Monday Morning Sentimonies: Opportunity Blown

Riders 19 – Ti-Cats 26

The best summary I can give for that game was that Alex Hale was legitimately our best player on Saturday. Kudos to him but that tells you all you need to know about the rest of the team. After all the praise our depth got for not missing a beat last week, we got to see how effective that depth is when not playing an absolute joke of a franchise. We did not get blown out, but we looked a lot more human than we have in a while. Offense had to play a rock solid D and looked like a team missing a third of their starters.

As pissed off as I was about that game, the difference was 2 plays given up on D. Harris throws an errant pass that gets tipped up into an INT giving the Ti-Cats the ball deep in our territory. Two plays later they toss a deep pass over top of Lokombo (shocking). Then there was the miracle Ford to Wheatfall throw. Take one of those passes away it’s a tie game. Take both away and Hamilton did sweet FA all game. So I won’t hang this on the defense. Yes they failed to get a sack. Yes they couldn’t make a big play when needed. But through 3 quarters the only play they gave up was because offense put them in a bad spot. And most of what happened in the fourth can be blamed on them being tired from receiving zero help from the O. Defense wasn’t great but I feel they played well enough to give us a solid chance.

Offense was a completely different story. They just sucked. The first quartered featured an offensive game plan based entirely on nothing but swing passes. Curious choice and by curious I mean stupid. The 2^nd and 3^rd we actually managed to grind out a few drives and look respectable. But then to reward themselves for the effort the O just didn’t bother showing up for the 4^th . They literally could have been more effective by not taking the field at all. In the 4^th we had 4 drives: 3 of them were 2 and out and 1 was an INT. We ran 7 offensive plays and one of the gained positive yards. When you factor in the sack given up and the yards lost on the INT we netted a total of -2 yards in that quarter. Like I said, would have been better to just not take the field. Harris had a terrible day. Receivers weren’t exactly helping him out, nor was Mueller’s playcalling. It’s clear you can’t just expect to roll over an actual defense like Hamilton with your practice roster starting. (Seriously though, after watching the Hamilton game how much worse does it make Ottawa look?) 

I’ll try and end on the only positive… Alex Hale. After months of not even being willing to let him try a kick over 40 yards (for good reason) we suddenly were like, screw it, and let him kick from anywhere. Maybe Mace just finally decided either I’m right about you or you’re going down in flames but we need to figure that out now. I don’t suddenly believe Hale has turned the corner and will still hold my breath anytime he lines up but its reassuring that he can actually hit long distance FGs. 

The loss was costly because it should have been a winnable game but instead we let Edmonton reclaim first and BC and Winnipeg gain ground in standings. We tried to win a road game by only putting in 2 quarters of effort. That won’t cut it. Only gets harder from here unless we start feeding our injured list some steroids. 

Other random thoughts:

-       For his first game I liked Star Thomas.

-       Dylan Djete is also growing on me.

-       I am anything but a Lokombo lover but I truly believe our secondary would be better if he went back to safety and Bell played corner.

Riders vs. Ti-Cats: On The Road Again

As a Rider fan I feel qualified to say this do to lived experience, the football gods seem to hate the Ti-Cats. We all mocked Winnipeg for not winning a Grey Cup since 1990. But the Ti-Cats are the new Bombers and creeping up on 30 years without a Cup. The Renegades came and went in the time since they last won. Their fans have long suffered. They suffered through Burris embarrassing himself here in 2013. They suffered through the called back kick return the next year. They suffered. But this year should have been different. They should be competing with the Als for 1^st. They have a Grey Cup caliber roster. But instead Bo got hurt and they are once again suffering. 

You might look at this game and think that due to them starting their 4^th QB of the year this should go the same way as last week. But there is one massive difference between Ottawa and Hamilton (other than Ottawa managing to win a Cup this century). While Ottawa’s defense was dog shit, Hamilton’s is legit. They have a top 3 defense despite having nothing resembling an offense. 

So let’s look at how our offense is going to overcome that formidable D, given that that’s the key matchup in this game. The Ti-Cats allow the 3^rd least points and the 3^rd least yards. They are stingy particularly in the pass game. I would say we should lean on the run but with our backup RB questionable we may be relying on Star Thomas the 3rd stringer. I don’t see us ignoring the run, it will not be a focus and it will be a split between Hudon and Star. This will be on Harris and it will require him to be patient. Unlike Edmonton and Ottawa he won’t have an easy air show. This will be a far more traditional Harris dink and dunk game. Obviously KeeSean is a focus but Hamilton will key on him and unlike Ottawa they are talented enough to be effective. Joey Jojo and Busby will need to play a big role. Need to avoid turnovers and take what we get. Settling for FGs may be required… which regardless of kicker makes me ill at the thought of it. 

Offensively Harrison Frost is an upgrade over Dolegala, who we saw in the first game. But that is a bit like saying a hotdog is an upgrade over manure in terms of food quality. Frost is completing only 54% of his passes so its not like he’s super intimidating. But with a D as good as Hamilton’s he just needs to be okay to give them a chance. Hamilton is 7^th in rushing so keeping them one dimensional should be doable. Lawler and Smith are dangerous receivers if Frost can get them the ball. So D-line needs to make life difficult. Secondary just needs to play solid and limit big plays. The more Frost has to throw the better for us. 

Let’s not forget that we are still a very depleted roster. We are a couple injuries away from me being a viable option as a token Canadian. We are on the road. We are playing a good defense. This is no gimme and this is a losable game. But kinda like I did last game I go back to the QB match-up. Harris is playing some of the best football of his storied career. Frost is playing because he’s the last remaining option after an injured guy and 2 more who were flat out terrible. 

This will be hard and far closer than I’d like (that’s what she said). We will need to grind it out and probably come from behind. 

It will take a late FG (Hale or Hodge), make it we win. Miss we lose. 

I say we win.

Monday Morning Sentimoines: Ya Who?!

Riders 42 – RedBlacks 20

On a night that fittingly started with a fan getting injured in the pre-game relay contest (which by the way, running a gauntlet of ropers in an inflatable suit is diabolically hilarious) I think the first half of Friday’s game delivered exactly what we were expecting… terrible football. On one side you had a team that is literally down to one Canadian remaining because they are so riddled with injury. On the other side a team that hasn’t won in almost a calendar year. But then after halftime one remembered it was good and the other remembered they were still not and the end result was lopsided beatdown despite Ottawa being in the lead early in the 3^rd quarter.

