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).