Monday Morning Sentimonies: Embarrassing Effort

Riders 25 – Elks 27

With a chance to take a massive step forward in their quest for first place and facing the worst team in the division, the Riders went out and blew it like $2 hooker in a back alley. It was ugly, it was sloppy, it was shameful. 

The blame for the loss can be placed on three people in this order: 1) Trevor Harris, 2) The Coaches, 3) Brett Lauther. I’ll give an honourable mention to the refs, though their continued awfulness was not the reason we lost.

Trevor Harris was bad. He managed a rare feat throwing not 1 but 2 interceptions on the first drive. Both were the exact same play… he seemed to forget that linebackers existed. He made bad reads. When he made the right read he threw inaccurate passes. When he actually got it there his receivers could not hold onto the ball. It continued a concerning trend. He has not been good in a solid month now. Tough to win when your most important player can only manage one good quarter per game. 

The coaches did none of the players any favours. I don’t have time to detail all their terrible decision making but I’ll summarize one from each phase to highlight my point. Special teams: The decision to even attempt a 55 yarder was stupid. Yes Lauther holds some blame (I’ll get to him) but at no point did that attempt seem like a good idea to anyone who watched the Riders this season. Defensively the all out blitz on Edmonton’s last drive that lead to a long pass completion was dumb. Send one blitzer, fine. Maybe even 2. But all out blitz leaving your patchwork secondary out to dry was a terrible call in that situation. Offensively, I could point to our questionable decision to immediately have Emilus run the same stupid screen that landed him on the injury list he just came off of. But I will instead point to the 2 point convert with the game on the line. You needed 3 yards… a low percentage deep pass was asinine. Ouelette, Tommy, short hook or slant… that are dozens of plays that had a better chance of success. As we did routinely throughout the game, the coaches chose poorly and it cost us. 

Brett Lauther’s issues finally cost us. His inability to kick even remotely consistently has been but a frustrating footnote on an otherwise successfully season so far. But Saturday it caught up with us and burned us. We lost by 1 point. Even if you forgive him the 55 yarder the coaches should not have had him try, if he makes the other kick we win. He failed… again. Any other position (except QB) that failed that often would be replaced. Mace stubbornness in treating the kicker the same is not doing us favours. 

As for the refs. Despite the fact that refs are taught to let potential turnover plays that are close playout and sort it out on review, the refs blew the whistle so quick on that fumble that Julien Grant hadn’t even hit the ground yet. We got the turnover but it cost us an obvious TD. Also, the “Command Centre has not rhyme or reason to their actions” saga continued this weekend. Friday they inserted themselves in the Montreal game to call a BS roughing the passer. Saturday when Harris clearly got hit in the head while sliding they were nowhere to be seen. Its an absolute crapshoot. The ability for the booth to review anything but challenges, turnovers and scoring plays needs to be immediately removed. I would much rather live with the on-field refs making a few mistakes. At least they have the excuse of trying to watching things in real time. If Stewart Johnston really wants to improve the on-field product there are more obvious places to start than changing the configuration of the field. 

Is it time to panic? No. We remain in first place. But the level of concern is rising steadily each week. Here’s essentially what the Riders are now: The defense will give you 3 solid quarters and cave in the 4^th. The offense will randomly decide to show up for either the 2^nd or 3^rd quarter (not both). That’s it. We can count on 4 good quarters between our 2 most important phases. Hard to win when putting in only a half game of quality effort. People keep point to the 2013 team struggling down the stretch and its true. We have the talent to turn this around. But we are doing a great Blue Jays impersonation and squandering a massive lead to make the end of the season unnecessarily stressful. Hopefully we clumsily stumble to the same result they did. 

Other random thoughts:

-        The only person I’m not mad at is AJ Ouelette. Hell of a game by him.

-        The new punter has a strong leg but the directional kicking ability of Jon Ryan. Hopefully that improves with experience.

-        Also I have a mental block and can only refer to him a Micro despite knowing full-well that’s not his name.  

Riders vs. Elks: Back At It

What a wild week. I could literally write pages on what went on this week (rule changes, owner of the Elks passing away etc…) without even touching on the actual football game. 

The Riders have an opportunity the size of Gene Makowsky’s head in front of them. With 5 games to go we have a 2 game lead on first place. The next 3 games are against the 3 lowest teams in the standings. Not one of our next 3 opponents has a winning record including the team we face on Saturday in the Elks. The football gods have essentially done this…

 

We just hope that those football gods don’t go full Will Smith and slap us.

