Riders vs. ArgoNots

The sentiment across the prairies this week has been decidedly “they can’t lose to these argos”… unfortunately its phrased more as a cautious question than a deeply believed statement. We should this game and I believe we will but honestly I can’t rule anything out based on how this season has gone. 

We are a win away from first place. Their season is over and 2 meaningless games stand between them and going home. We are 5-2 at home. They are 2-5 on the road. We have a team briming with talent. They have O-linemen that Ryan Dinwiddie makes snarky comments about their offseason regimen. Were it not for the fact that we are starting a preseason secondary they may have employed the mercy rule in this one. Fortunately the Argos rebalance the scales by conveniently starting a preseason QB. 

Look our secondary is a mess. No Milligan, Campbell or safety. I am still not sold that anything more than voodoo magic is holding Sayles’ lower body together. Fields is suddenly legitimately one of the best DBs we are fielding.. and that is not a compliment. Secondary is potentially an issue. But here’s the thing: Our front 7 can dominate enough to compensate. Toronto has no run game whatsoever (a miniscule 51 yards per game avg), they allow the most sacks and Jarrett Doege is how the French might say “le terriblé". There will be sacks, there will be turnovers. The main thing that worries me about Toronto is the chance that their unknown 4h string Horn might come in. Rider history is littered with unknown back-ups who made a name against us. 

While injuries may be testing the limits of our defensive depth, our offense remains relatively healthy (I don’t feel great typing this and am aggressively knocking on wood as we speak). Toronto’s D struggled when they cared and had Wynton McManis playing. They have neither of those now. We need early production like last week. Get them down early and then pound it at them with Ouelette and Hudon. You can’t manufacture “care” and Toronto doesn’t care. They are not going to stand up to 60 mins of physicality and aggression. They allow the most 30+ yard passes so take shots and get points on the board. 

This is a dream scenario. Friday night. Obsidian. Home crowd. All we need is one win against the second worst team in the CFL and we get first place and 3 weeks to rest before a West Final at home. We need to seize this opportunity. We don’t want to have to play meaningful ball next week in Winnipeg of the week after when BC is here. 

I feel very old man-ish saying this but “back in my day” we would have killed for even just a Friday night game. We would have killed loved ones for meaningful football this late in the year. And we would have pretty much crossed any moral, ethical and legal line for a chance at first place. Entire generations have not seen us finish in first. I have barely seen it. I am amped up beyond belief for this game and just paying that the football gods don’t summon an untimely gale-force wind to ruin this for us again. 

Even with a battered secondary we should stomp a team that doesn’t care. Therefore I boldly predict a victory but like a 9 point victory just because that’s how we roll. 

Get loud Saskatchewan. Lights out night with a chance a t first place. It don’t get better than that.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Big Step Forward

Riders 20 – RedBlacks 13

Look, I know many of you wanted a far more resounding win given that we were playing the worst team in the league. To you I say boo-hoo. We won. Do you remember how good we played in game 15 of 2024? 2019? 2013? No you don’t. The end result of the season is all that matters and Friday’s win helped us take a massive step forward to our end goal. Sure, I would have preferred we dominate them more but that’s like saying I would prefer an 18oz steak over a 12oz one… if you offer me a 12 ouncer I’ll still be happy.

For me there were a lot of positives in that game. Are we where we need to be to make a strong playoff run? No. But we took some positive steps forward on a lot on fronts. After 2 straight loses, finding a way to win on the road was big. After a month of mediocre to bad performances I finally saw Trevor Harris show flashes of the guy who was briefly in the MOP conversation earlier this season. We actually scored a major in the quarter… something that is about as rare as the RedBlacks eclipsing 5 wins in a season. The offense showed up for more that their usual 1 quarter (yes it was only 2 quarters they were useful in this time but we are focusing on the positive progression). Defense managed to close out a game with minimal drama (there was drama but it was due to the offense). All in all lots of positives. The biggest being that we are 1 win away from clinching first. 

Now its not all roses and sunshine. The kicker brought into solve our inconsistent kicking was consistent… unfortunately it was consistently awful. Like it looked as though Lauther paid him off top make him look good by comparison. The punter brought in to solve our mediocre punting made us long for the return of our mediocre punter. And if our secondary suffers any more injuries Micah Johnson may legitimately be lining up at corner soon. I am fairly sure that Marcus Sayles is only being held together by duct tape and horse tranquilizers at this point. So other that having no useful kickers and injuries to pretty much anyone who plays DB, things are just fine. 

Defense was fairly solid last week but they were difference makers this week. It helped that Dru Brown did his best Harris homage and forgot that linebackers existed. Each LB had a pick and Sapp damn near had a fourth. You can still see inexperience in Sapp but I actually like what he brings to the table so far. Brooks just finds ways to make plays when he gets to start. Front 4 were disruptive. Overall a solid effort. 

