Riders vs. Lions: Need This One

Saturday night it’s a battle of two teams that would be winless were it not for hapless Argos. It’s the first of a two game set and while it’s still early in the season, the next 2 weeks could go a long way to determine who will finish last in the West. As I see it, if we win both… life is good. If we win 1… there’s still hope. If we lose both… the actual apocalypse will seem tame by comparison to the doom and gloom that will engulf the province.

Before the season started, if we had been placing bets I think many would have correctly predicted that this game would feature the offense with the least yards and the second least points (less than 20 per game). Most would have incorrectly assumed that offense would be led by the back-up Rider QB… not Mike Reilly.

So yeah, the Lions got issues. It’s not a shock to many that spending over $700k on a QB and an additional $250k on a guard (a freakin’ guard!) would lead to roster deficiencies elsewhere. But many (myself included) assumed that an offense featuring Reilly throwing to Burnham and Duron would at least be mildly competent. But that is not the case. First and foremost the BC O-line is horrific. They couldn’t block an inanimate cardboard cutout of a defender. Let that be a lesson that if you are going to blow your wad on a QB maybe invest in some serviceable tackles. The O-line issues are compounded by the fact that BC’s RBs are the worst I’ve seen in a long time at pass blocking. They are never in the right place. Finally their personnel issues are compounded by terrible play calling. Despite their complete inability to keep Mike Reilly from getting killed, they routinely run pass plays where there is no route less than 15. It makes no sense.

That said you can’t take any offense lead by Mike Reilly lightly. Our defense should be able handle things but they can’t coast through it. They need to give full effort. It starts up front where our front 4 should have a 5 sack minimum. They should absolutely manhandle the BC O-line. Johnson and Evans have been quiet this season and that needs to change. We also can’t let BC establish a run game as I’m sure they will try. Keep BC one dimensional and that will ensure Reilly stays up close and personal with the Mosaic turf. Having Marshall back should help stabilize the secondary… though Means is still out there and you all know I think he’s awful. Whoever is on Duron should do all they can to keep him from getting involved in the game. Keep the ball away from him and keep running your mouth and Duron is good for a least one major penalty. BC has the third most turnovers so getting one or two of those would go a long way to winning this game.

In terms of our offense, it would sure be nice if they decided to do something again. A strong running game would help. BC has decent run D but William Powell is supposed to be the motor than runs our O so lets get him going. One interesting deficiency of the Lions is their D-line. One would assume that with Claybrooks at the helm… and decent talent in Willis, Coleman and Louis they would be a strength but they are not. They have just 7 sacks and they aren’t getting a push from their big guys in the middle. To help Fajardo get his mojo back I suggest using Thigpen and Moore for high percentage passes where they get the ball in space. Grymes and Lee are good at HB but BC’s corner’s should not scare us. Arceneaux will make his debut and you can bet he wants to prove himself to his old team. BC has allowed the 3^rd most points.

Special teams will also play a factor in this game. Up until now BC’s has been terrible. Their punting was awful so they wisely brought in Josh Bartel. Their returns have been non-existent so they brought in Ryan Lankford (who had a 42 yard punt return against the Riders in week 2 as a RedBlack). BC has the second worst punt coverage so we’ll have chances there. Not sure at this point if Jones or Lauther are a go.

From a record perspective, we aren’t that different from the Lions. But there are just different feels to both teams in spite of that. We have been inconsistent as all hell this season but we have seem glimmers of hope. BC needed a missed field goal single to beat the Argos. There hasn’t been a lot to be hopeful about since free agency for them. Reilly is getting killed and BC will likely find a way to get him sacked during the coin toss. The Riders should be healthy and rested coming off a bye and have the home crowd on their side. Maybe I’m just an overly optimistic homer but this is a game the Riders should win and will.

Riders by 12.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Where we at?

It was probably for the best that I was up north fishing at not actually able to watch the last game. I know two languages but would probably have needed to learn 3 more to have enough curse words at my disposal to endure that.

So coming off the bye week we sit at 1-3. Is it time to panic? Well this is Rider Nation… of course its time to panic!! Fire the coach, publicly flog the GM, fix our offense by bringing back Durant and Szarka, wonder out loud if any of the good teams will trade us their back up QBs for late round picks and players we don’t want. Also likely a good time to blame our failures on some complex conspiracy theory where the league wants us to fail.

This annual July crisis has been a habitual occurrence, which is why I’m not nearly as concerned as some. Quick history lesson:

2017 – Riders start 1 and 3. Mad panic ensues. We go 9-5 to end the year and end up one play away from the Grey Cup.

