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.