We had to empty the practice roster for this one. Anyone with a pulse and Canadian passport was dressed. Half our roster was rookies including 4 starting players on offense. We tested the limits of our depth and guys stepped up. Mimbs, Djete and Joey Jojo made impacts offensively despite a combined playing experience of 15 games prior to Friday. I feel bad for the long-suffering Ottawa fan because if you can’t even come within 20 points when playing essentially a preseason roster, I don’t know what there is to hope in. Not even Stewart Johnston’s incoming “everyone makes it” playoff format could save them at this point. 

Offense had 3 big things going in their favour. First was the O-line. The only sack they gave up was by rookie Darius Bell when he lined up at TE. Otherwise the starters (including rookie Erik Andersen) gave Harris time to operate. The second thing was Trevor Harris. Other than that one ill-advised pass to the RedBlack LB he was rock solid and kept the offense rolling despite most of his normal starters being on the 6-game. Offense could have easily gone to hell but he trusted in the new guys and kept rolling. The final thing is of course Tommy Stevens. Here's the telling stat of the day: Tommy had more rushing attempts, rushing yards and points than all off Ottawa combined. KeeSean Johnson should only be targeted on hooks or outbreaking routes going forward. He’s solid on those. But give that man an easy slant and he displays all the receiving prowess of a box of Cheerios. 

Defense played solid, almost boringly uneventful, but solid. Thurman has really stepped up his game these last couple weeks. Not that he is even “bad” but I felt he had a slow start to the season by his standards. But these last 2 weeks he has been back to his elite form. Jonathan Edouard might be the steal of the season. For a guy we picked up partway through the year he has been a solid starter. Why on earth was a Canadian with his abilities unemployed? (Thank you Argos). He became the first DB to get a pick for us this season. Liam Hoskins is a guy who keeps making plays when he gets a chance. That game for me encapsulates Jake Maier. He didn’t play bad. He had one turnover and threw for over 300. But despite that he produced very little points. Now his coach could help him out by even occasionally trying to run the ball. Dinwiddie seems to hate running almost as much as he hates punters who wuss out on making tackles. But what we saw Friday was Maier’s ceiling… mediocrity. I did have to chuckle about Bethel-Thompson (at age 63) being sent in for mop-up duty only to get killed. 

Two final things I need to address. 

First, that BS roughing the long snapper call. The intent of the rule is good, to protect the snapper when he is in a vulnerable position. So you can’t line up over top of him (we did not) and you can’t engage him when his head is down (we did not). Adams went after the gap between the guard and snapper and it was both guard and snapper who initiated blocking with him. I feel bad that their snapper got injured but that was a legal play. We were robbed of a TD and yet again I am left wondering what the purpose of the Command Centre is. They seem to be willing to randomly intervene and impact the game at will except for when something egregious has happened to us. 

Second and most importantly, if you did not attend the game in person you missed the greatest halftime show possibly ever. By greatest I mean it was so lame/bad that I was almost in tears laughing at it. If you missed out, they had a trick roper who also told jokes. The best way I can describe it is that I think this guy was legitimately a top end act in 1970 and based on that has changed nothing about his act since. Highlights included making a “yellow rope of Texas joke” that 4 people understood, making an Amway joke (how could that possibly not get laughs?), playing a plunger with a rubber chicken (that is not a typo, that’s what actually happened), all building to the big finally where he had to end the show because he got a call on his iphone (a fake toy phone with two giant eyes on either end). I think we need to make his signature joke a fixture going forward:

Knock-knock

Who’s there?

Ya

Ya Who?

Yahoo!!!!!!!

Is beating Ottawa anything to brag about? No. But a beat up roster managed to not let a winnable game slip through their grasp. A massive win in light of Edmonton and Calgary both losing. We are now back in first place. Hopefully we spend the coming week either airlifting in a bunch more back-up Canadians, or injecting all our current injured Canadians with the best steroids you can find (they can’t randomly test all of them). 

Other random thoughts:

-       My current conspiracy theory is that we have rigged the coin toss at home. Hear me out. The Rider logo is always tails, pretty much guaranteeing an opposing team will never pick it. The coin lands on tails a very disproportionate amount of the time leading me to believe it’s a weighted coin.

-       The anthem singers are extremely talented and have great voices but they took way too many creative liberties with the anthem and I thought it was bordering on O Christmas tree-levels for how much they wandered from the actual song.

-       Kudos to Hale for not sucking this week (maybe its his new tinted lenses). It’s sad that we have so little confidence in him that we punt from the 42. But as much as I hate that we have to it was the right call to punt and I loved the play call with the onside guys.

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Wounded

Under normal circumstances, a home game against a winless team (particularly when you just took down a first place team) should be as close to guaranteed win night as it gets. But these are far from normal circumstances. To say our depth is depleted is an understatement. We are running out of back-ups. Particularly Canadian ones. We are dressing Darius Bell, not because we have a pressing need for a 7^th OL but because he was one of 2 remaining Canadians to choose from… the other was also an OL. So next injury means either we dress 8 OL or that new kicker we finally brought in is lining up at receiver. We have no fullbacks. Our “big 3 receivers” now include Busby and Djete. I am actually happy Lokombo is back. Things are dire. We are probably currently inquiring into just how retired Mitch Picton is. If this trend continues, we may start testing how retired Getzlaf and Elgaard are. 

So suddenly a very winnable game is a big question mark. My level of doubt is not quite at “the strait of Hormuz will open soon” levels but it is well past “a semi won’t hit a Saskatoon overpass today” levels. But I keep coming back to the fact that Ottawa just isn’t very good. 

Let’s start on defense because that’s where we are the closest to normal. Ottawa has the least offensive points… yes less then all the teams who have been reduced to playing their 3^rd string QBs. They are 8^th in yards. Maier has been playing better of late… but by better I mean better than crappy Jake Maier, not good. He is completing a very respectable 70% of his passes but has the lowest yards per attempt and an abysmal 8 TDs to 9 INT ratio. Is Maier the only reason Ottawa sucks? No. But his ceiling is mediocre. Defense need to keep him below that ceiling. They will be without one of the best OL in Desjarlais so that could open things up for the front 4. Disrupt Maier and he will default to harmless checkdowns or reckless long bomb INTs. Oddly enough our defense has been getting it done without the benefit of turnovers. They have just been generally solid (most days). This could be a chance to boost our turnover numbers as Ottawa leads the league with 23 giveaways. Ottawa could help Maier if they had any desire to attempt to run but they average a negligible 59 yards per game. 