2018 – Start 1 and 2. Mad panic ensues. We go 11-4 to end the year and host a playoff game.

Face it. We suck at the start of seasons. Gotta go back to 2014 to find early season success and its not like we want to talk about how the rest of that year went down. Not saying I like it, just saying its been happening for a few years now. In football it’s not how you start it’s how you finish… unlike the bedroom where its more about where you finish and how quickly (but I digress).

So these early season struggles are not new to us. We know we have the ability to overcome them. So let’s take a look at what our issues are and how we actually go about the overcoming part.

While you could certainly put a lot of the blame for the last game on missing 7 starters… 3 of which are on the O-line. We are not a good enough team to withstand that kind of roster depletion. But I think we likely would have lost to Calgary even with our starters because something bigger has plagued us all season… inconsistency.

Over the first 4 games our offense has played well in 2 of them, our defense has played well in 2 of them and our special teams has played well in 1 or them. Even if you discount what we did against Toronto (because its the equivalent of Madden on rookie mode at this point), we have seen our defense play well and we have seen our offense play well. Its just that its rarely at the same time and you are pretty much rolling the dice on whether the good version shows up in any given game. If we play defense like we did in Hamilton or offense like we did in Ottawa then we can hang with any team in the league. If we continue our pattern of choosing which one phase we will play well in this week (save for last week when they all decided to start the bye week early) then we may finish with less wins then a team that fired its coach after the preseason ended and its GM after its first winning streak in years… and replaced him with Joe Mack.

It starts with coaching. We have the talent but if they are not executing then we need to find a way to better prepare and get the most out of the talent when it matters. Offensively I think we also need to check our expectations. The only games where our offense produced over 17 points were against the 2 worst defenses in the CFL. I believe we are better than what they showed against Calgary but maybe we just look really good offensively against bad defenses and what we can really expect is a more average offense (i.e. slightly above what we had had last year). I’m not saying give up on Fajardo, he still has more upside than I’ve seen in a Rider QB in a while. I’m just saying let’s be more realistic about what we are… and that is not a top end O, at least not yet.

This upcoming back to back set against BC is massive. Win and life suddenly improves. Lose and life gets infinitely worse.  Buckle up.

Riders vs. Stampeders: Western Test

Saturday the 1-1 Stampeders come to town for an evening battle with the 1-2 Riders. It will be the Stamps’ first road game of the young season. It will be the first time the Riders face a western opponent this season. While the official standings count wins over east and west teams equally, unofficially wins against the east are worth like half of what they are against the west.

This game could come down to who can withstand injuries better as both are dealing with a number of them. As of writing this, KD Cannon and Nick Marshall look unlikely to go and there is concern as to whether Lauther will be ready. Of course all the Stamps talk is about Bo Levi Mitchell who seems unlikely to play. They are also in trouble up front. After losing Ja’Gared Davis in free agency, the guy who was supposed to replace him got hurt in preseason and the guy replacing him got hurt in Week 2. Add in an injury to Junior Turner and Ese Mrabure and Calgary is essentially fielding any D-lineman with a pulse. They also have a couple nicked up DBs in Roberson and Smith.

Defensively I’m assuming Bo doesn’t play. Actually, as a Rider fan well versed in our longstanding tradition of making stars out of unknown QBs, I would actually feel better if Bo was playing (the long term psychological impacts of Rider fandom would be a riveting/terrifying study). There is one guy we need to shut down if we want to win this game… Eric Rogers. Calgary has 4 passing TDs this season, 3 of them have gone to Rogers. Dude has 20 TDs in 30 regular season games (and that doesn’t include his stellar playoff performances). I would feel better about containing him if Marshall played but that’s looking unlikely. I wonder if Shivers will pull a Jones move and switch to match-ups and have Gainey shadow Rogers… the prospect of either Blace Brown or Solomon Means covering Rogers is terrifying (I have more faith in the guy I haven’t seen play yet). Our best defense against Rogers will be pressure on Arbuckle. Put him under duress in his first start and hope he crumbles. Calgary has the worst run game so far this season (averaging just 3 yards per attempt). With a young QB you can bet they’ll try and get that going but we need to not let them. Lock down the run and force Arbuckle to win it on his own. We will need our new found ability to force turnovers to continue.

