Tuesday Morning Sentimonies: Labour Day Magic

Riders 32 – Bombers 26 (OT)

We just win a Labour Day and I’m glad this team is back to remembering that. In my time watching football I have come to expect the Riders to win on Labour Day. Doesn’t matter our record, Winnipeg’s record, which QB is playing. We win. I just expect it. But my kids do not share my confidence as their generation has seen us lose 3 of 4 from 2021 to 2024. But we are back baby!  

I could have done without all the late game drama. Call me old fashioned but I could do with a boring win every now and then. But we certainly did not get boring. For then 5th year in a row the game was decided by 6 points or less.  

Credit goes to the defense in this one. They made Olivera a complete non-factor. They had 3 sacks, 4 tackles for a loss, held the Bombers to 16 points through 3 quarters and added 2 points of their own. The front 7 was disruptive. I think its borderline criminal how much Tommy Condell ignores his best offensive weapon but the few times he remembered he existed its not like we allowed Olivera much. Needed to close out better in the fourth but they were not exactly getting much help for a lot of the game from the O or a certain kicker I will be swearing about shortly (#foreshadowing) so I give them a bit of a pass. Thurman and Roberson had big games. Since becoming a starter you sure don’t hear Oladipo’s name much (which tells me he not doing anything to hurt us). He had a great knockdown in the endzone.  

Offensively we were anything but consistent but were able to get majors when we needed it. Harris had an up and down game but he didn’t turn the ball over (only Mimbs managed to do that) and with Winnipeg clearly keying on KeeSean he was able to adjust and find other receivers. His top target was Duncan-Busby who had a massive game. Conley had a solid game and had multiple big plays just getting open as an outlet valve for Harris. Credit needs to go to the O-line. Zero sacks allowed. Ceresna and Jefferson were non-factors for most of the game. Full team effort as you even saw guys like Keesean get big blocks on that one Tommy Time TD. 

I unfortunately now need to swear about the return of Alex Fale. Had he made either of his misses there could have been a far less dramatic finish. For the record on that single he got, I have no clue what Vaval was thinking. He had no reason to touch that ball. I’m sure Winnipeg fans are wondering how different the end of that game could have been had he not stupidly given us that point. But back to our failures. Yes Fale can make kicks, even some long ones. But he simply cannot be trusted to deliver any level of consistency. Do we think we will suddenly improve when the temperature drops come playoff time?  That’s like assuming Winnipeg fans will suddenly overcome generations of inbreeding and poor dental hygiene.

Credit to the crowd. It was loud. An electric atmosphere fitting for the Labour Day Classic. A huge win, against a division rival. Mostly important everyone went home happy… well except  the Bomber fans but at least they could pretend that it was the rain and now their tears than soaked their faces. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Despite my outrage in the moment, upon rewatching (and sobering up) I am less outraged about the horse collar and roughing the passer calls. They were soft (particularly the roughing the passer) but technically correct.

-        There was at least one major offside by Winnipeg that the refs somehow missed.

-        That drop by Wiebe could have been huge. That was an easy TD if he held on. Good on him for making up for it with that long catch and run.

Labour Day Classic 2026

It’s the most anticipated regular season game on the calendar. It’s tradition. It’s iconic. It’s a day where we celebrate labour by not labouring. It’s the Labour Day Classic!!

Regular readers will know that I generally open my Labour Day post with some jokes or smart assed comments about Winnipeg fans. I will go a different direction this year. It seems the new hot trend when you don’t like someone is to arbitrarily rename important geographic locations. With that in mind I would like to make the following announcement:

-       Winnipeg will be henceforth known as Loserpeg (that one’s pretty obvious)

-       Lake Winnipeg will be renamed Lake Poor Dental Hygiene (also fairly obvious)

-       And in recognition of their preferred romantic partners, Manitoba will be renamed Attractive Barnyard Animal-itoba.

Thank you for your cooperation on this.

Onto the game…

Labour Day aside this is a massive game in terms of the standings in the west. One game separates these teams and second place is up for grabs. Add in an electric (and likely intoxicated) sold out crowd and Mosaic will be rocking.

The Bombers for me can be described by a Toby Keith lyric “I ain’t as good as a I once was but I’m as good once as I ever was”. If the comical streak of Grey Cup choke jobs, followed by appearing in the crossover last year were not sign enough, watching the Bombers this year has made it painfully obvious that they are a team on the decline. But, like last week’s game against Montreal showed, they still have the talent to play at a high level in small doses, so they cannot be taken lightly. 