Offense was finally able to put yards up. They needed a lot more points for what our defense was gifting them but Harris eclipsed 300 yards and could probably have hit 400 if not for drops by guys like Baker. He hit 8 different receivers. Most importantly no picks. The fumble was not on him and 9 times out of 10 that ball just falls to the turf rather than directly into a defender’s hands. AJ Ouelette is the player of the game bar none. His stats will only show 50 rush yards and 20 receiving but each one of those yards was important and hard earned against a very good Ottawa run D. He handled short yardage with Tommy out (I don’t love his style as he tries to go high rather than low but he was effective). And he saved the game by chasing that Ottawa defender down the field. That kind of effort and refusal to give up is what champions are made of. Ouelette has been quietly killing it for a month. Good things happen when we get Dohnte Myers the ball. He took a simple slant and turned it into our best offensive play of the day. Getting him involved needs to be a priority. 3 of our 4 losses have occurred when gets under 50 yards whereas we are 5-1 when get over 75. Feed him and let the man make plays.

With Friday’s win, we now sit just one win away from clinching first. Not only would that give us a first round bye but if we manage to win next week that makes our last 2 games meaningless and gives us 3 full weeks to gets healthy (or at least as close to healthy as you can get in November) something that is desperately needed as our defensive injuries mount. The only thing standing in our way now is a home game against a team that was just eliminated from the playoffs and will be starting their 3^rd string QB who was just sacked 9 times and threw 4 picks. So I guess what I’m saying is, Friday’s obsidian game is definitely somehow coming down to the last play of the game as we find some ridiculous way to almost lose. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Not a great day for TSN. Dustin Neilson repeatedly called our punter Joe Couch (no Dustin, we only wish it was Couch… as sad as that statement is to write) and Claire Hanna spent post game congratulating our players on clinching a home playoff game (we have not). As Jay Onrait would say "Ya Blew It"

-        In addition to awful kicking our cover teams were not great. Pimpleton almost busted it a few times and we were saved by a block in the back on the one he did break.

-        Can we put some respect on AJ Allen’s name? Consistently makes impact plays on defense. GO compare his stats to Cam Judge and tell me he at least should not be in the conversation for top Canadian. He damn well better be our nominee.

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Gut Check Time

The Riders are in Ottawa tonight looking to end their first losing streak of 2025. Nothing to be worried about since things always go super normal when we travel to Ottawa.

Ottawa is circling the drain. They need to win out to have a chance. Oddly enough 3 of their 4 wins have come against Calgary and BC. For many years the issue in Ottawa was a lack of talent. That’s not the case this year… other than maybe the secondary. Bob Dyce is a phenomenal human but he couldn’t get them out of the East basement if he bribed the rest of the division. 

But if last week proved anything, its that the Riders are quite capable of losing to bottom dwelling teams. Ottawa is desperate and coming off a bye. We are starting our 4^th safety since Labour Day. All outcomes are on the table in this one.

Based purely on talent on paper, you would expect Ottawa to have a great offense (Brown, Lewis, Hardy, Pimpleton, Dedmon) and a terrible D. The stats are obviously skewed by the many games missed by Brown but they are 6^th in yards gained and 3^rd in yards allowed.

Defensively we put in 3 solid quarters last week before falling apart. Gonna take all 4 to get it done in Ottawa. Reavis should be an improvement but we are still fielding a patchwork secondary against a pretty impressive group of receivers. That puts the pressure on the front 4. Ottawa is 7^th in sacks allowed and the only person on that team whose running concerns me is Crum. Best way to defend the pass is keep Brown on the turf. Ideally we get pressure with the front 4 but I think sending a 5^th rusher on pretty much every play would be fine. We can win the game with a disruptive pass rush. We can’t win if Brown has time for Geno Lewis to get open on Benny Sapp.

Offensively go back to the only thing that worked last week… Ouelette. It will be tough running as Ottawa has the #2 run D but do it anyway. Ottawa is this close to being officially cooked. If we can get an early score (what? Just because we have failed to score more than 3 first quarter points 10 times this season doesn’t mean a man can’t hope) and then pound them physically their will to continue will be a fragile as their QB. Few may be as happy as me about the return of Hudon but he’s another guy that can play a physical style. If Trevor Harris can’t get it together in this one I will officially start to worry. Ottawa has the least sacks this season and just traded away Lorenzo Mauldin. His jersey should stay whiter than a small town Saskatchewan bar. He now has all his weapons with Baker back in the fold. Time to start making good decisions, take what the D is giving and spread it around. That is a probably the weakest secondary in the CFL (aside from when we are forced to start Exume).

Lots of talk about kickers this week. As a side note, for all of you clamouring for the Riders to trade for Ward, he is currently the second worst kicker in the CFL and somehow Leone is the worst punter. Given that Dyce is a special teams guy by trade that can’t help his case to remain employed. I am glad we are giving Fair a chance due to Lauther’s “injury” (wink). The bar is set pretty low, make 3 of 4 kicks and you are officially better than the other guy. I'd rather find out now whether we have a better option than wait until playoffs. 

Look I know Ottawa has talented players and is coming off of bye but for god’s sake they just lost to a team that completed 3 passes. Our offense may be struggling but I think even declining Harris is good for a better offensive performance. We still have a very easy path to 1^st place. This is the east chance to take a big step forward in that quest… don’t blow it. 

Riders by a Tommy time TD… Tommy being Thomas Bertrand-Hudon this time.