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.