After spending most of the start of the season seemingly not remembering that Brady Olivera is on the roster, the Bombers have finally gone back to feeding him the ball. Low and behold good things happen. I don’t know how you look at that offense and make any other determination than Olivera is your best chance but it would seem Tommy Condell disagrees. In what could be a rain game the #1 key is slowing down Olivera. The Riders have the #2 run D in the CFL so they are certainly up to the challenge. I am very excited to see what Aubrey Miller can do as a starter. He is a demon on teams and that mentality is going to be needed to stop Olivera. Without Olivera Winnipeg is a subpar passing attack, an o-line that gives up a ton of sacks and a QB who amazingly keeps hurting his “neck” when his head is bounced off the turf. I know Demski is a Rider killer and will probably have 2 TDs but if our D-line can disrupt Collaros and get pressure on him good things will happen… for us. 

Offensively I am begging… begging… for 4 quarters of effort. We can’t sleep through the first half or disappear for two quarter to build drama. We need consistent production. Winnipeg is #1 in pass defense but 2^nd worst in run D. Again on a day that might feature rain we need to see a lot of Conley. Jefferson and Ceresna are beasts along that line. Running helps negate their pass rush. When Harris does throw he needs patience and good decisions. Take what they are giving and don’t turn the damn ball over. Passing game will clearly need to run through KeeSean but I see Wiebe playing a big roll underneath. Also, would not shock me to see Mueller try and get Letcher some offense touches to show a new wrinkle. We need to get TDs and not settle for FGs (because we all know O’Shea loves to settle for FGs).

The one thing I can say with a fair degree of certainty is that this game will be close. In the last 4 Labour Day Classics the largest margin of victory was 4 points. Great for excitement, bad for my heart.

Two things have me believing in a win. 1 – It’s Labour Day. I have seen Brett Smith, Jake Dolgeala, Rocky Butler, Michael Bishop all win on Labour Day and it was not because they were particularly excellent QBs. There is something magical about this game that always favours the Riders. 2 – Winnipeg is 5-1 vs. the East but 1-4 vs. the West. Despite what the Manitoba education system might teach you, Saskatchewan is in the West.

So rest up your livers, vocal chords and hearts and get ready to let loose on Sunday.

Riders by a Tommy Time TD (who else?)

Monday Evening Sentimonies: I’m Back

Made it back from the East coast (despite the best efforts of a certain airline to derail my efforts). Trip was wonderful. Yes I kissed a cod. Yes I got drunk on George St. Yes I went to Dildo. So other than use a whale as a surfboard and get a puffin to puff on a cigarette I pretty much hit my checklist. 

I have pretty abbreviated sentimonies today as I only managed to watch most of game on my phone during the reception of a newfie wedding.

-       Our Punter can hit! And apparently do game changing hard counts

-       Must be nice for Hale to not be the worst kicker on the field.

-       Nelson Lokombo made an actual safety play! (probably should have had 2)

-       D-line had a solid game with a lot of pressure.

-       Toronto rushed 4 times in that game. One of those times when for 13 yards. I know we like to talk about the offensive genius of Dinwiddie but his religious opposition to even attempting to run is somewhat baffling.

-       Be nice if Harris could go back o just being good. Not sucking so long he needs to set up a dramatic comeback.

-       Wiebe is a first down machine

-       That was gritty, ugly win that we desperately needed.

Bring on Labour Day!

Riders vs. Argos: East Coast Prognostications

By the time you read this I will on the east coast enjoying all that Newfoundland has to offer (aka pubs, seafood and possibly a jig). Mrs. Prophet and I are off on vacation returning Monday. So I will not be attending the game. I have sent my children to hold down the fort, if we lose blame them for not cheering loud enough. If we win I anticipate a petition to keep me away from further games will be coming (I understand). 

So I wrote a brief pre-game analysis before jetting off to Dildo… it’s a real place that I plan on visiting. Google it. On second thought do not google it, just take my word for it. This was written early in the week without the benefit of any practice reports are anything like that. So if this is all irrelevant come Friday when you read this feel free call the Ombudsman. 

