Monday Morning Sentimonies: The Rider Experience

Riders 31 – RedBlacks 26

The following statements are all true:

-        The Riders gave up over 400 yards passing

-        They lost the turnover battle 3-1

-        The lost the time of possession battle by 10 minutes

-        They lost their best player and 3 additional offensive starters to injury (3 of them before the midway part of the 2^nd quarter)

-        For a large part of the game their best punt was a 12 yarder off their placekicker’s left foot.

-        They did not register a solitary offensive first down in the fourth quarter

-        They won the game

If you recall how the first few games of 2024 went, the rollercoaster than was the home opener should come as no surprise. The “Rider experience” is essentially finding the longest, most improbable path the victory and not securing that victory until the absolute last second (to the detriment of the cardiac health of those in attendance). Get used to it.

Thursday was really a play in 3 Acts with a humorous intro. The intro was Ottawa taking a delay of game on the first play of the game. At that point the fun ended and Act 1 began. It was pretty much every awful thing imaginable. Ottawa carves through the D to score an easy opening drive TD. Pass rush is non-existent. Every positive play (such as a big return or completing pass) was followed by a negative one such as a fumble. Then of course the injuries started piling on. It had even the calmest Rider fans thinking the sky was falling… and Saskatchewan is not known for having the calmest fans.

Then Act 2 began. It was wonderful. Two straight quarters of Trevor Harris finally taking advantage of a god awful Ottawa secondary. As we all expected, the sparks to the Rider offense were Picton and Hudon. Defensive line started making their presence felt. We entered the 4^th quarter with a 17 point lead. 

Act 3 was entitled “hold on”. The offense completely quit. 21 total yards over 5 drives, one first down purely because of penalty and another turnover. I don’t particularly like that our defense started gving up points but consider Ottawa is loaded with talent and considering the offense was not just providing zero support but actively working against them I think they did alright. Those 2 sacks they came up with were game savers. Gotta give the D big prop though, not only did they allow zero points off turnover, after that opening TD they did not allow another point until over 10 minutes into the second half. The only bigger gap I can think of is the many decades that past between Marcus Crandell being done playing and officially retiring. 

But hey, a win is a win. They found a way. Our offense put up 30+ points despite only playing three quarters of the game. Our O-line (featuring a solitary guy playing the position we intended him to coming into the season) allowed zero sacks. We were very disciplined (something that cost Ottawa). Other than that long Campbell PI we played a very clean game. The defense lost the best defense in the CFL and still held it together. That’s a gutsy win with lots of positives. Not a sustainable way to win but it got the job done this week and that’s all that counts. 

By the way… I would just like to point out that my game preview contained this quote “Offense will struggle out of the gate. Defense will give a TD on the first drive and then wake up and lock things down. Come the second quarter offense will pull us back into in” 

Other random thoughts:

-        That half time show is exactly what I would expect if you told me they found the performer in a bar in Weyburn. Country song into Rage Against the Machine (when his mic conveniently had technical issues just when they were getting to the lyrics), Hinder, Creed, back to country. Wild ride. Anything involving Rage gets thumbs up from me and much better than “Mosaic” four hundred times.

-        At least 3 passes should have been intercepted by the defense. We can’t miss on opportunities like that. Though I will forgive one of them. Yes a mildly competent DB would have intercepted that gift of a pass rather than knocking it down but that is the first time I actually noticed Lokombo make a play in the regular season. So I was not mad.

-        Demarcus Fields took a helmet square in the nuts. That poor man.

-        In real time I assumed that Harris INT was because of his old man arm. It was a great play call and the right read but he did not get it far enough downfield for what would have been a TD. But upon watching it again I think the pass was impacted by him getting hit more than any arm strength issues.  

-        What did we do to get so injury cursed here? Two straight seasons of hard earned yards week after week in Toronto and Ouelette’s fine. Signs in Saskatchewan, can't make it to halftime of game 1 in either season before getting hurt. Collaros couldn’t order McDonalds here without getting concussed. Leaves the province and becomes the model of durability.

-        The Riders have been up to my section exactly once since the stadium opened, so we started a new tradition this game of doing our own in game contests. Game 1 was trivia for lotto tickets. If you want in on the fun come on up to the west side second deck every game we will have contests and prizes.