Monday Morning Sentimonies: Mercy Pass

 Riders 16 – Als 12

Well the Riders managed to qualify for the playoffs. But the closest comparison I can draw is, you know in university when you procrastinated on a project and spent the time you should have been doing homework playing video games and exploring the darker sides of the internet with your right hand, then in a mad panic you stay up all night and manage to submit a barley legible mishmash of words that somehow gets you a mercy pass? That’s what that Rider win feels like. Sure they got the job done, eventually. But if that’s the best we can expect then maybe missing the playoffs would not have been the worst thing.

We have some major offensive issues. This was every offensive starter. We were missing no one. This was playing against a team traveling on a short week who did not care about the outcome of the game. And we could not muster anything resembling an offense until the final minute of the game. That’s a problem. Trevor “Lamar” Harris was our leading rusher. There are many ways I could see us having offensive success. Relying on the running prowess of the oldest man on the field is not one of them. I am more and more convinced that Harris does not like Joey JoJo. All the passes that go his way seem to result in him taking a big hit or narrowly missing one. I honestly don’t know what is wrong at this point. We are going to face defenses that care, we are going to face defenses that are better rested, we are going to have play on the road. Things will only get harder from here and we had nothing. I am glad they were able to turn it on when it matters but the only thing less common than a Rider TD seems to be a Saskatoon overpass that has not been hit. 

Defense is weird to assess. They did only allow 12 points, which is a solid outing. But they did not look good in the process. This was an offense without all their best players and we really didn’t seem interested in stopping them or making a play. We looked soft against the run. Our secondary is still about as intimidating as basket full of sleeping kittens. We have lost any ability to tackle. There was a play where we literally wrapped the guy up with 2 arms in a hug and then let him go and scamper for more yards. We are likely to enter the postseason with the worst defense of the remaining teams. Combine that with an offense that seems to think majors are optional and this is about the most pessimistic I can remember feeling after a win. 

Look, anything can happen once the playoffs hit. You just need to get in and we accomplished that. There is enough talent on this team that if they get themselves figured we could make some noise. But if Saturday is the best this team can muster with their backs against the wall then the only noise we will be making come postseason will be splat… that and the curse words emanating from my mouth. 

Other random thoughts:

- Was I the only who felt multiple no yards calls were ignored by the refs?

- Not sure I have ever seen the injury cart load up two players at once.

- I am shocked that Coach Mace actually got a challenge right