Toronto is a weird team to me. They are simultaneously both better and worse than they should be.  Their offense is very good. #1 in passing, high scoring. They are carrying on their former head coaches deep seeded hatred of rushing (the only team with less rush yards is Dinwiddie’s RedBlacks). And Chad Kelly may throw a lot of TDs but he hands out INTs like they are unwanted passes at female coworkers. This is a team that hung 40 on us last time we played. Their defense is not so great (7^th in points allowed, 7^th in yards allowed, most big plays allowed). They do lead the league in sacks. On special teams the Riders would all be happier if Janarion Grant never touched the football again. He’s just a Rider killer. 

For the Riders it all boils down to health. As of writing this Emilus was just returned to the 6 game IR and there is a legit chance we are forced to play newly acquired WR Shemar Bridges for lack of any other options (other than Daniel Johnson, who we all know will be leaned on to fill the Emilus void). Toronto is going to put up points. Simply put, I don’t think we have the horses to compete in an arms race. Harris will break out of his funk at some point… but I don’t see it happening until we start getting healthier offensively. 

I think the Riders keep it close. Defense will keep Kelly suppressed early. But offense won’t be able to capitalize as much as needed. Eventually D will run out of gas and offense will produce one drive to few. You may be happy that me and my negative energy have been banished many time zones away. 

Better days are coming but we gotta wait one more week. As they say in Newfoundland “Long may your big jib draw”. I don’t know what that means b’y but it sounds nice. 

See you next week

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Sucking It Up On Sunday

Riders 16 – Lions 30

I longingly remember a time where football wasn’t painful to watch. When touchdowns came more that once every 6 quarters. When positive plays weren’t a rarity. And when mistakes didn’t negate the positive plays we had. Well Sunday left no doubt that those days are dead and gone. 

There were exactly 2 good plays in that game:

#1 – Daniel Johnson motioning out to wideout and proceeding to not only make a reception but take it for 17 yards.

#2 – For the first time this season, Jaxon actually played safety like you are supposed to and made an impact play.

That was it. Everything else was either a terrible play, or a good play negated by terrible play.

Our offense has gone MIA. We have 2 total TDs in the last 2 games and failed to get 20 points in either. You simply can’t win with that kind of offensive production. The garbage yards he amassed padded his stats and hide how bad Harris played. He was off for the second game in a row. Making bad reads, forcing balls he didn’t need to, missing passes that were there, throwing INTs that sucked what little momentum we had. Its not like he was getting help from his fellow players. We had a Conley TD called back on a needless penalty. Joey Jojo had an awful game and was responsible for a turnover on one of the rare times Harris made a play. Obviously injuries play a factor but this was an offense that was near the top of the league in scoring and now I don’t think they could find the endzone unless you gave us 13 tries and from the 5 yard line and we only let Tommy touch the ball. Harris and Mueller need to get this sorted. 

Defense actually did not play awful. They shut down a great run attack. They kept it close despite no support from the O for the second week in a row. They were far from perfect but they are not what is holding the team back at this point. More pressue up front and more turnovers would help but they are holding up their end of the bargain for the most part. I don’t like Jaxon Ford. I do think we use our safety weird and some of it is just him doing what he’s told but aside from the INT you just don’t see him make many positive plays (except maybe in run stopping). I do think the roughing penalty he took was way too ticky tacky. If the ball isn’t tipped it would have been a textbook play. Many things can be blamed on him, that wasn’t one. 

As we evaluate where we are at after 10 games, I see us as a good team that is not playing great football and making too many mistakes to overcome our mediocre play. We didn’t play well and probably should have won last week. We didn’t play well and stayed in this game far longer than we should have. We are a good team but until we start limiting the mistakes and doing something… anything, on offense it will all be for naught. 

Other random thoughts:

-       There was clearly a missed holding call on one BC TD.

-       I have no clue why BC was still letting Rourke throw with 3 mins left in the game up 2 scores. Just run the damn ball.

-       There is probably a simple explanation that one of you can provide but I don’t understand something about the clock. In the 4^th quarter BC threw an incomplete pass prior to the clock hitting 3 mins. Despite the incomplete pass the clock kept going until the 3 minute warning. Should it not have stopped on the incomplete?

Riders vs. Lions: Reinforcements

Sunday the 6-3 Riders travel to BC for a match-up with the 4-5 Lions who are riding a 3 game win streak. These teams last met in the season opener where the Riders emerged victorious in a tight game. After that game the Lions had an extended stay in the West basement due to a combination of a flurry of offensive injuries and a defense so bad they couldn’t stop a team that was all on crutches. It was to the point where it was more a question of when, not if, Benevides got fired as DC. But Pierce stayed his course and suddenly with a win BC is just one game back of the Riders. 