At 5-9 Edmonton is circling the drain. They essentially need to win out to have a shot at the post season. They had a brief upswing with a 3 game win streak shortly after we first played them. But they are 1 for their last 4. Though they lost their last 2 games on last second FGs. As bad as their record may be they are playing competitive football and a desperate team is one you gotta watch out for. Much like a desperate parent fighting for that last tickle me Elmo  there’s no telling what they will resort to (kids ask your parents, I assure you this is a quality reference). 

Riders are fresh off a bye and hoping that the rest will help avoid whatever garbage performance they tried putting in last game. Mixed news on the injury front. The good news Sayles, Emilus and Hudon should be back. The bad news still no Campbell, Ray or either safety. 

Let’s start on the offense. As much as the Elks have been playing better football since Fajardo stepped in, their D remains not so great and their injuries are piling up worse than ours. Elks have the #2 run D but a pass D so bad that rumour is it was the Elks who petitioned Stewart Johnston for a shorter field in an effort to reduce the yards they give up. Scouting report on the Elks’ secondary is simple. Avoid passing towards Tyrell Ford. Literally anyone else is a good option. Harris needs to step up in this one. Its been a while since he had a solid outing front to back. Lately we’ve had to settle for a brief quarter or 2 of him remembering he can play football and that just won’t cut it if we want that first round bye. Oueltte needs to be a consistent part of the O but the Elks allow the highest completion % in the CFL. For a QB like Harris this should be a dream.  Get Myers going. Mix in some Johnson and Emilus. This could be a game where Harris completes to 7 or more different players (I just hope they are all Riders). Only once in the past month has Edmonton kept a team under 28 points.

Defensively I would feel a hell of a lot better with Campbell and Ray but just having Sayles back and not going into the game with Exume being a legit option is a step forward. The book on the Elks’ offense is pretty simple Rankin is their best player, Cody is completing a high % of his passes and not turning the ball over but they give up a ton of sacks and their receivers are not very good. Last time we played them we had 8 sacks. I don’t expect that many this time around but our success will be dictated by how disruptive that front 4 can be. They were non-existent against Montreal. Hopefully a week of rest put some pep back in their step. Elks will try and counter their glaring pass blocking deficiencies (and Fajardo’s patented calmness in the pocket) by getting Rankin going, both on the ground and through the air. He is their leading receiver … can’t imagine why they are in last place. Slow Rankin down and dare them to beat us through the air. Just don’t give up the big chunk plays and I think even an injury riddled D can grind one out. 

As much as I would love to roll into Edmonton and lay an emphatic beating on them, I just don’t see it. They are too desperate and we never do anything the easy way. But here’s the reality, the Elks are 1-5 against the West. Were it not for 2 wins against the only team in the league crappier than them (Ottawa) they would be mathematically eliminated already. We are rested off a bye. They haven’t had a bye week since Week 7. We are a better team even though I’m convinced it will take a 48 yard FG from Lauther in the dying seconds to prove it. 

We all think this team has the potential to be champions. Well champions deliver the kill shot to struggling opponents when they have the chance. So let’s see it. 

Riders by a Lauther FG

Is it wrong that I hope Cody hits the uprights one last time for nostalgia sake?

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Stretch Run

 Note: By the time you read this, the CFL may have already made their big announcement which may render much of what I am about to say irrelevant or old news. I blame the CFL for not giving their old friend Rider Prophet a heads up on things or at least being more mindful of my schedule.

Hope you enjoyed the by week. I did not. With the Riders off I was forced to watch MBT suddenly rediscover how crappy he is a week too late; Vernon Adams be bad VA and throw picks and get hurt (again a few weeks too late); and one of the most disgraceful football games I have ever seen (and I watched every Michael Bishop start). After losing to a Bomber team that completed 3 passes Ottawa should miss the playoff not only this year but the next 3 years as well as punishment.

But enough about my rantings…

With 5 games to go, the path for the Riders is relatively simple. 1 win (or 1 loss by BC and Winnipeg) and we get a home playoff game. But we have our eyes set on a bigger prize. The magic number is 4 wins or Calgary losses to secure first place in the West. Our remaining schedule is as follows: @Edm, @Ott, Tor, @Win, BC.  

