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.