Tuesday Morning Sentimonies: Labour Day!

Riders 34 – Bombers 30

There is not much that beats the feeling of a sold out stadium cheering a Rider win on Labour Day. While the Riders certainly made us clench our buttholes a few times on the path to that victory, they got the job done. Cory Mace and Trevor Harris got their first Labour Day wins and we remained undefeated when playing teams without a P in their name. Just like everyone expected the heroes were Nield and Anderson. Also, just as people also predicted the score sheet included a punt single from Harris and a 2 point convert from Campbell. Good thing nothing crazy happened on Sunday and good thing I woke up this morning feeling not at all hungover. 

If you want to know how amped the team was for this game, go back and watch Aaron Patrick on the opening kickoff. He absolutely destroys the poor blocker tasked with trying to slow him down. Big way to start. Then watch what Malique Carney did in that first quarter. He was a one-man wrecking crew. Tackle for a loss, 2 sacks, fumble forced and recovered, just utterly embarrassing the poor guards he lined up on. The team was as amped up as the crowd. 

The defense had a monster first half and were really the driving force in keeping us in that game. They essentially allowed one play in that first half which was a long bomb to Clercius that was perfectly covered by Sayles and the WR just made a hell of a catch. Other than that the only other points they gave up was a FG when the offense fumbled the ball. Now did things get a little soft in the second half, the 4^th quarter in particular? Oh yeah. But they notched 5 sacks, 3 turnovers and provided a spark when the offense simply would not. Also in fairness to the D on that Wheatfall TD, Winnipeg was blatantly offside and I’m pretty sure should have also been called for a holding. 

Seems odd to criticize a team hat put up 30 points but I thought Winnipeg had real questionable play calling. Olivera was an afterthought with just 10 total touches and only 4 in the second half. Most of Winnipeg’s losses seem to involve this same theme of forgetting to use their best player. They really seemed to want to get Peyton Logan involved for some reason. On the play where Saad got a sack, Winnipeg should have ran for an easy first down. The decision to throw in that situation could only have been the byproduct of the Manitoba education system. Instead of running they seemed to base their game plan on rolling Collaros right and having him chuck it as far as he could. It worked out a couple times but its not exactly a great plan. 

As a man getting older, I understand moving a bit slower and taking longer to get limber. But Trevor Harris’ ongoing need to take a quarter of doing nothing to figure things out before being productive is getting infuriating. In 7 of 11 games this season we have scored 3 or less points in the first quarter. He was making some bad decisions early. I don’t know what in his mind told him that Nield in triple coverage was the best read but he did it.  He had his moments but Harris never really fully got into rhythm in that one. Fortunately, the run game stepped up and helped him big time. 89 yards from Ouelette might seem not impressive but they were all hard-fought important yards and often on runs that put us in 2^nd and medium or second and short. He consistently got positive yards on first down which was crucial. Then Anderson steps up and casually rattles of 2 TDs on 3 touches. And as much as he is a speed guy those TDs where some power running right through defenders. Myers and Johnson had some bad drops… but that also balances off with Robustelli casually tipping an already tipped ball back to himself. Willie Jefferson was kept essentially invisible except for jumping offside and giving as a free first down. 

Also as much as a I hate dwell on officiating when there are far better things to be talking about there’s a few things that can’t be ignored. Well, actually ignoring things is one of my issues. How no one on the field saw Ouellette’s helmet get ripped off his beyond me. What did they think? That Ouelette attacked the Winnipeg defender’s hand with his helmet? But worse, how is that not a situation Command Centre can fix? I have seen them insert themselves in games for far more marginal and far less obvious things. Makes no sense. 

Also need to address the Harris punt single. I (like Winnipeg) just assumed we would try and draw them offside, take the penalty and then punt. I swore when we snapped the ball. Then he punted and I realized that the coaches knew what they were doing and it was a great call. What was not a great call was how the refs called it. That should have been down at the 1. He was clearly moving forward from the goal line (forward progress) and then tackled back into the endzone. Again, I can forgive the refs on the field for doing their best in real time but as a scoring play that was reviewed by the booth. 

Lastly can someone explain how when Collaros (a man with a history of concussions so lengthy it will have its own wing in the hall of fame one day) has his head bounce off the turf and stays down visibly shaken he doesn’t even need any kind of medical assessment?!? We just act like it’s a blatant facemask and pretend it didn’t happen? 

But even the refs couldn’t put a damper on Labour Day. We won and that’s all that matters. When you win on Labour Day the beer seems colder, the music sweeter and the air even smells better (mostly due to the stench of Manitoba following the Bombers fans as they sadly vacate the stadium and our city). 

Other random thoughts:

-        The penalty call on Demksi for offensive pass interference was legit but in fairness if that’s the bar then we should have been called on the Ajou convert. Ran a blatant pick play.

-        Is there any chance that Lauther is going full George Costanza and trying to get fired? I don’t feel great about the prospect of a rookie kicking in the noise of the Banjo Bowl but at some point he does need to be given at least a week on the bench.