The perfect scenario would be winning our next 2, Calgary losing one. Then it’s a Friday night obsidian home game with 1^st place on the line. Oh baby!

But after a putrid outing before the bye, obviously some improvement is needed to reach the ultimate goal. So what is that?

Defensively we just need to get healthy. Sayles and Campbell back on the corners changes things in a hurry. We need at least one of Ford or Lokombo back to at least gain some semblance of Canadian depth back and avoid any scenario where Exume Is ever forced to play corner in a meaningful game. The front 7 I think will come back refreshed from a week off. It will be interesting to see how Ray is health-wise as he appeared to get hurt bad last game.

Offensively we need a spark. After working himself into the MOP conversation early in the season, Trevor Harris has been just OK over the last few. Obviously at 10-3 he’s getting the job done but the offense has been sputtering. I look for a spark in 2 places. One, hopefully we get Emilus back. Two, hopefully that gives us enough ratio flexibility to get Bane on the roster. Obviously Johnson and Myers are ahead of him and we needed Robustelli’s size at the time but if we are looking to jumpstart the offense I think Bane is a guy that can do it.

Special Teams we need bodies. We lost Korte-Moore for the season. Hudon has been out. Normal special teamers like Oneyka, Exume and Nield have been forced into starting roles. We are dressing a second fullback because we literally have no other Canadians to dress. Same with DeShawn Stevens. If we can get guys like Emilus, Campbell and Ford back it would ease the pressure on special teams. I would also love to see Hudon back because a Canadian back-up RB opens up a ton of ratio flexibility we have been missing since he went down.

We also need bums in seats. I know it will be getting colder but we gotta take advantage of this as fans. I don’t know if you have followed Rider history buts is basically decades upon decades of heartache and misery with brief fleeting moments of hope. This is one of those moments. We have had very few legit chances at first place in my lifetime. Come cheer on a winning team before the window closes and we suck again.

My only hope is that we don’t leave our chances at first up to the fate of a freak wind gust again. I’m still very bitter about that.

 

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Saturday Night Suckfest

Riders 31 – Als 48

*Editor’s note: You probably should not google Saturday night suckfest. Probably has some other connotations that may have unintended consequences on your algorithm.

In a stunning turn of events, Brett Lauther has quietly moved himself out of the conversation of things plaguing this team. On Saturday he was about the only part of the team that did his job. Defense was awful. Offense was awful. Weather was awful. My dry ribs combo was adequate at best. Just nothing was good about that game. We looked like a team that was a little too eager for a bye week. We rolled into Montreal and embarrassed a beat up Als team last month. They returned the favour om Saturday.

Look, we knew our secondary would be an issue. We had 2 starters (one of them being Fields) and 3 guys who were essentially dressed because they ranked slightly above a cardboard cutout in terms of starting options. In retrospect the cardboard cutout may have outplayed Exume. Montreal correctly identified Exume as a liability and had their way with him. It should not have taken us as long as it did to bench him. I get that we are desperate for anything resembling a Canadian on defense but I think Daniel Johnson or Ali Saad would have been as effective at CB. What I don’t understand is that we spend the entire year playing a soft zone and giving up easy completions underneath but when we get backup CBs in that’s when we decide to jump anything short? The secondary was not a surprise. The front 7 was a massive disappointment. Front 4 was invisible. Linebackers had no ability to stop one of the worst run games in the league. We needed them to step up and help a depleted back end… they did not.

Offense was kind enough to not let the defense suck alone. Interceptions. Fumbles. Drops. Total team effort on digging a hole too deep to get out of. We need to be honest with ourselves. Harris has been mediocre since the Hamilton game. His last few games he has done enough but his name is noticeably becoming absent in MOP conversations. He needs to be better. Play calling was also an issue in this one. In the 1^st quarter we had a 2^nd and 2 in FG range. All we had to do was run. Even if you get 1 yard, Tommy gets the other on 3^rd. Instead we got cute and tried to pass. It was incomplete and we were forced to settle for 3 when it should have been an easy 1^st down.

Lastly, let me just come out and say it: Screw the command centre! There is no rhyme or reason for when they intervene. Based on previous weeks we know that obvious face masks are not in their ability to remedy. But apparently procedure calls and illegal blocks are (if Montreal complains enough). Were those both penalties on us? Yes. But there is no consistency for when the booth inserts itself and it almost always seems to harm the Riders whatever they decide. There needs to be clear rules such as major penalties only. The “intervene when you feel like it approach” is not working.

