 Ottawa Redblacks season was the second season for the team in the Canadian Football League. The Redblacks improved upon their unimpressive 2–16 record from 2014 after just five games when they collected their third win in week five against the Calgary Stampeders. Ottawa clinched a playoff berth in week 17 with a victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on October 16, 2015.[1] The Redblacks became the first Ottawa-based CFL team to have a winning record since 1979. They were also the first Ottawa-based CFL team to finish first in East Division since the 1978 Rough Riders and the first Ottawa-based team ever to finish with at least 12 regular season wins.
The Redblacks posted the fifth best winning percentage posted by a second year expansion team in any established North American professional sports league after the 1951 Cleveland Browns, the 1995 Baltimore Stallions, the 1996 Carolina Panthers and the 1997 Montreal Alouettes – although of those four teams, only the Stallions and Panthers were expansion teams in the same sense as the Redblacks and only the Panthers had a losing record in their inaugural season.
On November 22, 2015, the Redblacks defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 35–28 in the Eastern Final to advance to their first Grey Cup game, which they lost 26–20 to the Edmonton Eskimos. It was the first time that an Ottawa CFL team advanced to the Grey Cup game since the 1981 Ottawa Rough Riders.