Offensively, Fajardo gets to prove whether he is a good QB or just a good QB when facing East teams (two very different concepts). From what I’ve seen, I like his chances. His reads are quick, decisive and usually correct. And his ball placement has been spot on. Tre Roberson has 3 INTs and had a 4^th called back on penalty. If he plays we need to be wary of him. With Calgary hurting in the front 4, the best thing we can do is pound them with the run. The Stamps are allowing the 3^rd most rush yards per game. Pound it and be smart with the throws (i.e. stereotypical McAdoo offense). But we can’t give up the aggression we’ve shown in the past 2 weeks. The reason we have scored 30+ in back to back weeks is because we’ve been willing to take chances and push the ball deep. A stat that I found interesting is that Calgary has allowed zero big plays this season (passes over 30, runs over 20). We need to change that. Calgary is allowing 32 points per game (which amazingly is 5^th best in this zany high scoring season). Three weeks ago I would have placed our odds of notching 30 on the Stamps somewhere close to Corey Chamblin’s win % since September 2014 but now I think we have a legit chance. Fajardo has zero turnovers since becoming the starter… continuing that streak would go a long way to helping us win.

Normally a short week spells trouble, especially when your opponent is the Stamps. But they are more beat up than us so the odds even out. I expect we will find some way to make this difficult but I also expect a win.

Riders by a William Powell TD

Programming Note: I’m headed out on my annual fishing trip and will be off the grid until Thursday. So there will be no Monday Sentimonies. If we win, drink a rye for me. If we lose, drink 2 rye for me and curse at whoever is responsible.

Tuesday Morning Rain Delayed Sentimonies

Riders 32 – Argos 7

Well we had to wait out a storm to get there but the Riders finally got their first win of 2019 on Canada Day. You know it’s a good night when the only negative thing people are talking about has nothing to do with actual football… more on that later. It was the first time this season where we played well in more than one phase of football and low and behold, it led to a victory… albeit against the woefully bad Argonaut (keep that fact in mind before planning the parade).

Offensively, Cody Fajardo was dialed in a chucking yet again. I really want to know who wore #7 in game 1 because he simply can’t be the same person as the #7 I’ve seen for the past 2 weeks. He’s calm, he’s decisive, he’s deadly accurate even when pushing the ball down field, he protected the ball. He did everything you could ask… except score 3 more points so we could all get deals on tires (thanks a lot you selfish bastard!). I really like how he was threading those quick slants into tight windows and hitting his WRs in stride. I thought our new look OL held up pretty good. The Argos may not be good but their front 4 are: Lemon, Laing, Bishop III are a damn good trio. It wasn’t always pretty and there were some close calls but they held up and did their job. That is a line with 3 starters 27 years old or less. It’s been a while since the line hasn’t relied on a lot of old guys. That Kyran Moore TD was my favourite play of the game. D finally forces a turnover and boom 1 play we go for the jugular and make them pay. As soon as Moore caught that ball I immediately started celebrating and didn’t even watch him finish his run. Upon watching the replay, Willie Jefferson is disappointed in the overall lack of showmanship and high stepping.

Defense had a bounce back game (though again keep in mind it was against the woeful Argos). We got turnovers! Both deep in our territory to keep points off the board. Moncrief is my favourite defender by far. So talented. More than in previous games I noticed us moving Edem around. There were times when Moncrief dropped to safety. I also saw Judge drop back. We’ve got versatile players nice to see us using that more. It was also the most I noticed the front 4. They got close a whole lot in that game and if nothing else had solid pressure. On the downside we missed a ton of tackles and had we been playing a better team that could have cost us. Still they allowed only 2 plays over 15 yards and the lone TD was scored on a play where the ball was deflected and landed in the hands of guy that was nowhere close to where it was intended to go.

When Christion Jones opened the game by ripping off a 43 yarder I knew we were in for a good night. Returns were better. Lauther was perfect. Ryan’s kick placement and hang time was better. It was the first game this season were special teams contributed in a positive way.

Overall it was a decisive and much needed win against a team that we were supposed to beat. The Argos aren’t good but I’m not going to apologize for beating them. The real test now becomes whether we can sustain this success with 3 straight West teams on tap.

Now onto Gainer-gate. Look, you want to make Gainer thinner to promote a healthy lifestyle? Great. Want to give him shoes? Don’t really get it but fine by me. But what in god’s name did you do his face?!? I haven’t decided on whether Facelift Gone Wrong Gainer or Gainer On Drugs is more fitting. I really don’t get why we felt it was necessary to alter the costume of one of the most beloved mascots in Canada. Did the other suit get wrecked and we tried to save money by getting a discount guy to make the replacement? When I saw him working out in the video I was really hoping that he’d come out as Gainer on steroids, just ripped. I feel that would have been better than having to look at those eyes.