This loss in not the biggest thing in the world. We were injury riddled and looking forward to a needed bye. We are also still in first place. But making a QB has terrible as MBT look like Ricky Ray is kinda like letting a one legged soccer player score a penalty kick on you.

Hopefully this bye week sees a few bodies return to the field. Legitimately we are an injury or two away from me needing to start in the secondary.

Riders vs. Alouettes: Be Legendary

The 10-2 Riders look to officially sew up a playoff spot when the 5-7 Alouettes roll into town on Saturday for Legends Night. Back in August a relatively healthy Rider team rolled into Montreal and laid such beating on a decimated Als team that it could almost be considered a criminal. This time a relatively healthy Als team rolls into Regina looking to return the favour to a Rider roster in need of the upcoming bye week. 

The Als’ season is pretty easy to summarize. They are 4-0 when Davis Alexander starts and 1-7 when (insert crappy QB not named Alexander) starts. Its that simple. They have a pretty solid defense but no semblance of an offense. Unfortunately for Als’ fans once again they will be forced to start (insert crappy QB not named Alexander). 

Don’t in any way expect a repeat of what happened in Montreal. They had no receivers in that game and no secondary. Last time Mack, Philpot, Fletcher, Decoy and Mustafa Johnson did not play. They will this week. The script is flipped as I have legit concerns about our ability to roster 5 DBs let alone an emergency 6^th. They are getting healthier. We are not. We have a bye coming up. This could have trap game written all over it. 

But there is one massive factor that rebalances the scales. That being McLeod Bethel-Thompson. After basically benching him with an “injury” the Als have had to come crawling back to him out of desperation. Problem is that while he will have vastly better receivers at his disposal. He remains as likely to be a good QB as other Thompsons such as Kenan, Charisa and Hunter S. On passes over 20 yards he has as many completions as interceptions… that being 1. Those 6 points he produced in the last meeting (at home) are pretty telling. He a major reason why the Als have the least TDs in the CFL… 8 less than the next worst. The Als are not great at running the ball so its all on MBT’s arm against our patchwork secondary. D-line will need to have a big game to help out a secondary missing 2-3 starters against actual receivers. 

Offense is healthy but will face a much stiffer test in the Als D this time around. They are 3^rd in points allowed and 2^nd in yards allowed. Honestly bet the under on this game because scoring will be at a premium. The Als do allow the second most yards per carry so we need to lean on Ouelette early and often. We also need to find a way to get Myers going. Johnson is the key guy for second down conversions but Myers is the big play guy. When he has a big workload good things happen. Als are second in sacks so O-line will have their work cut out keeping Harris upright. After a rough game 2 I think Ajou will have a bounce back game and make a couple big catches. 

If the Als had a mildly competent QB, given the state of our secondary and the looming bye week I would be picking the Als. I think we are better than them but timing is not on our side. But for the life of me I can’t see this team losing to MBT. I just can’t. We are going to lose at some point but its going to take an actual starting QB to do it. 

I hope in a fitting tribute to Alex Smith (one of the greatest and most underrated assistant coaches we have ever had) we see Thurman, Allen and Reavis put on a show.  

Riders by a Lauther FG because they love to put me through agony.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Long Time Coming

Riders 21 – Bombers 13

From a table at a bar in downtown Toronto that I made put the game on their TV, I spent the afternoon alternating between cheering and yelling at the TV while curious onlookers just tried to enjoy a pint. Other than a couple servers (one of which was an Argos fan) I’m sure everyone just assumed I was crazy. But man did I leave that place happy… and a few doubles more inebriated than when I came in. 

But they did it! The Riders went into Winnipeg and won. We had not won a Banjo Bowl since 2018 and spent most of the intervening years just getting utterly embarrassed when we went there. Do you know how low you have to be to be embarrassed by Manitobans? That game was so ugly a paper bag and a bottle of moonshine couldn’t even improve it… but we won. In the process we took a 4 game lead over Winnipeg and secured the season series. 

