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Riders
14 – Esks 9
Well
I’m certainly thankful we somehow emerged from that debacle of a game with the
win because there are Jacksonville Jaguar season ticket holders who are
laughing at us (ps – what kind a masochist would you have to be to pay the
subject yourself to 8 Jaguar games?). At the end of the day winning is the only
thing that matters… which is another thing the Riders should be thankful for
because the Rod Black approved rating for artistic merit was likely in the negatives.
I
really can’t say enough about the play of our defense. They are playing at an
elite level. What is the most impressive is their level of play despite missing
Rey Williams (a rock in the middle of our D), Weldon Brown (who is our most
underrated defender), Rod Williams (one game was enough for me to see he can
play) and Macho Harris (who is clearly constructed of material purchased at the
dollar store). Really scary to think how dangerous a full complement of
starters would be. 2 picks, 3 sacks, no TDs, a game saving goal line stand and
were it not for that stupid tip to Matt Carter they would have help Reilly
under 200 passing. You gotta be impressed with this unit.
By
contrast to our defense that is consistently performing at a high level, there
is our offense which continues to perform at a level that would struggle to cut
it by even Manitoba standards. Not sure how you play that well against a very
good BC D and that poorly against a non-playoff team. I was actually all set to praise this unit
again as the first half gave me hope. Runs, screens, draws, even the very Canadian
Dressler punt for the single (though for how far that went we might as well just
have let Schmitt try). Then the 2nd half cam and led me to believe
they had been eating turkey in the locker-room at halftime. There was just
nothing happening. Love our commitment to the run but at some point during the
10 runs up the middle for next to no gain maybe we could have considered trying
a different kind of run or even mixing in some Sanders to change it up. That
said, the run game was the only part of the O that was useful. Passing game was
bad. Durant made some poor reads, like that INT to Curran where he telegraphed
that pass to Smith so bad that he might as well have been yelling the Edm D
where it was going. That killed all the momentum gained from a great INT by the
D. Then compounding it was Getzlaf Getzlafing. Fact: Getz would be the leading
the receiver in the CFL if he could catch consistently. The frustrating part is
he makes the hard caches and Getzlafs the easy ones. That brings me to the
failed 3rd down gamble. A – it was a bad call. In that situation with
how good our D was playing you take the 3 points and go up 8. B – That said a 3rd
down plunge should be automatic. But our line got no push and Willy had nowhere
to go. I’m not a huge fan of QBs who go sideways on the plunge looking for a
hole (ala Bo Levi Mitchell) but Willy has been stuffed a couple times now and
BC blatantly called the hole he was going to before the snap last week so maybe
we need to change things up… or just have our line put on their big boy pants
and man up. Bottom line though is without a quasi-useful passing attack we won’t
be playing much football in November. Cortez needs to call better plays, Durant
needs to play better, receivers need to get open and make catches.
Whole
situation kinda reminds me of ’08. Our D was playing at an unreal level… our O
was embarrassing. Thing is in ’08 we had the excuses of a dozen broken fibulas
and a retarded QB named Bishop. Tis season we have no such excuses, talent
across the board, no major injuries. That season ended with Mo Lloyd famously
commenting that ““You can play against the deaf, blind and the homeless and you
will never win a game with (seven) turnovers,''. Now I don’t think we are
approaching Bishop-like levels of incompetence but we have a championship
calibre D and with a little offensive support could really make a run this
year. Gotta get this figured out because the path the big game is paved with
better teams than Edmonton.
Other
random thoughts
- How
many people saw the Edmonton receiver on the first play that we failed to
account for standing wide open on the far side of the field doing jumping jacks
screaming for the ball? Had Alex Hall not disrupted the play that would have been
an easy TD.
- What
the hell Cory Huclack?!? He hasn’t sailed this many snaps in his entire Rider
career.
- As
good as our D played they were damn lucky the Esks can’t catch. A lot of drops
on their part really helped our cause.
- I
love how we have just given up on half time shows. “Today’s halftime show is something
we already showed you earlier.” Maybe next week the halftime show will be the
singing of the anthem.
- Speaking
of the anthem, if the Riders are intent on bringing in singers who take an hour
to sing the anthem they should use them in the summer. When its cold I want the
anthem sung as efficiently as possible. No time for freelancing when I can see
my breath.
- At
first I thought Reilly scored on the deciding 3rd and goal but after
watching the replay I was far less sure. Had the call gone against us I would likely
have been pissed but there was no clear evidence of him crossing.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
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