Thankfully we finally get some good news on the injury front. We get Canadians back and good ones at that. We could have Saad, Fry, Emilus and Letcher back. For a team that was not far off asking Coach Mace and Mueller to dress so we had enough Canadians, it’s a welcome turn of fortune. 

Offensively I cannot understate how important getting Emilus back is. I think we are in tough for this one but Emilus’ presence upgrades our chances from “Ottawa’s chance of winning” to “my chances winning at the craps table in Vegas” (odds aren't in our favour but its certainly possible). As previously mentioned, BC’s defense started the season looking like they were auditioning for a job on Ryan Dinwiddie’s team. But in the last few weeks they have improved by leaps and bounds. They have allowed the least yards overall and 4^th in points allowed. They have the #1 run D. So our chances hinge on Harris not have back to back crap weeks. Last week he played QB about as well as Trevor Harrison (this is a very clever reference, google it). Thus Emilus is a massive add. With only 1 of the big 3 it was going to be a struggle. But with 2 top end receivers the offense should be firing again. With a guy like Betts out there we need to keep some balance with the run to keep him from just attacking Harris. I don’t expect another 400-yard game from Harris (like we saw in game 1) but I think 300 and 3 TDs is very possible. 

In game 1 we were the beneficiary of anything resembling a receiver for BC being injured. We won’t have that advantage again. But we generally seem to play Rourke well. Ironically I feel more confident facing him than any back-up QB in this league. We also won’t have the advantage of predating the moment in the season where it became glaringly obvious that Zander Horvath is the Lions’ best RB by a wide margin. Butler is not suddenly useless but any game where Horvath doesn’t get double the touches Butler does is a failure on the part of Buck Pierce. So we need to limit the run and put pressure on Rourke. BC is 7^th in sacks allowed so our D-line should have favourable match-ups. BC also has the 3^rd most giveaways so while they will probably put up points, they will take risks in the process. Biggest help defensively would be long extended drives from the O. Keep our D off the field. 

Had Emilus not been healthy this would have been an easy loss to predict. I still don’t feel great about our chances but at least we have the horses to go toe to toe with them now. I see a very close back and forth battle (like our last couple clashes with the Lions). I expect us to play much better than last week a) because we are healthier and b) because although the Lions D is no longer the utter embarrassment they started out as, they are not near the calibre of Hamiton. That said I think we have one more week of misery before we get things back on track. 

BC by a last minute FG.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Opportunity Blown

Riders 19 – Ti-Cats 26

The best summary I can give for that game was that Alex Hale was legitimately our best player on Saturday. Kudos to him but that tells you all you need to know about the rest of the team. After all the praise our depth got for not missing a beat last week, we got to see how effective that depth is when not playing an absolute joke of a franchise. We did not get blown out, but we looked a lot more human than we have in a while. Offense had to play a rock solid D and looked like a team missing a third of their starters.

As pissed off as I was about that game, the difference was 2 plays given up on D. Harris throws an errant pass that gets tipped up into an INT giving the Ti-Cats the ball deep in our territory. Two plays later they toss a deep pass over top of Lokombo (shocking). Then there was the miracle Ford to Wheatfall throw. Take one of those passes away it’s a tie game. Take both away and Hamilton did sweet FA all game. So I won’t hang this on the defense. Yes they failed to get a sack. Yes they couldn’t make a big play when needed. But through 3 quarters the only play they gave up was because offense put them in a bad spot. And most of what happened in the fourth can be blamed on them being tired from receiving zero help from the O. Defense wasn’t great but I feel they played well enough to give us a solid chance.

Offense was a completely different story. They just sucked. The first quartered featured an offensive game plan based entirely on nothing but swing passes. Curious choice and by curious I mean stupid. The 2^nd and 3^rd we actually managed to grind out a few drives and look respectable. But then to reward themselves for the effort the O just didn’t bother showing up for the 4^th . They literally could have been more effective by not taking the field at all. In the 4^th we had 4 drives: 3 of them were 2 and out and 1 was an INT. We ran 7 offensive plays and one of the gained positive yards. When you factor in the sack given up and the yards lost on the INT we netted a total of -2 yards in that quarter. Like I said, would have been better to just not take the field. Harris had a terrible day. Receivers weren’t exactly helping him out, nor was Mueller’s playcalling. It’s clear you can’t just expect to roll over an actual defense like Hamilton with your practice roster starting. (Seriously though, after watching the Hamilton game how much worse does it make Ottawa look?) 

