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Riders
31 – Esks 24
That
wasn’t a half bad game for a preseason debut. I mean sure it was riddle with
errors and far from the prettiest football I’ve seen but it was at least
entertaining. I’ve kinda gotten used to the idea that the Riders tend to suck
in the preseason (particularly on the road) so to see us play some half decent
ball was a pleasant surprise. Who am I kidding though, not even Rod Black could
put a damper on the first Rider game of the year (though he certainly tries).
Here
in no particular order are my thoughts on the game:
- Don’t
get people who are down on Durant’s performance. 8 of 11 for 117 in limited
action, with a scaled back play book, 2 non-starters on the OL, no Dressler/Simon
and repeated screw ups on the hand offs with Sheets isn’t a bad first day at
the office.
- Taj
Smith looks good. Last year he showed flashes but was pretty inconsistent. But
if this is what we can expect of 2013 Smith then he is in for a good year.
- Really
liked how Sanders looked on returns. Damn good.
- Clearly
the Ben Heenan at tackle experiment was a failure. No harm in trying and likely
good experience for Heenan but hopefully Chamblin now realizes that Valdez
needs to be our guy. He’ll just have to get used to standing by Best instead of
his trusty donkey
- I’ll
preface my discussion of the D-Line by saying Edmonton likely has the worst OL
in the league at this point and I would be very concerned if I was them… that
said I still liked how strong our line looked. Chick and George looked very powerful
out there. Yes it was against weak opponents but also consider that Shologan
and Foley didn’t dress. My concerns about Chick taking time to regain his CFL
form have been allayed. Excited to see how they will fair against a stronger
Stamps OL
- Looks
like we are going to challenge the middle of the field deep more on offense and
I like it.
- I
liked the little bit we saw of Spencer Moore. Wouldn’t mind seeing him stick on
for special teams and the odd offensive play.
- Love
how they had Greg Carr out in the 4th quarter just feasting on soon
to be cut DBs.
- I
was about to declare Turenne a cut after getting burnt on the TD but he
balanced that off with a pick and another nice cover. Tough decisions coming in
the secondary
- I
really like what I see in a healthy Macho Harris. Macho Madness!!!
- I
should really have printed off a roster because by the fourth quarter even my
vast Rider knowledge wasn’t enough to keep up. Didn’t help that the announcers
kept going off on segues about Edmonton.
- Poor
Matt Nichols. Gotta feel for the guy but I still have no clue how he hurt his
knee on that… hip maybe but knee? No clue.
- Kerry
Joseph must have been secretly smiling all night on the sidelines. Had that
game gone any longer he would have moved up from 6th on the depth
chart to opening day starter by default
- For
just picking him up out of junior, Graig Newman was a hell of an addition.
- Anyone
else struggle to identify the members of Hair Force without their flowing
locks?
- Congratulations
to Phillip Livas for winning the “cut before he got back to the sideline” award.
- For as
decent as Tino Sunseri looked (maybe good enough to unseat Levi Brown) man was
he god awful at plunges. ONly way he could have been worse would have been by Sanchez-ing himself on an O-lineman and butt fumbling. Cortez finally had to give up on him and let him throw
for the TD.
- Just
before that Jordan Sisco showed fine form in failing to make a catch… mainly
because he was inexplicably and needlessly jumping for the pass that was no higher than eye level.
- Kicking
game is still a concern. Maybe our plan is to just always score TDs on offense.
Seems like a safer bet at this point.
- Between
Willy, Chick, Bagg, Brown, Johnson and Ferri this has potential to be a great
year of blogging. All we are missing is Chip Cox and De’Audra Dix.
This
was a great way to start the season out. Now we can start counting the days to
the first home game of 2013!! 3 more sleeps!!!
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