Other random thoughts:

-        I love the crowd after rain delays. Only the diehards stick it out so it’s also as loud as when everyone was there.

-        The Riders are still taking too many penalties. They averaged 10 in the first 2 games and added 9 last night. Gotta clean that up. Especially the stupid ones that Davis and Evans took.

-        You know you are a bad defense when the ever elusive Cory Watson is out there breaking out ankles.

-        Want to get a drink while the game is on? Lined up. Want to get a drink during a rain delay? No line-up. It may take you 20 mins to navigate the concourse to get there but still… does that not seem backwards?

-        I feel as though during rain delays, they should just put highlights from famous sports movies on the big screen: Waterboy, Varsity Blues, Any Given Sunday, Remember the Titans and so forth. That or just air the rowdy drunks encouraging the TSN panel to do hilarious things.

Riders vs. Argos: Canada Day Home Opener

Monday the first regular season home game of 2019 goes down at Mosaic as Corey Chamblin (or Chamberlain as I believe he prefers to go by) and the Argonauts come to town. One team will emerge with their first win of 2019 (unless they tie). At first when I heard we opened on Canada day, I was like “right on”! Then upon closer inspection it’s a night game, on a Monday with many having work the next day… so that’ll certainly put a damper on the atmosphere. Fortunately I have Tuesday off so I guess I’ll just have to up my game to compensate for everyone else.

I’m in the awkward position of wishing our opponents hadn’t just got embarrassed in their previous game. I mean, based on what Toronto did last week and what we did, we may find out if the scoreboard gets to triple digits. But then again, this is the Riders and I have seen this scene too many times to be confident… remember that last 2 times Montreal came to town? I believe that Toronto isn’t as bad as they looked last game and I also believe there is no way a McAdoo offense can sustain a 40 point output. Make no mistake about it, this will be a competitive game. The Riders don’t do things the easy way.

Let’s start with the offense for once (since they finally showed signs of life). The Riders scored 25 offensive TDs all of last season… they have 7 already. Last season it took them until game 7 to get their 7^th offensive TD. All eyes will be on Cody Fajardo to see if his week 2 performance was a one week aberration (like that time Ryan Dinwiddie threw for over 400 yards) or whether he can actually sustain success. Look for us to scale back the gun-slinging early and go back to our more conservative, run heavy offense. Its great that we can push the ball down field quickly but I see us only doing that if we have to (and based on how Toronto looked game 1, we might not have to). Look for a lot of Powell (who will be looking for a bounce-back performance). Micah Awe got hurt in Game 1 and if he can’t go then Powell is in for a big day. Toronto’s front 4 should be good with Lemon, Beltre, Laing and Antigha but they didn’t show it last week. Toronto’s secondary is nothing special (and will likely be down two starters due to injury) so when needed I think we’ll be able to lean on Evans, Roosevelt and Moore. As much as a conservative game plan makes sense, I would like to see us attack early. If we can get an early lead and get the home crowd revved up, Toronto may just crumble once again.

Defensively, its time to man up after getting embarrassed last week. Fortunately, a Chapdelaine led offense is the cure for what ails you (unless of course you are the Argos). We of course have first hand experience with him. The Argos, have James Wilder, Chris Rainey and the Terrell Sutton for depth… so it makes great sense that they ran 6 times for 12 yards last game. Sure the score pushed them away from the run as the game went on but 6 rushes?!? He also had Derel Walker (his $285k prized receiver) in pass blocking at one point. If our D can’t manage to break our turnover drought this game then we are screwed for the season. Also, given how pass heavy Chapdelaine tends to be, this could be a big game for the front 4. We need to shut down the run early to force them into being a pass happy offense. They have solid WRs in Walker, Edwards and Green so it won’t be easy but I do expect a bounce back game from this unit.

What worries me is special teams. We need to play better there. We are giving up a league worst 18.5 yards per punt return. So great, Ryan can punt 5-10 yards farther than Bartel, we are giving up more than that on the returns. There have been 4 punt returns over 30 yards this season in the CFL… the Riders have allowed 3 of those. Need Ryan to be better on his placement and hang time and we need our coverage guys to tackle when they have the chance. With an arsenal of talented returners (Jones, Thiggy, Moore, Purifoy) its gotta be a matter of time before we break one… home opener is as good a time as any.