I’ll try and end on the only positive… Alex Hale. After months of not even being willing to let him try a kick over 40 yards (for good reason) we suddenly were like, screw it, and let him kick from anywhere. Maybe Mace just finally decided either I’m right about you or you’re going down in flames but we need to figure that out now. I don’t suddenly believe Hale has turned the corner and will still hold my breath anytime he lines up but its reassuring that he can actually hit long distance FGs. 

The loss was costly because it should have been a winnable game but instead we let Edmonton reclaim first and BC and Winnipeg gain ground in standings. We tried to win a road game by only putting in 2 quarters of effort. That won’t cut it. Only gets harder from here unless we start feeding our injured list some steroids. 

Other random thoughts:

-       For his first game I liked Star Thomas.

-       Dylan Djete is also growing on me.

-       I am anything but a Lokombo lover but I truly believe our secondary would be better if he went back to safety and Bell played corner.

Riders vs. Ti-Cats: On The Road Again

As a Rider fan I feel qualified to say this do to lived experience, the football gods seem to hate the Ti-Cats. We all mocked Winnipeg for not winning a Grey Cup since 1990. But the Ti-Cats are the new Bombers and creeping up on 30 years without a Cup. The Renegades came and went in the time since they last won. Their fans have long suffered. They suffered through Burris embarrassing himself here in 2013. They suffered through the called back kick return the next year. They suffered. But this year should have been different. They should be competing with the Als for 1^st. They have a Grey Cup caliber roster. But instead Bo got hurt and they are once again suffering. 

You might look at this game and think that due to them starting their 4^th QB of the year this should go the same way as last week. But there is one massive difference between Ottawa and Hamilton (other than Ottawa managing to win a Cup this century). While Ottawa’s defense was dog shit, Hamilton’s is legit. They have a top 3 defense despite having nothing resembling an offense. 

So let’s look at how our offense is going to overcome that formidable D, given that that’s the key matchup in this game. The Ti-Cats allow the 3^rd least points and the 3^rd least yards. They are stingy particularly in the pass game. I would say we should lean on the run but with our backup RB questionable we may be relying on Star Thomas the 3rd stringer. I don’t see us ignoring the run, it will not be a focus and it will be a split between Hudon and Star. This will be on Harris and it will require him to be patient. Unlike Edmonton and Ottawa he won’t have an easy air show. This will be a far more traditional Harris dink and dunk game. Obviously KeeSean is a focus but Hamilton will key on him and unlike Ottawa they are talented enough to be effective. Joey Jojo and Busby will need to play a big role. Need to avoid turnovers and take what we get. Settling for FGs may be required… which regardless of kicker makes me ill at the thought of it. 

Offensively Harrison Frost is an upgrade over Dolegala, who we saw in the first game. But that is a bit like saying a hotdog is an upgrade over manure in terms of food quality. Frost is completing only 54% of his passes so its not like he’s super intimidating. But with a D as good as Hamilton’s he just needs to be okay to give them a chance. Hamilton is 7^th in rushing so keeping them one dimensional should be doable. Lawler and Smith are dangerous receivers if Frost can get them the ball. So D-line needs to make life difficult. Secondary just needs to play solid and limit big plays. The more Frost has to throw the better for us. 

Let’s not forget that we are still a very depleted roster. We are a couple injuries away from me being a viable option as a token Canadian. We are on the road. We are playing a good defense. This is no gimme and this is a losable game. But kinda like I did last game I go back to the QB match-up. Harris is playing some of the best football of his storied career. Frost is playing because he’s the last remaining option after an injured guy and 2 more who were flat out terrible. 

This will be hard and far closer than I’d like (that’s what she said). We will need to grind it out and probably come from behind. 

It will take a late FG (Hale or Hodge), make it we win. Miss we lose. 

I say we win.

Monday Morning Sentimoines: Ya Who?!

