Ottawa may be home to the National Defence, but their hometown RedBlacks are becoming widely recognized as an offensive juggernaut.

Leading the league in numerous offensive categories such as passing yards, passing touchdowns and total points, the third-year CFL franchise presents a significant test for Taylor Reed and the rest of the Stampeders defence.

With a Week 3 showdown from Ottawa set for Friday night, Reed is well aware that limiting the RedBlacks attack will be a major key to a victory over the defending East Division champions.

“Just limiting the big plays is one (thing),” offered Reed, who was signed by the Red and White via free agency after spending two years with the Tiger-Cats. “Each game they probably go for an 80-yard bomb or something like that, but altogether they’re a great offensive unit. They’re averaging over 500 yards of total offence each game, so we’ve got our hands full. But we’re looking to just slow them down a little bit.”

While many onlookers surely doubted this degree of offensive output once reining Most Outstanding Player and starting quarterback Henry Burris suffered an injury in Week 1, Trevor Harris was quick to silence any skepticism.

In fact, Harris hooked up with Chris Williams for a 71-yard touchdown on his first play after coming off the bench in relief of Burris. In less than six quarters since the taking over under centre, Harris has completed 82 per cent of his attempts to go along with six TD passes and zero interceptions.

Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris during the 2016 season-opener in Edmonton on June 25, 2016 (Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)

“I can’t give him enough credit,” Reed stated. “He’s a great quarterback and I already knew when he took Ricky Ray’s spot (in Toronto) that he was going to be a great quarterback. He’s been doing a good job replacing Hank, but we’re just looking to slow him down – just give him some hard reads that he’s not used to. He’s deceptively fast. He can run if he gets out of the pocket, so we’ve got to do a good job of keeping him in that cup as well.”

And Harris certainly isn’t lacking for weapons at his disposal as Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson, Brad Sinopoli and Williams each tallied over 1,000 receiving yards for the RedBlacks in 2015.

“If you stop Williams, they throw it to Ellingson,” explained the Stampeders middle linebacker from Beaumont, Tex. “If you stop Ellingson, they throw it to Jackson. If you stop Jackson, they’re still got Sinopoli. The only bright spot for us is that they’ve had to do a little shuffling at the running back position. We’re going to have our hands full and we’ve just got to go out and there and execute our game plan and just do our job.”

It may be a tall task, but Reed and the rest of his teammates will be setting out to put a RedBlacks tradition on hold by limiting the number of wood cookies sawed in the end zone following every Ottawa major score.

“They’re a good measuring stick offensively, defensively and special teams-wise,” stated Reed, Hamilton’s leading tackler from a season ago. “They’re undefeated. They’re at home, (so) we’ve got to silence the crowd early and we’ve got to get them out of the game early. No sawing wood, hopefully. That’s the plan.”