Offense will need to deal with a new D-Coordinator in Jeff Reinbold. He inherits a defense that allows the most points and most yards… nowhere to go but up I guess. Expect him to simplify the D to hopefully get them playing looser and faster. RedBlacks have the 8^th best run D so I would lean on Conley early and often. As much as I don’t love our depleted WR-core I still like Trevor Harris and believe that he will adapt just fine to whatever Reinbold throws his way. It will take him one quarter of offensive futility to figure it out but as long as the D doesn’t dig us an early hole we will be fine from there. Logic says this should be a big KeeSean game (two sweetest words in the English language: De Fault). But Ottawa likely keys on him so look for Joey Jojo to play a bigger role and possibly another Busby game. They key is not turning the ball over. I trust our D to keep Ottawa under 25 (given that they have score 25 or more just twice this season, I like those odds). So we don’t need Harris to be a world beater, just steady. 

One thing to watch as our Canadian depth hits records depths, is special teams. We are losing special teams guys and special teams guys are being called on to play more starting reps. Ottawa has a dangerous returner in Pimpleton and leads the CFL in kick return average. I see them scoring on a kick Friday, as I curse profusely.

We barely eked out a win in Ottawa when we were much healthier, so winless record aside this is a losable game. In fact, I think we will try hard to do so. But I think we barely grind out another ugly win and stave off the wheels falling off the bus for one more week. 

Riders by a Conley TD.

Enjoy the "whatever the thesaurus told us was an altenrative for Country night so we could make it seem like we were being creative" night.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Evening the Score

Riders 28 – Elks 26

Happy Saskatchewan Day! Its a holiday that celebrates invented days so we have to work less.

The Riders were certainly celebrating on Saturday. A rain delay made us all wait longer (and likely spending the time refreshing ourselves on when the CFL can call a game and just award it to the team currently in the lead) but we were rewarded with a win. 

I am quite certain that if you told us going into the game that Duncan-Busby would be our top receiver and it would be another game where we lose multiple starters, we probably would have all turned it off at half. It was an unconventional, scrappy win that took everyone stepping up to make plays, but we pulled it out. Partial credit to the Edmonton defender who got ejected without ever hitting a Rider. I would have to guess that there has never been (and never will be another) hitting a ref/embellishment combo leading to an ejection. 

I gotta start on defense. Given that I spent most of the previous week ripping our pass coverage and comparing its effectiveness to a couple squares of one ply toilet paper on Taco Bell night, I should be as quick to praise a bounce back performance. Way less busts. Way less miscommunication. Way less open expressways to the endzone. I know its not Milligan’s fault and its coincidence but we seem to play better without him for some odd reason. Edouard is a pretty solid player. Burgess looked good replacing an injured Campbell. Ford is still a liability in any non-running situation. He runs away from the middle of the field like a deadbeat dad going for cigarettes. On the last Luther TD it was him leaving his responsibility in the middle that left it open. D-line stepped up and created pressure. We have something in Derick Roberson. Not only did he have a sack and a few pressures in his debut. He also had 2 special teams tackles. I very much look forward to a DE rotation of Vaughters, Evans and him. We once again kept Rankin as largely a nonfactor. Though after watching his production and how often Leake subbed in over the past few weeks I am convinced Rankin is not fully healthy. There’s no way he doesn’t get more reps and touches if he was actually fully good to go. 

Offensively it was a true group effort featuring a ragtag group of people I don’t think we ever expected (or wanted) to make an impact on the game. I already mentioned that Busby led the way. Our second best receiver was Joey Jojo (Johnson the 3^rd). Mimbs even contributed a key catch. Yes on a team with a Big 3 of Emilus-Baker-Keesean we were forced to rely on a Big 3 of Busby-Mimbs-Joey Jojo. This was mainly due to Baker getting hurt and Keesean spending most of the game looking like he thought he was playing volleyball. Keesean did redeem himself in a big way in the end. Conley had a pretty solid game. His pass blocking is improving. It was a mixed bag in pass game where he made some key plays but also dropped a gimme. He ran pretty solid including a highlight reel reverse hurdle that you will be seeing for years. Not near the height that Saquon got but still a damn impressive move. With due respect to Ouelette, I think Conley adds an explosive element to our offense that actually improves us. The day belonged thought to Tommy Time. Just a workhorse for us. Even hobbling on 1 good leg at the end he still got his job done. 

I still really don’t understand how we played better on the road with a severely depleted roster but its clear that there is not much separating us and the Elks. We are the top 2 teams and this time enough plays went out way to eke out a win. That said, despite the close score we were the better team in that game and Edmonton was playing chase the whole time. It was a true team effort (except Alex Fale, screw that guy!) and a product of a winning culture and never say die attitude. We are now 3-1 against western opponents, which is an important stat. I just hope the victory didn’t cost us so many injuries that we follow up a massive win over a first place team with a dud against a winless one. 

Other random thoughts:

-       I hate went Glen Suitor invents a narrative and then spends 3 hours beating that fake narrative to death. Saturday his invented narrative was that people have called Cody Fajardo a game manager. At no point since becoming a starter has anyone (Suitor included) previously called Cody a game manager.

-       If you want a good laugh go back and watch Fields on that last Luther TD. He ends up on the ground simultaneously holding his dick and butthole. I honestly don’t know what he hurt.I also don’t think he knows because upon watching the replay the only part of his body involved in any contact was his head. 

-       The only reason I can see for having Trevor Harris on the field when Tommy is lining up under center is that there is a play somewhere deep in the playbook that involves lateralling it out to him. Unless Harris is secrectly a deadly blocker.

-       It was really interesting to watch how we used Daniel Johnson. He was starting at guard in place of Fry but anytime we went to tight end set with an extra OL he bumped out to TE and Andersen came in at guard. I get the thought process because Johnson normally is the TE coming in. Its just not often you see a rotation at guard.

-       Starting to think our special teams coach deserves a raise. Johnson III becomes the 4^th Rider this season to have a massive return. Whatever we are running for blocking is working.

-       But about the time I think he deserves a raise I remember that placekicking is one of his coaching jobs. I know you can’t make chicken soup out of chicken shit but we gotta figure something out.

-       The Elks have a guy whose last name is Djabome. Me being the mature guy I am I can’t help but hear Djablome and assume his first name is Haywood. (say it out loud). 

Riders vs. Elks: Rematch

Saturday the Riders are in the city that used to be called City of Champions but now I’m not sure what to call it. City that will always have the 80s? City soon to be ex-residence of Connor McDavid? City of it was definitely changing the Eskimo name that hurt attendance and not the lack of winning for a decade? Road games in Alberta always draw a big Saskie crowd.