Riders 42 – RedBlacks 20

On a night that fittingly started with a fan getting injured in the pre-game relay contest (which by the way, running a gauntlet of ropers in an inflatable suit is diabolically hilarious) I think the first half of Friday’s game delivered exactly what we were expecting… terrible football. On one side you had a team that is literally down to one Canadian remaining because they are so riddled with injury. On the other side a team that hasn’t won in almost a calendar year. But then after halftime one remembered it was good and the other remembered they were still not and the end result was lopsided beatdown despite Ottawa being in the lead early in the 3^rd quarter.

We had to empty the practice roster for this one. Anyone with a pulse and Canadian passport was dressed. Half our roster was rookies including 4 starting players on offense. We tested the limits of our depth and guys stepped up. Mimbs, Djete and Joey Jojo made impacts offensively despite a combined playing experience of 15 games prior to Friday. I feel bad for the long-suffering Ottawa fan because if you can’t even come within 20 points when playing essentially a preseason roster, I don’t know what there is to hope in. Not even Stewart Johnston’s incoming “everyone makes it” playoff format could save them at this point. 

Offense had 3 big things going in their favour. First was the O-line. The only sack they gave up was by rookie Darius Bell when he lined up at TE. Otherwise the starters (including rookie Erik Andersen) gave Harris time to operate. The second thing was Trevor Harris. Other than that one ill-advised pass to the RedBlack LB he was rock solid and kept the offense rolling despite most of his normal starters being on the 6-game. Offense could have easily gone to hell but he trusted in the new guys and kept rolling. The final thing is of course Tommy Stevens. Here's the telling stat of the day: Tommy had more rushing attempts, rushing yards and points than all off Ottawa combined. KeeSean Johnson should only be targeted on hooks or outbreaking routes going forward. He’s solid on those. But give that man an easy slant and he displays all the receiving prowess of a box of Cheerios. 

Defense played solid, almost boringly uneventful, but solid. Thurman has really stepped up his game these last couple weeks. Not that he is even “bad” but I felt he had a slow start to the season by his standards. But these last 2 weeks he has been back to his elite form. Jonathan Edouard might be the steal of the season. For a guy we picked up partway through the year he has been a solid starter. Why on earth was a Canadian with his abilities unemployed? (Thank you Argos). He became the first DB to get a pick for us this season. Liam Hoskins is a guy who keeps making plays when he gets a chance. That game for me encapsulates Jake Maier. He didn’t play bad. He had one turnover and threw for over 300. But despite that he produced very little points. Now his coach could help him out by even occasionally trying to run the ball. Dinwiddie seems to hate running almost as much as he hates punters who wuss out on making tackles. But what we saw Friday was Maier’s ceiling… mediocrity. I did have to chuckle about Bethel-Thompson (at age 63) being sent in for mop-up duty only to get killed. 

Two final things I need to address. 

First, that BS roughing the long snapper call. The intent of the rule is good, to protect the snapper when he is in a vulnerable position. So you can’t line up over top of him (we did not) and you can’t engage him when his head is down (we did not). Adams went after the gap between the guard and snapper and it was both guard and snapper who initiated blocking with him. I feel bad that their snapper got injured but that was a legal play. We were robbed of a TD and yet again I am left wondering what the purpose of the Command Centre is. They seem to be willing to randomly intervene and impact the game at will except for when something egregious has happened to us. 

Second and most importantly, if you did not attend the game in person you missed the greatest halftime show possibly ever. By greatest I mean it was so lame/bad that I was almost in tears laughing at it. If you missed out, they had a trick roper who also told jokes. The best way I can describe it is that I think this guy was legitimately a top end act in 1970 and based on that has changed nothing about his act since. Highlights included making a “yellow rope of Texas joke” that 4 people understood, making an Amway joke (how could that possibly not get laughs?), playing a plunger with a rubber chicken (that is not a typo, that’s what actually happened), all building to the big finally where he had to end the show because he got a call on his iphone (a fake toy phone with two giant eyes on either end). I think we need to make his signature joke a fixture going forward:

Knock-knock

Who’s there?

Ya

Ya Who?

Yahoo!!!!!!!

Is beating Ottawa anything to brag about? No. But a beat up roster managed to not let a winnable game slip through their grasp. A massive win in light of Edmonton and Calgary both losing. We are now back in first place. Hopefully we spend the coming week either airlifting in a bunch more back-up Canadians, or injecting all our current injured Canadians with the best steroids you can find (they can’t randomly test all of them). 

