Monday Morning Sentimonies: Coming Up Empty

Riders 6 – Bombers 19

Truth be told I have never attended a Banjo Bowl in person. I would like to at some point. But Saturday’s result only helps reinforce my procrastination. I have travelled to see the Riders lose and that is bad enough. But to watch the Riders lose AND be stuck in Winnipeg of all places… well that just sounds awful. 

For the 6^th time in the last 7 and 9^th in the last 11 Banjo Bowls, the Riders lost. The analysis in this one is pretty simple: the defense came to play, the offense evidently thought the bye week arrived a week early. We scored more points while literally crapping our pants in the infamous stomach flu game of 2022 than we did on Saturday.  The Riders looked like they were told that the endzones were infected with Manitoba gonorrhea and couldn’t risk going within 20 yards of it. 

Defense tried their damnedest. 5 sacks, 2 tackles for a loss, 2 interceptions and help them under 20 points. That should be more than enough to win. Front 7 was all over Collaros. Truthfully, the way Collaros was squinting after each sack I was pretty sure he was concussed long before his night ended when he lightly fell down chasing down his second INT. I really like Oladipo and have noticed a big improvement in the overall D play since we swapped him for Brooks. While Brooks piled up a ton of tackles because he was being picked on, you rarely here Oladipo’s name and when you do he is making a big play. Also continue to see Roberson make an impact. It’s really a shame that a defensive effort that good was wasted because the other half of the team was useless. 

The offense would have been better off to just not show up and take an extra week off. There was too many things going wrong for them to overcome. First and foremost they were terrible. Just could not get anything going. Harris couldn’t get it figured out. We were out-schemed. By the second half we were literally reduced to just running the exact same 10 yard out to the right over and over. Second, the few times we got something brewing offensively someone would fumble. I am not really a Mimbs fan but the more I watch him, the more I see that he does a lot of things well. Unfortunately maintaining possession of the ball is not one of them, and that’s kind a big deal. Third we ran out of bodies. We came into this one already down Baker, Emilus and Wiebe. We lost Bridges early. I don’t really know when it happened but Letcher got hurt at some point. There was literally a point where Johnson III limped to the sideline only to immediately return… I assume after the coaches told him that as our last remaining receiver unless he is dead, he’s healthy enough to stay on the field. It limits your playbook and it limits your good receiving options. Outside of Keesean and Busby you can tell Harris does not really trust anyone. Lastly we were fighting the refs. I will say clearly that reffing is not the reason we lost. But they missed a blatant facemask (apparently the booth can call in minor offsides but not major penalties), Harris getting belly flopped on, and PI at least a couple time. To win in the Banjo Bowl you need to play mistake free ball. We were not playing good enough to overcome one obstacle, let alone multiple. 

This was a big opportunity missed especially since BC and Winnipeg gained ground on us and Edmonton further separated. We desperately need this bye week. Defense is doing OK but offense is clearly stretching our depth far too thin. If we can get Baker and Wiebe back after the bye I think they get back on track. But if the injury trend does not start reversing then points may be harder to come by than Winnipeg cheerleader with a full set of teeth. 

Other random thoughts:

-        I think Djete could be a very solid receiver. If he is like many Canadian WRs and takes a step forward in year 2 he could be very solid.

-        We did not test him all that much but Hodge did his job.