This will be a game of adjustments. In the first game both teams displayed all the pass defending abilities of a one-legged midget. If either side can figure out how to put up even moderate resistance in the pass game it will have a huge advantage. Will Harris continue to attack Edmonton deep, or will he a Mueller change it up and dink and dunk? Will Edmonton look to re-ignite Rankin or will they let Fajardo keep slinging it until we prove we can stop it. Both teams will be looking to make adjustments and the team that is the most successful probably emerges victorious. 

I will start on offense because I think any hope of emerging with a win starts and stops with Trevor Harris. And that’s good news because he just hung 34 points on the best defense in the CFL and could have easily put up 50. Emilus is questionable but I am assuming he plays. Harris and his big 3 continue to be a problem for opposing defenses. If you key on one Harris is savvy enough to find one of the others. And his O-line is giving him the time to do so (though with Harris it’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing because I think his quick release helps the O-line look good just as much as they make him look good). Conley steps back in at RB. I don’t love that but he does add an explosive aspect to the run game that Ouelette/Hudon can’t. If Edmonton wants to sellout on slowing down the aerial Harris assault there should be room for him and his speed to do some damage on the ground. Once again we will need a minimum 30 points from Harris… no reason to think he can’t deliver. Our lowest points in a game this season is 27. We should avoid 34 point specifically though. We are 0-2 this season when scoring 34 (that’s just another super valuable piece of statistical analysis that you’ve come to expect from me). 

I would love to be more optimistic about defense but we just got shredded for 500 yards through the air and now get to do it all again without Milligan. Oddly we were better statically with Edouard in at half. Though that is a bit like saying that releases of Nick Cage movies cause swimming pool deaths correlation is not causality (the Nick Cage thing is real by the way). I think there is a temptation to over-correct and try and stop the pass in this one. But the risk is that the more you do that the more they will turn to Rankin. I would honestly rather keep Rankin at bay and bank on Fajardo not throwing 500 again rather than smother Fajardo and bank on Rankin not stomping us. We just need some god damn communication in the secondary. Way too many coverage break downs. Front 7 can help by getting pressure up front. As was demonstrated when Cody hurled that ball sideways like it was a bomb about to explode, pressure can lead to poor decisions. 

Edmonton has not lost at home. Saskatchewan has not lost a road game… unless you count that road trip to Toronto. The Elks rightly got the glory after the last game but let’s not forget we went toe to toe with them and had chances to win. This is another heavyweight battle between two top teams. 

I have been waffling between pessimism and optimism this week:

-        Optimistically there were about 5 plays that were there but we narrowly missed on last game. If we make even one of them we win. If we make 3 or 4 we win decisively.

-        Pessimistically, we just lost at home off a bye week with a healthy roster. We are now on the road with a far made depleted roster.

Pessimism has been winning out. That said, this strikes me as one of those games that will defy logic. I can very much see us losing the winnable game at home only to win a losable game on the road. Years of cheering for this team have me trying to outthink myself. 

Riders by a Conley TD from 20+ out.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Secondary Failure

Riders 34 – Elks 36

Ending aside, that was a great game! It lived up to the hype of the two top teams in the west facing off. Big plays. Big points. Back and forth action. In the coming paragraphs I am going to detail a lot of issues I had with what we did but I do want to keep it in the overall context that it was a great game. 

Priority #1 coming into the game was stopping Justin Rankin and boy did we! Unfortunately our game plan to do so was to leave the pass so wide open that you would be stupid to even consider running. Somehow adding back Milligan make our secondary go to absolute hell. You would have to watch a lot of porno to see as many gaping holes as we left. Not only did we give up 500 yards, on pretty much every play there were multiple receivers open. They looked lost. On the first drive we just go out schemed. They overloaded and had 3 WRs on 2 DBs. But there was a whole lot of personnel failure throughout the rest of the game. You all know my feelings on Lokombo and Fields so I do not say this lightly… but this season our worst DB is Tevaughn Campbell. Last year he was game changer. This year he is not making any impact (at least not any impact in our favour). That is compounded by Jaxon Ford. Look, he has many skills: short yardage, run stopping, tackling,. Unfortunately things like not vacating the middle of the field and having any discernable pass coverage skills are not among those skills. That bastard is making me miss Lokomobo. He is better suited to playing linebacker. That leaves Fields as the best DB on that half of the field. On the long passing play that set up the 2^nd TD, Fields got beat because he bit up short when there was only one receiver on his side of the field and Campbell had underneath coverage. When your offense scores 34 points you should win. Its as simple as that. Our secondary was an embarrassment and shoulders the bulk of the blame for this loss. 

Offense clearly saw something on film because their game plan was chuck it deep. It was a very effective plan. Baker has another monster day. He was clearly feeling it because he made all his catches look effortless. Harris continued his tear in 2026. Consider this: He threw 4 TDs and almost 400 yards. He missed a wide open KeeSean in the 1^st on a double move that was an easy TD. He missed a wide open Joey JoJo in the endzone. He was robbed of a TD pass to Emilus. Easily could have had 7 TDs against the best defense in the CFL. I have not seen a passing attack this dangerous since maybe 2013 Durant. On that robbery of the Emilus TD I will just say this… if that is the standard for OPI then the refs have been missing a ton of should be penalties. My lone complaint about our O was the Keesean TD. We had the ball 2^nd 1 from the 3. That should mean 5 tries for Tommy to get 3 yards. No brainer. Started good. Tommy came in and got us first and goal from the 2. Then (despite having a timeout) we sent him to the sideline and let Harris pass twice. I know it worked but dammit do I hate that decision making. But as I said when your offense hangs 34 on the best defense in the CFL its hard to be mad at them. 

I still don’t like Alex Fale and feel absolutely zero confidence any time he kicks but I think in fairness to him his missed FG was a lot more a factor of a bad snap/hold than on him. I love the call and execution on the onside kick attempt. I still want a new kicker but at least on this day I will ease off on my Hale criticisms. 

We had our chances to win that game. Hale makes that FG, Harris doesn’t miss Johnson the third in the endzone, Defense gets one more stop on the final drive. One of those happens and we win. But they didn’t. Can’t expect to beat top teams when you don’t seize the opportunities you have to bury them. You also can’t expect to beat top teams when your secondary is out there looking like they are all trying to impersonate Helen Keller. 

Other random thoughts:

-       I wish the announcer would have explained things in the moment when we honoured Dalke by sending out 11 on the first punt. It was a super cool moment but most of us had no clue what was going on and were just wracking our brain trying to figure out in what world it ever made sense to decline a time count penalty.

