Can Brown, Pimpleton, Ottawa Redblacks offence do it again?

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To most Canadian football fans, Kalil (The Thrill) Pimpleton went from being a relative unknown to must-see TV in about three hours of prime-time viewing on Sunday night.

Can he duplicate or exceed his four-catch, 153-yard debut when the Redblacks play host to the Edmonton Elks at TD Place on Friday? Can he repeat the performance in front of a live audience that’s been starving for a player like Pimpleton and an offence like the one that exploded in Edmonton under the leadership of quarterback Dru (Downtown) Brown?

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Does the 24-year-old Pimpleton suddenly feel pressure to show he’s for real, this time with the opposition fully aware of what he’s capable of doing?

“No, I’ve been playing football all my life, and I’ve been pretty good for the better half of it,” Pimpleton said without a hint of arrogance after Tuesday’s short practice. “Knowing that there have been teams that write out game plans to stop me. Maybe they have, but it’s opened up opportunities for other men to come out there and do their thing. But even in that, man, it’s not about what they do, it’s all about what we do. And that’s the mindset that I’ll continue to have as we move forward.

“It’s not about how good … I had a good game, but it’s all about what I do the next game.”

The moment that had jaws dropping on Sunday had Pimpleton pulling in a pass on a short crossing route and then blazing down the sidelines for a touchdown without anyone in a green jersey coming close to him.

“We run that play hundreds of times in practice … I’ve been hit on it and I haven’t,” said Pimpleton. “It was just the perfect call for the perfect coverage.

“That was my first full football game in about two years, so actually, as I was running, I felt slow. I felt like I had a monkey on my back. You know, just being gassed a little bit, legs being a little heavy from running more than I had been in the past. But yeah, I saw green grass, I trusted my speed. …  I used to like to play around and my uncle used to tell me, ‘You looked bored out there,’ because I would have the opportunity to outrun somebody and I would stop my feet and try to make him look silly, try to make him miss or something, when all I had to do was run straight.

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“I’ve always had that in the back of my mind. The older I get, I need to trust my speed. I definitely had confidence looking at the scoreboard as well, you know, seeing if there was any traffic that I had. But I trusted my speed at the end of the day.”

Feeling that monkey on his back was a good thing, Pimpleton said, because “that should tell you I’ve got a little bit more in the tank.

“I got in the cold tub and the hot tub (after the game), and got rid of the monkey,” he added with a laugh.

Meanwhile, before erupting for 480 passing yards, Brown’s previous best games as a pro saw him throw for 325 yards (in 2022 against the Lions) and 307 yards (in 2023 against the Elks).

As the Redblacks’ starter, he hadn’t hit the 300 plateau in four starts.

Now he owns the fourth-highest single-game mark in Ottawa professional football history that began 148 years ago — and he really should have had a shot at the record of 504 yards set by Henry Burris against the Montreal Alouettes on Oct. 1, 2015.

“It’s awesome,” Brown said of his place in history. “I don’t want to say it doesn’t mean anything, but if I would have done a few things better, obviously that number would be more.

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“I’m sure if you asked any of those guys on that list, they’d probably say the same thing. It’s impossible to play a perfect game, but that’s the standard you want for yourself. I definitely left some out there that would have made the game different, the score would have made it greater, it wouldn’t have been as crazy.

“(The achievement) I’ll  probably look back on and appreciate more than I do right now. I’m more focused on winning games and getting to where we want to go, and what the process is to in order to do that.”

If you’re only as good as your last pass, Brown will enter Friday’s game on fire. The 29-yard toss through a small window and a group of Edmonton defenders to Pimpleton that set up Lewis Ward for another game-winning field goal was precise.

“He got to the right spot,” said Brown. “It was a good call for that moment. I feel like everyone was aware of the situation — we had to catch it and get down — but you throw like that when you trust your guys, and I trust my guys. I’m very convicted back there because our guys are consistently getting to the right spots and our guys are protecting really well. I think that all kind of plays a part into the conviction that I have when I throw the ball.”

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GOING DEEP

It may be a lot to expect a quick bounce back from the three players injured in Sunday’s win — defensive end Lorenzo Mauldin (thorax), right tackle Zack Pelehos (shoulder) and return specialist DeVonte Dedmon (lower body) — but the update from coach Bob Dyce hinted of optimism, for the most part. “We’re still evaluating Lozo … he’s making strides in the right direction,” Dyce. “DeVonte was out there today and looked better than what we had anticipated. At the same time, you have to manage these things. It’s a long season, and we want everybody to be 100 per cent when they play. Zack, we’ll see what happens (Wednesday), but I would say chances are you may not see him (this week).” … Edmonton (0-5) will be in a significant transition when facing the Redblacks at TD Place. Despite losing their last four games, each by a field goal, and their five games by 20 points in total, the Elks fired GM and head coach Chris Jones after Sunday’s game, replacing him with interim GM Geroy Simon and interim head coach Jarious Jackson. Simon, a CFL Hall of Fame receiver, had been serving as Edmonton’s assistant GM while Jackson was previously the team’s offensive co-ordinator. Both played for the 2011 B.C. Lions, who started 0-5 and went on to win the Grey Cup. “We’re not focused on their change, we’re focused on us,” said Dyce, “and making sure we’re able to execute how we need to execute. The onus is on us every week. That’s exterior stuff we can’t control. We can’t control who’s coaching the other team, but we can control how we execute. We can control how we practise. We can control how we prepare. Those are the things we choose to focus on.” … The Redblacks have added defensive back Adrian Frye to the practice roster. The 5-foot-11, 196-pound Texas Tech product was one of the last cuts at training camp. Frye spent the 2023 pre-season with the New Orleans Saints, making six tackles in three games.

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