Monday Morning Sentimonies: No Where To Go But Up

Riders 9 – Bombers 15

The Riders opened the preseason in Winnipeg on Saturday with a game that was an accurate metaphor for pretty much any trip to Winnipeg… you regret agreeing to take part almost immediately, don’t enjoy yourself and spend the time counting down the hours until it can be over.

Let’s start with presentation of the game itself on CFL+. Look, I appreciate the CFL’s efforts to make game freely available online (its a good move) but the point of airing free content is to build your brand, not actively contribute the narrative that you are bush league. Given the dominant demographic of CFL fans, people logging in may have assumed they inadvertently clicked on Web MD because they got an error message saying “backend not healthy”. If you had enough patience to wait until the game came up you were treated to about the only thing that would rate worse than Snow White on Rotten Tomatoes.

They used the Bombers’ in-stadium jumbotron feed so whole plays were missed, those you did see were awkwardly zoomed in so you only saw a portion and there were gratuitous shots of the stands (O’Shea is my Daddy guy I have so many questions and at the same time fear for pretty much any of the answers). It was awful. An elementary school kid with a cell phone could have streamed it better on Snap Tok (or whatever they use these days). I would have much preferred the very simple approach of just one wide angle camera shot where we see the whole field. Sometimes simpler is better. 

Anyway onto the game…

About the best way I can summarize the game if you were not masochistic enough to subject yourself to preseason football is this: Brett Lauther kicked 67% and was by far the best kicker we had on the field. (By the way, I pre-warned you about Lauther). 

To be fair there were a few good things. For me, the best part of that game was Jaxon Ford. I noticed him make more plays in that game than I saw our starting safety make in the entire 2024 regular season. He was always around the ball (and not 3 steps too late), he hit hard, he made plays. He showed how a safety can actually impact a game. He’s fully healthy and I hope this leads to a greater role for him on defense as a result.

Other guys that I noticed in a positive way:

-        There was not much going on in the passing game but Brayden Misseri had some nice catches and made a case to be kept around as Canadian WR depth.

-        Drae McCray looked speedy on returns. What I liked most is he gets up field in a straight line quickly. Play of the game was clearly seeing Castillo bounce off him.

-        Special teams coverage should be solid once again. Noticed Aubrey Miller and Braxton Hill making tackles.

Lots of concerns about the lack of passing production but I’m not overly worried. Would liked to have at least seen some sustained drives but it was not all on the QBs. Maier’s INT was the right read but the WR fell down as he was releasing the ball. Receivers slipping cost Harris a completion too. It’s the first preseason game… we will be fine. 

Overall we seemed to have escaped the game with no major injuries which is the most important part. On to next week. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Starting OL looked good, as did the starting DL… considering half our starters were not playing.

-        Punting was not so great and makes me wonder how bad Joe Couch must have been to be cut that early in camp.

-        I love preseason for moments like Brian Garrity’s first FG attempt… if you can call it that. It’s nice being able to laugh about comical failures of Rider players instead of curse like I will come the regular season.

-        Can’t say I got a great look at his coverage skills but the combination of wearing Double 0 as a number, leaving your undershirt untucked like a skirt and having the first name Phalen makes me think that Sanford will be cut.

-        I remain a staunch fan of Bertrand-Hudon aka “Le Camion Canadien”

-    Rather than hold a season ticket holder event just prior to a road game would it not have made more sense to have it DURING the game and have it up on the Maxtron or in the lounges. I do like that the team is starting to put effort into these things but sometimes I think they miss some easy wins.