-       Did Trevor Harris sleep with one of the refs’ wives? Because he only gets about every 2^nd or 3^rd roughing the passer call he should.

-       Cody Fajardo provided the crowd two of the most entertaining moments in recent memory. I have no clue what his thought process was when just randomly hot potatoed the ball sideways (other than maybe our secondary was playing so bad the play might just work). And is there a rivalry more storied than Fajardo vs. the north goal post?

-       Doc Walker is the best halftime show the Riders have provided us with in years (and yes I am including the Grey Cup). Unfortunately I am guessing they blew all the halftime budget on that one so get ready for 5 more years of half assed attempts.

-       I would like to appreciate our special teams coaching. Our returns have been excellent this year regardless of who is in and you can tell our returners are well coached because they are making excellent decisions in terms of fielding the ball or letting it bounce into the endzone or sidelines.

-       This streak of losing 1-2 players minimum to injury each game is going to sink us soon.

Riders vs. Elks: First Place Showdown

Before I get to the game I feel I should at least make an attempt to comment on this week’s tragedy. It’s unimaginably sad for everyone involved. I don’t know what happened and I won’t make an attempt to explain things. So I’ll simply say this. Sometimes there are mental health things we can’t see. Sometimes good people just made bad choices. Just like them being a good person does not absolve the bad decision. The bad decisions does not negate the good things they did. Life is not black and white like we want. Its full of grey.  Two people tragically lost their loves this week and two families face a lifetime of grief. 

Onto the game…

It’s a shame its been overshadowed by tragedy because on its own this is a heavyweight match-up. The two top teams in the west. You have to go back a long way to find the last time Edmonton came into Mosaic as a relevant team. You have to go back passed the Brock Sunderland era, the second Chris Jones era, the Scott Milanovich era, the Jaime Elizondo era, the Taylor Cornelius era, the Nick Arbuckle era. They paid guys like Geno Lewis and Kenny Lawler insane money to wallow in crapulence for a season. Pretty much a great decade for anyone not actually associated with the Elk franchise. 

But they are back and a force to be reckoned with.

While Justin Rankin is rightfully getting all the hype, I am going to start with the real reason they are doing so well… the defense. Least points allowed, 2^nd least yards allowed and most takeaways (and their stats aren’t inflated due to playing Jake Dole-TheBallToAnyoneButMyReceivers-gala). Former Rider Coach JC Sherritt took his lumps in year 1 of being a DC but he has grown by leaps and bounds. They have exactly 1 win by a margin of more than one score. Their defense keeps it close and give them a chance. Priority 1 is don’t serve up turnovers. With guys like Ford and Jackson they will make you pay for bad passes. BC is the only team to put up 30 points on the Elks and they did it on the ground. So that’s where we start. Give Ouelette a heavy workload. We are physically fresh off the bye and Edmonton is traveling on a short week. Pound them into the ground with the run. That said, our biggest weapon offensively is Emilus, KeeSean and Baker so we can’t be afraid to attack with our strength. A big key will be finishing drives with majors. Not only does it avoid the panic enducing risk of letter Alex Fale on the field, since week 1 Edmonton has scored over 24 just once. If we can put up 25-30 our chances of victory sky rocket. 

Offensively the talk starts and stops with Rankin. Let him run lose and you are in trouble. Stop him and you put a ton of pressure on a very mediocre passing attack. The problem is that stopping is about as easy as getting a certain president off the FIFA stage. Again, BC showed the blue print. They held him to 7 carries in each of their 2 games. In non-BC games Rankin averaged 15 carries. In those BC games Edmonton average 21.5 points. In the other gams they averaged 31. So sell out to stop Rankin in the run game. Edmonton has the #5 passing attack and Fajardo’s 8.2 yards per pass is the lowest among starting QBs. 

Ironically while you expect run stopping and soft pass D from Corey Mace (particularly when missing Millgan), we have been the opposite. Amazingly despite starting a 3^rd string Canadian HB we have the #1 pass D. And that should only improve with the return of Milligan. We have the #6 run D.  Our tackling (which has been closer to lovingly trying hump opponents into submission) was visibly improved last game and we need that to continue.

A factor in this could be discipline. We have been very good this year. Edmonton is the second most penalized. 

Bonus stat: Did you know no one has punted less than Oscar Chapman?

A game with this much emotion goes one of 2 ways. Either teams channel it and come out with a statement game. Or they succumb to it and come out flat. I think both are possible. Given our tendency to sleep through the 1^st quarter on a good day we won’t actually know until the 2^nd where we stand. But I am a believer in Mace and the leadership of this team so I put better odds on channeling the emotion. 

Edmonton is legitimately a good team but a closer look a their schedule shows they beat Ottawa twice, and BC without Rourke (barely). They are not invincible. 

Under normal circumstances I think we would grind out a close win. These are far from normal circumstances so I fear we fight valiantly but come up just short. Two solid defenses on a Thursday means this will be a low scoring affair. The lower the score, the more kickers are a factor and thus, edge Elks. 

Elks by 3

Monday Morning Sentimonies: The Curious Case of Micah Awe

The Riders return from a bye and are busy prepping for a massive back to back set against the Elks in a battle of the top 2 teams in the West. Sadly this is under the dark cloud of the tragic passing of Jayden Dalke, a guy I always had a ton of respect for. I’ll have a full game preview later in the week but for today I want to talk about Micah Awe… something that should be one of the most talked about things in the CFL, but for reasons I still don’t understand no one seems to care. 

Simply put Awe is the dirtiest player in the CFL… and its not even close. But no one cares. The league does not seem to care. The media does not care. The fans don’t care. 

Here’s a quick summary of Awe’s dubious resume. Last week marks his 11^th time being fined. Since 2022 he has been fined 7 times. In 2023 he was fined 4 times in a 10 week period. This is Awe’s third max fine. For comparison, the previous unanimous dirtiest player in the game, Simoni Lawrence was fined 6 times. Awe will soon have that doubled. The only thing more laughable and illogical than the Blue Bomber’s insistence at calling Collaros’ ongoing concussion issues a “neck injury” is how Awe has avoided suspension. 

There is a pretty basic concept in the working world called progressive discipline. The intent is to deter bad behaviour. So you start with minor sanctions (i.e. written warnings) and if that does not correct the behaviour you progress to harsher and harsher sanctions like suspensions and ultimately potentially termination. The CFL’s approach to Awe is akin to a manager giving a serial sexual harasser 11 warnings but still letting him be in the workplace and continue harassing. Such a manager would be deemed incompetent and fired. 

