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.