Offense was awful. Harris took his usual quarter and change to remember how to play football. Receivers could not catch to save their soul (Robustelli and Ajou in particular). We turned the ball over. The endzone seemed about as foreign a concept as dental hygiene in Manitoba. I’m sure we were all thinking “here we go again”. But we hung in there. Ouelette is becoming the king of great heard running performances that look very meh on the stat sheet. Other than a couple games he rarely pops off but he is consistently churning out hard important yards and keeping the run game part of our offense even when we are struggling. You have to hand it to Harris, despite his struggles, in the 4^th quarter when we were on our own goal line (because Mario Alford briefly lost every f’n ounce of common sense he ever had) he stepped up and made a massive throw to Robustelli. Credit to O-line. Again it was not always pretty but we gave up zero sacks and Willie Jefferson registered on the stat sheet exactly the same number of times as Scott Schultz.   

Defense was yet again the driving force in this win. As expected Olivera had a bigger game but he certainly didn’t run all over us. Despite starting our 3^rd string safety (i.e. the guy we think is not worthy to lace up Lokombo’s cleats for him) the secondary actually looked pretty solid. Yes they allowed a couple big catches but that will happen. Obviously the Collaros injury impacted things but it was not like he was lighting it up when he was playing. He served up 2 INTs and should have had more. D-line had another impactful day and that obviously helps the secondary. When we had the lead and Streveler was under centre I knew it was over. The guy’s most consistent passing target was Tevaughn Campbell. Did it help that Castillo got an untimely case of Lautheritis? Oh yeah but we still win even if he makes his kicks. 

Speaking of kickers. I am very conflicted on how to feel about Lauther after that. He nailed all 5 of his FG attempts in a game where we absolutely needed that to happen to win. That should have been a massive confidence boost. But then he pooches a gimme PAT… it looked like he was trying to hit the sideline. Based on how bad it was I’m assuming something went wrong with the hold. Overall a much needed up day for Lauther but the issues still linger like the stench of Winnipeg on those brave enough to attend the game in person. 

Lastly I’ll touch on the “the hit”. I hate seeing Collaros get hurt. He’s a good dude and top end QBs like him are good for the league as a whole. But my sympathy in this particular case is pretty muted. That was not a dirty hit. Reavis did what he was supposed to and initiated contact in the right spot. His momentum just carried his helmet into Collaros’. I get why it was a penalty as that’s the bar in the CFL today but that’s a good football hit in my opinion. Also, I don’t think the impact would be as bad if this was his first head injury of the year. By my count this is at least his 4^th and he and the Bombers are not taken proper care (or any for that matter). He got diagnosed with a neck injury after his first and was rushed back only to exit the next game early. His head clearly bounced off the turf on Labour Day and he received zero medical attention. This is serious stuff and Collaros and the team just seem to want to cover their ears and say “lalalalala” until it goes away. 

Here's where the Riders sit after that big road win:

-        1 win and we clinch a playoff spot

-        2 wins and we clinch a home playoff game

-        Any combination of 5 wins or Calgary loses and we clinch first

That feels pretty damn good!

 Other random thoughts:

-        I still can’t get over what the hell a returner has good as Mario Alford was thinking on that damn near safety! Like what the hell dude?!?

-        Robustelli is a good route runner and has great hands, but the more I watch him the more I notice he is not great on contested catches. He has a tendency to give up to early and try in vain to draw a penalty.

-        3 people in downtown Toronto recognized my Rider jersey. One of them was visiting from Toledo.

Abbreviated Banjo Bowl Thoughts

 I am heading out of town for the weekend so I only have time for a short analysis of the Banjo Bowl.

We have not won a Banjo Bowl since 2018 (our lone win since 2015) and other than last year we have not been remotely close either. To say history is not on our side on this one is like saying history is not on the side of the clean cut image of Germany.

Then there is last week. There's a perspective out there that we barely beat the Bombers at home so what chance do we have on the road? I present an alternative perspective to consider though... We did not play out best offense in that. We did not play our best defense in the second half. Despite that the Bombers still could not beat us. 

A few things I do expect:

- The Bombers will start hot (much like our D did on Labour Day)

- Olivera will run for 150. 

- We will hang around much like they did. .

- This one will be about as pretty as a Manitoba bridesmaid/auntie-cousin.

I do honestly think this is our best chance at winning in years. I would probably bet money on the Bombers. But my heart says, ugly upset Rider win is very possible. We are the better team, if we can find a way to quiet that crowd and take away homefield advantage we have good shot.

I will be cheering/swearing us on from some random sports bar our East.

See you Monday

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.