I can only assume that Awe has some incriminating photos of someone at the league office. Or he provides some very good “personal services” (to be clear I am talking about fellatio). I understand that off the field Awe is actually a decent dude and active in the community. But that does not change the fact that on the field he is a danger to his opponents’ health. I don’t know why its tolerated. 

But I think what bothers me more than Awe’s repeated illegal hits is that no one cares. To be clear, if he played for the Riders he would have been run out of the league. Think I am being overly dramatic? 

Pete Roberson had a clean disciplinary record and was suspended for his one and only infraction. His was after the play as opposed to during a play but at least in Robertson’s case the league felt he was a danger to player safety and acted? One infraction got him suspended. Awe is on his 11^th strike. 

I’ll up the ante. We can all agree that Garrett Marino was a dirty player. His track includes one third of the infractions that Awe has racked up. I am not trying to argue that Marino didn’t deserve what he got, but a guy who has injured a fraction of the guys Awe has got attention from the league, media and fans all calling for his head. Why do we not care about the danger Awe poses to player safety? 

Mark my words, Awe will strike again and its likely he will injure a player. The CFL will have no one to blame but themselves when that happens. They can and should have taken harsher action a long time ago. 

Everyone in the media should also be embarrassed. I (some random dud with a blog) took the step of directly asking the League for a statement on the lack of suspensions for Awe. I will post that response if/when it is received. TSN and 3 Down Nation have not bothered to question the league on this. They were certainly vocal when it was Riders involved. I guess clicks matter more in this day an age than actual unbiased reporting. 

 

Monday Morning Sentimonies: I’m Back

Riders 38 – Ti-Cats 7

Did you miss me? Did you even notice I was gone? I spent the last week fishing (hence the lack of posting). Got back on Saturday in time to attend the absolute oven of a game on Sunday. For those curious I am a so-so fisherman but pretty dependable beer drinker, so the week was moderately successful by Chris Jones standards. 

As for the game…

It was a tale of 2 halves. In the first half we drastically outplayed them in every aspect except the scoreboard. In the second half, we added the scoreboard to complete the cycle of things we dominated. 

Look, Jake Dolegala is not very good at football. And I mean that much like how a piece of insulation is not very good in a sandwich. I hope anyone who complained when we let him walk realizes how wrong you were and how right O’Day was. Since taking over for the injured Bo, he has produced exactly one TD. Unfortunately that was for the other team. He seemed to think all his receivers were taller than him and the odd time he got the ball within their actual catch radius they tended to drop it. I realize that we weren’t playing the highest level of competition but I was very happy with the defense. They were aggressive. They tackled probably the best I have seen all season. They got sacks. They got turnovers. They gave big time effort. On the 3^rd down stop, Ford diagnosed the play perfectly and attacked the right hole to make a stop. On the Woods pick, Brooks hustled his ass to make the last block necessary to get Woods to the endzone. Vaughters had a strong game. Woods may be the steal of the offseason. I even noticed Hoskins making some plays when given the chance. In a season where we let teams hang around in games, it was refreshing to see us put our feet on their throats.  

My only criticism of the offense is that they slept through most of the first half (an unfortunate recurring theme). Those 2 picks by Harris were also bad reads and would have been supper costly if we played a team with any ability to score. But other than that O did well. Ouelette had a solid return and chewed up some important yards. Baker and Emilus clearly benefited from the extra days off as they looked back to their old selves. And Tommy Time was on full display. Man does that guy ever fire up the team and the stadium. When we stuffed Dolegala it was a major momentum change. Its exactly that reason we employ a guy we does not get stopped.

Special Teams continues to be a roller coaster. It looked like Sexton was on the verge of superstardom. He made plays every time he touched the ball. So of course he becomes the latest player sacrificed to the injury list. I feel awful for him but his leg was more out of place than a competent QB in Ottawa when he went down. Kick coverage is mostly good but we continue to give up at least one big return per game (which is not a sustainable trend). Chapman is a good punter. Alex Hale shall henceforth be renamed Alex Fale. If you can’t trust your kicker when the ball is one the 40 yard line then your kicker should be seeking alternate employment. It’s obvious that even the coaches don’t trust him anymore. Rightly so. Punting from the 40 is stupid, just go for it. Maybe Hale should try kicking without the glasses, not like he can get much worth. If there is not a new kicker in camp when practice resumes after the bye then O’Day is not doing his job. Until then I am in favour of going for 2 point converts every time and gambling any FG siutation beyond the 20. 

The refs were also not doing us any favours. That was PI on Mace’s challenge. There was also PI on the Baker TD that was ignored. There was at least one time count violation they let slide. We were robbed of a fumble recovery (he tucked the ball, turned around and took a step. In what world is that incomplete?). I am unclear on how you rough a passer when there is an O-lineman still standing between the defender and the QB. Maybe the refs just decided to try an be merciful to the Ti-Cats for having to start Dolegala but it was not a very well officiated game. Just glad it did not impact the outcome.   

In the end we beat the crap out of a team that we were supposed to beat the crap out of. Would it have been different if Bo had played yes but 2014 also would have been different if Durant had not got hurt. Football is not always fair. All you can do is beat the team in front of you. Riders accomplished that and head into the bye with a 4-1 record. Other than a rash of injuries there is lots to be happy about so far.

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Rebound

Friday the Riders travel to Ottawa looking to get back in the win column against the winless RedBlacks. I am going to call this game the Saskatchewan Roughriders vs. the Ottawa Rough Riders. Ottawa’s jerseys are morphing back into the old Rough Rider jerseys and their current roster is half former Riders. Former players include Maier, Allen, Henderson, Reavis, Lauther, McEwen (technically) and Baldonado. Coaches Dinwiddie, Gibson and Tate are also former Riders. 

Up until halftime of the last game of both these teams, this was looking like an easy win for the Riders. But our injuries refuse to stop piling up and Ottawa’s offense finally figured out how not to be useless. So very quickly the complexion of Friday’s game has changed. We will soon be struggling to find 45 healthy bodies, let alone ones that display any kind of pro level football talent. 

