Monday Morning Sentimonies: All’s Well That Ends Well

Riders 24 – Lions 21

As Saturday’s game wore on, the list of grievances I had against the Riders just kept mounting. Receivers couldn’t catch. Harris slept through the first half. And the coaching decisions… I was about as big a fan of them as I was of Michael Bishop. But here’s the thing, all is forgiven because despite all that we found a way to win. Style points are as useful as a 2025 Winnipeg Blue Bombers home playoff ticket. I am so freakin’ happy! I can honestly think of no more fitting way for this team to punch their ticket to the Grey Cup than that monstrosity of a game. The 2025 Riders win ugly... but dammit, they win.

As we got closer and closer to kickoff, I was growing more and more concerned that the “Sellout” crowd was going to look like a preseason game. But the seats filled in way more than I ever expected and those that showed up brought the energy. For about 59 minutes of that game the team seemed to do its best to suck that energy out of the stadium but Mosaic was rocking and there’s no better place to be when it is. 

This win goes to the defense. They are the only reason we are where we are. They were the only ones to show up in the first half. They took the highest powered offense in the CFL and held them to 7 points through 45 minutes and 21 points overall (BC’s lowest point total since July). This was despite zero offensive support and having to overcome a turnover in our own end. And when the game was on the line and Corey Mace put his trust in the defense, they rewarded his faith by not allowing a solitary first down on the final 2 BC drives. That entire unit played their assess off and deserve a ton of credit. 

While it was mostly praise I heaped on the defense, it was mostly profanity I heaped on the O. I will say that the O-line did a great job of protecting Harris and winning the battle in the trenches. And early on when nothing was working AJ Ouelette was the work horse we needed him to be churning out big run after big run. The rest of the O… well they came through when it mattered most. Harris was utterly useless until after halftime. He was making bad reads, forcing throws and missing receivers. Now the receivers were doing him no favours by refusing to make catches for him. But when it seemed like our window of opportunity was closing they all stepped up. Harris delivered drives. Emilus was a flat out beast (likely was “randomly” selected for a pee test after the game). Myers came through big. And on a roster stacked with big name receivers it was Tommy Nield (an afterthought to most at the start of this season among the receivers) who stepped up when we absolutely needed a catch. The offensive performance was so ugly that all the rye in Saskatchewan could not have made it pretty but when Nield scored that TD all was forgiven. Coming through when it matters most is what counts. 

How ironic is it that our ticket to the Grey Cup was secured by the command centre making a ruling in our favour? 

I don’t want to dwell on it because clearly Corey Mace was right in the end. But I hated a lot of his decisions. Hated the decision not to go for it on 3^rd and short from midfield (it’s the entire reason you employ Tommy Stevens). Hated the decision to not run once from the 5 yard line. Hated the FG. Really hated punting it. There was a lot of really questionable decision making going on. But to his credit, Mace believed in his defense and the rest of team and in the end he was right. After a 12 year absence from the Grey Cup I am not about to get nit picky about how the coach managed to get us back there. 

As the fireworks went up into the sky and my heart rate started easing back down it set in for real… this team is going to the Grey Cup! Being a Rider fan is mostly about preparing yourself to be hurt or disappointed. So when a true happy moment comes along and the team delivers its almost too good to believe.  But believe it. 

Other random thoughts:

-        When the coin toss was done by Georgette Reed and she nailed it you knew it was going to be our night.

-        That poor guy who had to try and kick a frozen football 50 yards in front of thousands of people for the contest. I don’t think the real kickers would have made it. The guy’s kick got about as far off the turf as an O-lineman’s vertical.

-        Here’s my theory after rewatching the Hatcher TD. There was an obvious massive bust in coverage. To my untrained eyes it looked like Reavis didn’t trust Fields (he did spend a lot of the game yelling a him) and left his zone to try and compensate for Fields. The others assumed he was providing support over the top but he cheated too far to the other side of the field.

-        If it were a regular season game, Trevor Harris would totally have been pulled for concussion protocol after that big hit. I know it makes me petty but the fact that Betts’ injured knee kept him from playing every down after that seems like karma for hitting Harris’ head with it.

-        I have a bottle of 2013 Grey Cup whiskey just waiting to be cracked on Sunday to celebrate.