Monday, July 30, 2007

I'd rather be a Rider than...

Rider Prophet here with all the news that is news across the Rider Nation.

Rider pride got a huge boost on Saturday as our Riders atoned for last weeks collapse with a 54-14 thrashing of the visiting Eskimos. The manner in which The Riders had their way with Edmonton should have Macciocia considering pressing charges. This game had everything - scoring, great catches, interceptions, sacks, a blocked punt, a punt recovery and even a heavy dose of Chris Szarka on offense which should hopefully appease the Szarka-maniacs for a while (oh who I am kidding, #33's performance on Saturday will only add fuel to the fire that he should be the focal point of our offense).

The TSN turning point in this game came early in the 1st quarter when after a 2-and-out series on offense, Jamie Boreham came like a green missile and recovered his own punt. The game's momentum shifted right there and the Riders never looked back. Usually, if a kicker gets a special teams tackle it means that there was a breakdown in coverage and the kicker is trying desperately to prevent a TD. This is not the case with Boreham. I think Boreham is convinced he's a linebacker (he sure hits like one). Watching him this season, I've decided that Jamie should adopt the nickname "Juggernaught". He certainly runs and hits like one.

Imagine how awesome it would be for Boreham to level a guy on a punt return and get up and say "I'm the Juggernaught bitch!"

The big story this week was no doubt the defense: 4 sacks, 3 interceptions, a blocked punt and 2 defensive TD's. All this and we were missing our defensive leader Eddie Davis!! We now lead the league in virtually every defensive category.

The Eskimos prolific offense, which features the likes of Ricky Ray, Jason Tucker, Trevor Gaylor and Ron McClendon, managed a total of 14 points this week. That was good enough to tie them with two of Saskatchewan's most legendary, renowned offensive weapons - that's right, I'm talking about Kitwana Jones and Kyle Mitchell.

Hats off to Corey Grant for making that highlight reel circus catch in the second half. Many were surprised that Grant managed to catch that ball. Not me though, given that the ball was pretty much uncatchable and did not really affect the outcome of the game, Grant was guaranteed to make the reception. Now had he been wide-open for a TD in the first quarter then it would definitely have bounced out of his fingers.

In other CFL news, Milt Stegall finally broke the CFL TD record on Friday. While I was hoping that the record would stand, I'm just glad that it's over with and we can start talking about something else. Going in to this game I was convinced that George Reed had paid off everyone in the league to ensure Stegall didn't break the record. Seriously, Stegall was open over the middle quite a bit over the last couple games but Kevin Glenn "didn't see him".

Upon breaking the record, one of the first things Stegall did was go up and personally thank Davin Bush for letting Milt burn him for 4 TD's in one game. Good job Davin, Stegall couldn't have done it without you.

Well that's it for now, check back later this week for my thoughts on Thursday's game in BC.

Until next time, I'm the Rider Prophet.

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