Offensively we went from starting the week possibly starting every back-up reciever to actually being in pretty good shape and having all the usual starters. only difference will be seamlessly replacing the other Johnson with the third Johnson. Sexton steps in to return. There is justice in this world as Wiebe gets to stay on the roster. Conley gets another start at RB. With all 3 of our of top receivers in place we are in very good shape. It’s a sign of just how awful Ottawa was last season that they have dramatically improved the talent on their D (mostly by poaching Riders) and they are still not very good. They have allowed the most yards. They have the second worst run D. They have allowed the second most points. They have a so-so D-line, a pretty solid set of LBs and a not so great secondary. Their best DB is legitimately Amari Henderosn. You might recall him as the guy they get deemed expendable when Fields showed up (and we all know how much I love Fields). We know Conley has the ability to break big runs so let’s give him a bigger workload in game 2. Also, Ottawa has allowed a league high 10 passes over 30 yards (over 3 per game). Baker and Keesean should be in for big days. I have minimal faith in our defense (even against Maier) so we’ll need 30 points minimum from Harris. 

Defense had better do something this game. This is the worst offense in the CFL. Least points. Least yards. Most giveaways. Somehow the lowest completion percentage despite starting a QB who loves check downs more than Regina drivers love testing the flooded-out Alberts St underpass. Saad out is a definite loss to that DT rotation. But the Riders are tied for most sacks this season and other than Desjarlais Ottawa does not have a great OL so the pressure should still be there. If Jake Maier decides to be the guy we saw in the second half of last game then he has a ton of dangerous weapons at his disposal: Harty, Lewis, Pimpleton, Eberhart. Its sad that I’ve been reduced to being happy to see Lokombo starting at half. That does not mean he’s good, just less awful than Edouard. There is also a chance we see the Maier from the first 2.5 games who was so useless that a one-arm eunuch had a better chance of scoring. To be fair to Dru Brown, if a coach deemed me a shittier QB than Maier I would probably demand out too… though I’d like to think I’d ask to go somewhere better than Winnipeg. All of Maier’s INTs have come on deep balls so we need to take advantage if he tries to show off his arm. What we really need is some god damn tackling! Maier is going to find Harty over the middle we need to be able to bring him down before the 5^th try. 40% of all RedBlack drives are 2 and out. Jake Maier operates seemingly in slow motion. He’s a smart QB but needs time to make a decision. So our goal should be to hurry him. Force him into bad decisions and check downs. 

I unfortunately have to point out that Ottawa scored a return TD last week and we have been giving those up on a weekly basis. 

Ottawa is on a short week having played on Sunday, so even despite traveling we should be better rested. I expect our defense to make Maier look like the second coming of Ricky Ray but I expect us to counter with Harris throwing for 400 and 3 TDs. Our injury situation makes the game much close than it should be, but defense comes up with a rate turnover late in the game and we steal a win with a Hale FG that we all assume might not be good.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Partial Credit

Riders 34 – Argos 40

I will get into a lot more analysis but I can honestly simplify the results of Friday like this… we played a good team, didn’t show up at all in the first quarter, spotted them a 10 point lead and lost by 6. Its really that simple. Can’t beat good teams when only showing up for 3 quarters.  I will say that the Riders win as a team and they lose as a team. Everyone shares the blame on this: offense, defense, special teams and coaches. 

If you ignore the fact that I picked us to win, I pretty much nailed my game preview. Tons of points, tons of passing, Keesean had a big game and Wiebe scored (I’m pretty proud of that prediction). But I realize bragging about my predictions when I got the most important part wrong is like is like bragging about curing cancer when all you did was work on a research trial that did not find said cure. 

Offense continues to put up big points but their undoing was turnovers. Harris forced that endzone throw when it was not there. The other Johnson fumbled putting the final nail in our coffin. Obviously injuries played a factor (more on that later). But it was the turnovers and sleeping through the first quarter than did us in. Even down 2 starters we put up 4 TDs. Conley looked alright. A healthy Baker continues to be a treat to watch. My man Wiebe stepped up. I have been on the Wiebe hype train since training camp. I was dumfounded that he started the year on PR and Friday only further reinforced that. He is clearly a better receiver than Mimbs. I don’t think it will be long before he surpasses Busby. He needs to be on the roster.

I find it odd that my biggest concern coming into the season was the D-line and now they are about the only part of the D I am happy with. Each week they seem to get better and Friday’s 4 sack performance was great. Unfortunately that’s about where the compliments end. You should not lose a game when you offense scores 34 points. Clearly having Milligan would have changed things. Saying Milligan is an upgrade over Edouard is like saying steak is an upgrade over Spam that’s been left in the sun for 3 days. The thing is we expected Edouard to struggle, he’s a only playing HB because there is literally no one else. But what we were not expect is a team that tackles like they are playing flag football. This is super uncharacteristic for a Mace D. When you entire defensive philosophy is bend but don’t break you cannot afford missed tackles. Friday we were handing out missed tackles like samples at Costco. Our best pass defender was a goal post. 

Special teams contributed to the loss by allowing their second TD in as many weeks. Our defense is currently not good enough to have other phases of the game also allowing points.

Coaches contributed to the loss with stupid decisions. Mainly playing Emilus at returner. Mace is a great coach who has earned the benefit of the doubt but with due respect to him even though he defended the decision post game, it was objectively a stupid decision. There are exactly 3 players on offense more important than Emilus (your highest paid and best receiver): Haris, Ferland Hardrick. So literally anyone else would have made more sense. We know Wiebe can do it as we had him do it in preseason. Conley, Hudon, other Johnson, Mimbs, Runge, Fry, nobody… all better options. We lost our best receiver to injury because of a stupid coaching decision. He doesn’t make many but this was certainly one.

We managed to get outplayed by a team whose coach stupidly challenged a 3^rd and inches rather than just going for it only to stupidly kick a FG on 3^rd and inches rather than just going for it. We lost to that. 

My overly negative sentimonies aside its not all doom and gloom. We were close against a very good team and our offense is humming (when it chooses to play) but the streak of losing 2 starters per game is clearly starting to take its toll. Each injury makes it harder for this team to overcome the mistakes it makes. We needed to play error-free ball on Friday and could not. And we will need to continue doing that until our injury list starts shrinking. 

Other random thoughts:

-       Play Daniel Wiebe!! All this guy does is make plays. #FreeWiebe

Riders vs. Argos: “Road” Game

Friday the Riders travel to… Regina for a… “road” game against the 1-1 Argos. The Riders will be wearing their much-hyped Prairie Blizzard jerseys. The hype was much like me promising my wife an all night love session she will never forget only to give her the standard 2 mins tops. They aren’t bad jerseys, just very meh… they are the same old jerseys with white numbers. 

My fashion criticisms aside, if you are a fan of offense you should like this game. It’s the top 2 offenses going head to head. Legitimately could come down to who has the ball last. Prepare your hearts accordingly. 