Two last keys to the game. First is discipline. We have committed 20 penalties in 2 games. That’s a pace of 180 penalties on the season… 20 more than the woeful Alouettes committed last season (and they were the worst in the league by far I this category). Gotta clean that up. Second is win the turnover battle. We currently have committed 5 turnovers (most the League) and forced 0 (the only team not to do so). I feel the takeaways will eventually come on defense but even just tightening up the offensive giveaways would be a big help.

On paper this is a game we should win… therefore given how the Riders do things, we will win but it will just be in a game where we go down early, struggle more than we should and win in last minute dramatic fashion that takes years off my life.

Riders by a Kyran Moore TD.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: 40 Points?!? And We Lost?!?!

Riders 41 – RedBlacks 44

Show of hands. If I had told you in advance of Thursday’s game that the Riders would score 24 points in the first half and 41 points by the end of the game, how many of you would have bet a considerable amount on the Riders? I know I would have. I’m honestly not sure what shocked me more, the fact that we scored 40 and lost or the fact that we scored 40 period.

This was just an unexpected game. Two young QBs who had their struggles in Game 1, so of course they both throw over 350 yards and commit no turnovers. Two strong defensive units, so of course its one of the highest scoring games in recent memory. Just a whole lot of weird. It was a damn exciting game to watch but the end was yet another loss.

Look I’m as encouraged as anyone that our offense suddenly broke out of a slump going back over a year but there are no morale victories. We lost again and we lost again because we aren’t playing good enough football. In both of the first 2 games we have played well in only 1 of 3 phases. First game it was the defense playing great, while the offense struggled. Thursday it was our offense playing well but our defense giving it up like a drunk co-ed on Friday night. There have been just two constants. 1 – We can’t play well in more than 1 phases at a time. 2 – Our special teams are brutal.

Let’s start on the offense. With talk of rotating QBs in the air, Fajrado stepped in and seized the starter’s role and would not let go. He looked like a completely different QB from Week 1. Decisive, accurate, aggressive, protected the ball, seemed to be aware that passes longer than 4 yards were permissible. He hit 8 different receivers, leaning heavily on Moore and Evans (who finally broke his endzone curse). He got decent, but not great, protection up front (I mean he got sacked on a 3 man rush where a guy came clean off the edge). But you have to be happy with what the offense did… which is something we have not said around here for a long, long time. When we stepped back and chucked it deep at the end of the first quarter I damn near fell out of my chair in surprise. McAdoo seemed to trust Fajardo and open things up as a result. Hopefully that continues. Can’t remember the last time I said that I liked our game plan on O.

Everything not related to the offense was utter garbage. Defense had no answer for Dom Davis (who shocked a lot of people, myself included with his play). Nick Marshall had a rough day. Some of it was just great coverage getting beat by an even better pass but some of it was just not good coverage. Solomon Means is terrible. I bet he was cheaper than retaining Butler but the drop-off in performance is staggering. He was 7 yards off and 2^nd and 3. He was nowhere close to his receiver at other times. He just wasn’t good. Front 4 had their moments but haven’t been the game changers we need them to be. We also still do not have a turnover. It’s no secret that no turnovers for this team will make it really, really hard to win games.

I feel reasonably confident that the D will get this fixed. I can’t say the same for the special teams… they have been consistently awful through the first 2 weeks. Where to start?

It’s great that Lauther can hit from 57 (what a kick!) but it would be nicer if he could consistently make easier kicks, like say a convert. 3 missed kicks in 2 games is not a good start. He’s also averaging 10 yards less on kickoffs than last season. Get your crap together!

Christion Jones has exactly 1 job on this team, return kicks. He literally does nothing else. When we have great returners like Thigpen, Moore and Purifoy on the roster who also do other things, Jones needs to be awesome to justify a roster spot. Mediocre returns and fumbles are not awesome. I’m not giving up on him but maybe a week off to think about things will be good for him. And yes I know some of it is blocking but when you watch him return he simply isn’t the same guy we were used to. Get your crap together!

And how about the most popular man in Riderville, Jon Ryan? So far I would say he’s actually had a negative impact on our team. Sure he can kick far but he consistently outkicks the coverage leading to big returns. Now one solution is to find special team gunners who can run faster but I’m guessing its far easier to just have Ryan take a bit off his kick or angle it higher. Bartel had a weak leg by comparison but at least the coverage knew where to be and when. I’m shocked that Dickenson (a noted special teams guru) doesn’t have this unit better prepared.

