Monday Morning Sentimonies: Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Riders 27 – Argos 19

If your response to the Riders clinching first place with a win on Friday is anything but elation then you come across sounding exactly like a rich teenage girl whose dad bought her a Lamborghini but she cried “I wanted the purple one!”. This is the best possible outcome of a regular season and you want to complain that we didn’t do it pretty enough? This has occurred 9 times in our 100+ year history. This is the 3^rd time in the past 50 years which encompasses the entirety of my existence. We are not exactly a franchise that has the luxury of waiting until we do things pretty. I assume people unhappy about how we got this first place finish were also unhappy when we won the Cup in 2007 because that game was pure ass. Being a Rider fan is mostly just signing up for pain… for god sake enjoy the few actual good things that happen. 

I hear lots of people bemoaning that this Rider team isn’t going to win in the postseason… you are right. But this Rider team will not be playing in the West final. Winning this game was so important because we now have 3 weeks to get healthy so that the best version of this team is ready to play in November. It gives a chance for our secondary to get healthy. It gives a chance for the guys who are playing through bumps and bruises to be at their best. I often complain that this team does things the hard way. Well this time they actually did the easy thing. 

There were lots of positives offensively. Harris was able to move the ball and avoid turnovers… well I mean he tried to turn it over but it mercifully got ruled incomplete. Sam Emilus is back! Big yards and big catches (that catch over the helmet was ridiculous). We should maybe run that slant play more. Last week Myers turned it into a TD. This week Emilus turned it into 50 yards. Should maybe try it a bit more. Minus the fumble Ouelette churned out hard yards once again as did Hudon. There were a number of miscues and we settled for FGs far too often but these last 2 weeks have made me feel a whole lot better about Harris and the O. 

Defense was a real mixed bag. They allowed just 19 points and only one TD so they did fine. The secondary was not awful. But the front 4 was completely invisible against a very weak Argo OL. That more than anything surprised me. The big positive is AJ freakin’ Allen. He is not getting near enough recognition for the level he is playing at. If he is not our nominee for top Canadian then the voters need to have their voting ability revoked. He just makes plays.

In the wake of Campbell Fair’s very brief and very tragic time as our kicker, Brett Lauther’s back magically healed up and he went out and had a perfect game. They did make it easy on him by never having him kick into the wind but he still did his job. If you want to see how much this team still loves him and believe him go watch to the end of this video where they hand out game balls. 

My final thought on the game is, how ironic is it that the thing that officially clinched first for us was the command centre intervening to help us... and getting it right?… did not see that coming.

The next two weeks are essentially a second preseason. The road game in Winnipeg is like the first preseason game where you play as many back-ups as humanly possible. The home game against BC you give your starters a solid half to make sure they don’t get rusty. Its great to have the luxury to rest guys while the rest of the West beats each other up. 

With the Riders clinching first place, I have decided to reward myself and my clear significant role in getting the team this far with a vacation in Las Vegas. Truth be told I was going regardless but much better to label it as a celebratory trip. There will be no game preview this week as I will instead be spending my time with a drink in one hand and craps dice in the other. 

One last note, as we do every week in Section 510, we played games for prizes. This week was the Pick 6 Challenge but with Argo themed pictures. Here’s the 6 pictures we were playing with. See if you get all the references