The Argo offense is averaging a ridiculous 37 points per game. It seems whether its on or off the field Kelly has no problem making passes with reckless abandon. I do not love facing a QB throwing 400 yards per game with a stacked receiver group featuring Coxie, Polk, Mital and Ungerer with a 3^rd string Canadian playing halfback. The Argos have a strong OL, particularly at the interior. But also on and off the field, Kelly’s reckless passes have consequences. The Argos have 8 giveaways. Kelly has personally thrown almost half of all INTs in the CFL this season. He loves his arm and has the deepest average depth of pass. We need to find a way to get pressure on him and we need to limit the deep shots. We have only allowed one pass over 30 yards so that’s good. We also need to get turnovers… something that we have failed to do even once this season. Mace and Bell have their work cut out for them trying to piece together this secondary. They will need to be as creative as our accountants at year end (“financial loss” my ass!). 

We will need Harris’ hot streak to continue. I don’t like our odds of keeping the Argos out of the endzone. I think we need 30 points minimum to even have a chance. Ouelette is out. I expect Hudon to get the bulk of the reps due to his pass blocking. I am excited to see what Conley can do. Fortunately we match up well with the Argos. They have the #1 run D but the #8 pass D. Take the over on Harris passing yards. The Argos do lead the CFL in takeaways so we need to be safe with the ball. If we can maintain possession and continue leaning on our big 3 receivers we should be ok. Not sure why, but this strikes me as a big KeeSean game. The best way to help our D is keep them off the field with long methodical drives.

Hale needs a bounce back game but I have been happy with the punting of Chapman. Though we’d all be happier to not see him on the field much. Last year a big return from Mario Alford sealed the Argo game… be a great time for Letcher to make his presence known. 

A key in this game could be second down. Offensively we lead the league with a 62% second down conversion rate. Defensively we also lead the lead allowing just a 44% conversion rate. 

This is by far the best offense we have faced on the young season. I have next to zero trust in Edouard, maybe the other 4 guys can do enough to compensate. At some point our mounting injuries will become too much to overcome. This game will be a test but I think we find a way to squeeze out another ugly win. 

Bold prediction, Harris to Wiebe on with under a minute for a game winning TD. 

Please avoid the temptation of talking about the power or supremacy of our jerseys.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Slaying the Stamps

Riders 40 – Stampeders 37 (OT)

Saturday was one hell of an emotional ride. It went from we are going to pound them, to we are going to blow this, to maybe we won’t blow this, to we definitely are going to blow this, to a victory that was never in doubt. I could have done without pretty much everything that happened between the halfway point of the second Q and the second OT but the end result was a hard fought road victory and a 2-0 record. For the record in my pre-game write up I did say “I think we can grind out an ugly road win in Alberta.” And “Riders by a Tommy time TD”. 

Had we lost that game, we would have had no one to blame but ourselves. We dominated the first half with the exception of 2 plays. We fumbled on our own 14 yard line and gave up a missed FG return TD to end the half. Take those 2 plays away and we go to the locker-room up 23-0. That should have been an easy win but we decided to make it hard (both on ourselves and my heart). We played a decent 3^rd quarter and then seemed to reward ourselves by taking the 4^th off completely. Fortunately we decided OT was worth showing up for. 

Offense has put up 71 points over 2 games. Most Rider fans can remember times where 71 seemed like a more realistic target for points in an entire season. Harris played another great game. He forced it at times (mostly to the other Johnson for some reason), and overthrew a couple. But other than his customary old man nap in the 4^th you have to be pretty happy with the level he is playing at this season. O-line did very well against a strong Calgary pass rush. Until Ouelette got hurt we had pretty good balance of the run. A healthy Baker remains a dangerous man (he’s on pace for a very realistic 2600 yards this season) and the combination of him, Emilus and Keesean is tough to contain. Mueller and Harris are dialed in on the same page and it leading to great things offensively so far in 2026. 

The fire power our offense displays makes what happened in the 4^th all the more infuriating. We had 4 drives that quarter. In those drives, this high octane offense managed 3 completions, 2 first downs, 18 net yards and 4 punts. One  solitary drive would have sealed that game and we could not manage it. 

Seems counterintuitive to praise the defense when the opponents score 37 but the scoreboard does not do that unit justice. They completely shut down VA and the Stamps in the first half. The only TD’s given up were when Harris coughed the ball up on the doorstep of our own endzone and when our kicker didn’t do his job. Through 3 quarters of play they allowed one FG when given a full field to work with. We got pressure. Linebackers were flying around. They played exceptionally well. Things went down hill in the 4^th but they received zero support from our offense and lost yet another starting HB. They battled their hearts out without our best defensive player. You may look at the stats and lament that we let Mills get over 100 yards rushing but we held him to 30 yards through 3 quarters. He got 62 in the 4^th and 11 more in OT. Much like the offense, D played great in everything but the 4^th quarter. What I find most impressive is that normally Mace’s defense relies on sacks and turnovers. We largely held Calgary’s offense in check without relying on either. Just solid defensive play.

On special teams Letcher is good. Hale is lucky that we like our other American’s on the roster too much to bench them in a favour of a better kicker.

While I do not like all the drama and 4^th quarter disappearing act, what I do like is that this team is built to overcome this. For many years this is the type of game the Riders would have choked away. But under the leadership of Mace and Harris, there is a calm confidence that they can fight through whatever adversity arises. This team believes they can win and won’t just fold when things don’ go their way. They are also blessed with a coach who is not an idiot. Why on earth Dave Dickenson chose to go against the most basic of CFL strategy and take the ball second in OT is beyond me. 

The current pace of sacrificing multiple starters per week to injury list is not going to sustainable for much longer but for now the Riders remain a team that is going to be tough to beat. Starting the year with 2 big division wins is massive. Ugly wins count the same as pretty ones.

Other random thoughts:

-       Sacks may not be there but each week I am more reassured watching our rebuilt D-line. They are consistently getting pressure. Missed tackles have taken a few sacks off the board but then again we have played 2 of the hardest QBs to wrangle to start the season.

-       Love watching Aubrey Miller on special teams.

-       I agree that there was not enough evidence to rule that play in OT a  VA fumble but the only reason that VA was in a throwing motion was that our defenders arm hit his hand in that exact direction.

-       I don’t get how anyone (cough Stamp fans and coaches cough) were mad at that OPI call on Brooks. He literally had our DB in an armbar.

-       Definitely saw the inexperience of Bell in OT. He blew his coverage being too aggressive on trying to make a play. If he can find the righ balance of his natural agressiveness and being smart about when he uses it, he is going to be a solid player.

-       Both BC and Calgary are 0-2 and they play each other next week so one is going to start the season 0-3.