While they have come close in back to back weeks, the simple truth is that you can’t expect to win in the CFL when you only play good in one of three phases. I still feel a bit like I’m in bizzaro-land praising the offense and scolding the D and special teams. Not time to panic yet (we have started awful the past few years and recovered) but the window to get our crap together and remain relevant this season starting to close.

Other Random thoughts:

·        Everyone is jumping on Rider fans for their hypocrisy regarding Mak Henry. Look he was correctly penalized and he should he fined. No place in the game for that. I think a suspension is a bit harsh but wouldn't argue a 1 game too much… but if you think the Simoni hit and the Henry hit are comparable then you are an idiot.

·        Not a good look for Dickenson to miss challenging a play because he didn’t have his headset on. Someone needs to get the message to him.

·        First passing TD in 7 games… 7 games!.. in the CFL!

·        Did I mention that Solomon Means is useless?

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Digging Deep

For the third Thursday in a row the Riders play football. I like Thursday football but would just prefer my team not be in it every single week. It really hampers my ability to drink away my sorrows. This time they are in Ottawa still looking for their first win of 2019. Ottawa is riding high after knocking off Calgary at McMahon in Week 1. I still don’t really understand how that happened.

Thursday the Cody Fajardo era begins… err I mean the Cody Fajardo featuring Isaac Harker era… err I mean the McAdoo will flip a coin to see which QB comes out which series era. Fajardo will start but I imagine will be on a short leash. He’ll need to prove that last week’s happy feet, errant passes performance was just a one off and that with a full week of prep he will come out and perform better. As much as I like Harker and his potential I would actually prefer if Fajardo played competently enough to keep Harker’s involvement minimal. Noel Thorpe consistently fields top notch defenses and the prospect of a rookie QB going against that now that there is pro game film of him is intimidating. The game plan remains the same, run early, often and again even when it doesn’t make sense. Powell is the workhorse but I would like to see us get Thiggy some more touches, whether its handoffs or short passes to him in space. Ottawa’s secondary is talent laden but their front 7 is nothing special. Not that they are bad, but nothing for us to fear. Need to find ways to get Roosevelt more involved. He’s a reliable vet that the young QBs can lean on. RedBlacks held Calgary to 22 offensive points. Bo Levi Mitchell is a slightly better QB than the combination we have so if we can get 20 points in this game it will be a big accomplishment.

Defensively, after watching the Ottawa game last week, it appears the key to the game is not letting Dominique Davis get to 4 picks. Three is fine but that fourth one apparently sparks the comeback. It will start with limiting Mossis Madu. He’s been an underrated but productive back for many years. Last week Ottawa gave him 30 touches and he produced 140 total yards. We need to shut that down and put all the pressure on Davis.  He never gives up but I’d like to think our D can make him pay dearly. I say we get 2 turnovers minimum. Their group of receivers is not all that impressive RJ Harris is their leading guy and Caleb Holley is #2. Holley was an OK WR here but if our secondary can’t contain him then I have grossly overestimated them. Obviously Sinopoli is still there and good but he’s becoming more a possession WR. Shut down Madu. Get a strong pass rush to make Davis uncomfortable and force mistakes in the pass game. That’s our recipe for success.

We need to win 2 out of 3 phases to win the game and since we ain’t winning offense that mean special teams suddenly become very important. Lewis Ward doesn’t miss (except when it comes to minimum height requirements for amusement park rides) so Lauther better up his game. Richie Leone is arguably the best punter in the CFL so Jon Ryan had better up his game. We need to flip the script from last week and have a big return go in our favour and our coverage be solid. Christion Jones looked rusty last week but I’m predicting a breakout performance for him. Maybe not a TD but a big long game changing return.

On paper you have a team that already has their starting QB and both starting guards on the six game IR on the road facing a team that just beat the best team in the league on their own turf (something that rarely happens). Logic says the RedBlacks should win quite easily. But the Riders are built to win in spite of their offensive production and their talent on D gives them a chance to do that. The Riders are also a team that seem to start performing about the time everyone has given up on them. I say they play better than expected and squeeze out a low scoring win. 

Riders by a Brett Lauther FG from 45 yards out (it'll be one of his 5 FGs on the day).

For the love of god let this game break the streak of our QBs getting headshoted and the calls betting botched! Three in a row is enough. One more headshot and I say we go full WWE and arm our blockers with metal chairs to defend our QB.