Monday Morning Sentimonies: Saskatoon Success

Riders 31 – Bombers 28

Even if its just a meaningless preseason game it still feels extra satisfying to beat the Bombers. I don’t often say this about preseason (because if we are being honest it usually sucks) but what a game! Saskatoon showed up and made a great atmosphere and were rewarded with a pretty good game that was highlighted by a last minute game winning TD by a Huskie. Couldn’t script it any better if you tried. Well I mean if you scripted it you probably wouldn’t write in a stupid 21 day break next, but I digress. 

Trevor Harris had an abbreviated appearance but we saw everything we needed in that drive. Beautiful connections to Keesean and Baker and a quick score. My only concern on that drive was when it briefly looked like we were going to let old man Harris do short yardage in a preseason game. Fortunately he handed it off and let Ouelette do the work. All signs point to this offense picking up where it left off last season. And in case you forgot, where they left off last season was second most yards and third most TDs. 

As for the rest of the offense, Coan is still not inspiring huge confidence. He was better than last week but in a relative sense, like saying getting punched once in the crotch is better than getting punched twice. Boring is the word that comes to mind. It just seems like his ceiling is a game manager. I don’t think Schager is quite ready to be a #2 but that kid shows spark. He at least looks like his ceiling is high. Time will tell if he can develop enough to hit his ceiling but its there. I still think Coan starts the season as the backup and we keep Schager around to develop (like we did with Coan last season). But I don’t think anyone would be sad to see Schager unseat Coan at some point… except of course Coan.

I like Mario Anderson. Ouelette is obviously the starter but I have zero concerns if Anderson is ever called on again. To his credit Conley was better than last game. But he remains a distant third in the RB competition. I was pleased to see multiple American WRs make an impression. Janneh, Johnny Johnson and Sexton all made their case for a roster spot. He may never be more than a utility back-up Canadian WR but I have noticed McBean in back to back games now. We need Cdn depth and with Djete yet to play McBean has a great opportunity to fill that.

Defensively I still have a healthy level of skepticism about our D-end situation but I at least saw more to get hopeful for in this game. Weaver, Evans and even Pate all made an impact at certain points. Things will obviously improve when Mace/Bell unleash the full playbook in the regular season. I know its too early to know for sure but damn do you have to like what you see so far from Malcolm Bell. He just has a nose for the ball. He may start on special teams but I don’t think it will take long for Mace to find ways to start getting him some defensive snaps. I see Saad taking a big step forward this season. 

Jonathan Kim quietly went out there and continued doing his job. He didn’t miss in preseason and should make O’Day’s decision pretty easy when it comes to the kicking competition. 

What better way to follow of the excitement of a very successful Saskatoon game than with close to a month of nothing? Only plus is that Mace and O’Day have an extended period of time to make their final cuts. I don’t honestly see many surprises coming, but I guess we will have to see.