Other random thoughts:

-       My current conspiracy theory is that we have rigged the coin toss at home. Hear me out. The Rider logo is always tails, pretty much guaranteeing an opposing team will never pick it. The coin lands on tails a very disproportionate amount of the time leading me to believe it’s a weighted coin.

-       The anthem singers are extremely talented and have great voices but they took way too many creative liberties with the anthem and I thought it was bordering on O Christmas tree-levels for how much they wandered from the actual song.

-       Kudos to Hale for not sucking this week (maybe its his new tinted lenses). It’s sad that we have so little confidence in him that we punt from the 42. But as much as I hate that we have to it was the right call to punt and I loved the play call with the onside guys.

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Wounded

Under normal circumstances, a home game against a winless team (particularly when you just took down a first place team) should be as close to guaranteed win night as it gets. But these are far from normal circumstances. To say our depth is depleted is an understatement. We are running out of back-ups. Particularly Canadian ones. We are dressing Darius Bell, not because we have a pressing need for a 7^th OL but because he was one of 2 remaining Canadians to choose from… the other was also an OL. So next injury means either we dress 8 OL or that new kicker we finally brought in is lining up at receiver. We have no fullbacks. Our “big 3 receivers” now include Busby and Djete. I am actually happy Lokombo is back. Things are dire. We are probably currently inquiring into just how retired Mitch Picton is. If this trend continues, we may start testing how retired Getzlaf and Elgaard are. 

So suddenly a very winnable game is a big question mark. My level of doubt is not quite at “the strait of Hormuz will open soon” levels but it is well past “a semi won’t hit a Saskatoon overpass today” levels. But I keep coming back to the fact that Ottawa just isn’t very good. 

Let’s start on defense because that’s where we are the closest to normal. Ottawa has the least offensive points… yes less then all the teams who have been reduced to playing their 3^rd string QBs. They are 8^th in yards. Maier has been playing better of late… but by better I mean better than crappy Jake Maier, not good. He is completing a very respectable 70% of his passes but has the lowest yards per attempt and an abysmal 8 TDs to 9 INT ratio. Is Maier the only reason Ottawa sucks? No. But his ceiling is mediocre. Defense need to keep him below that ceiling. They will be without one of the best OL in Desjarlais so that could open things up for the front 4. Disrupt Maier and he will default to harmless checkdowns or reckless long bomb INTs. Oddly enough our defense has been getting it done without the benefit of turnovers. They have just been generally solid (most days). This could be a chance to boost our turnover numbers as Ottawa leads the league with 23 giveaways. Ottawa could help Maier if they had any desire to attempt to run but they average a negligible 59 yards per game. 

Offense will need to deal with a new D-Coordinator in Jeff Reinbold. He inherits a defense that allows the most points and most yards… nowhere to go but up I guess. Expect him to simplify the D to hopefully get them playing looser and faster. RedBlacks have the 8^th best run D so I would lean on Conley early and often. As much as I don’t love our depleted WR-core I still like Trevor Harris and believe that he will adapt just fine to whatever Reinbold throws his way. It will take him one quarter of offensive futility to figure it out but as long as the D doesn’t dig us an early hole we will be fine from there. Logic says this should be a big KeeSean game (two sweetest words in the English language: De Fault). But Ottawa likely keys on him so look for Joey Jojo to play a bigger role and possibly another Busby game. They key is not turning the ball over. I trust our D to keep Ottawa under 25 (given that they have score 25 or more just twice this season, I like those odds). So we don’t need Harris to be a world beater, just steady. 

One thing to watch as our Canadian depth hits records depths, is special teams. We are losing special teams guys and special teams guys are being called on to play more starting reps. Ottawa has a dangerous returner in Pimpleton and leads the CFL in kick return average. I see them scoring on a kick Friday, as I curse profusely.

We barely eked out a win in Ottawa when we were much healthier, so winless record aside this is a losable game. In fact, I think we will try hard to do so. But I think we barely grind out another ugly win and stave off the wheels falling off the bus for one more week. 

Riders by a Conley TD.

Enjoy the "whatever the thesaurus told us was an altenrative for Country night so we could make it seem like we were being creative" night.

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). 

Riders vs. Elks: Rematch

Saturday the Riders are in the city that used to be called City of Champions but now I’m not sure what to call it. City that will always have the 80s? City soon to be ex-residence of Connor McDavid? City of it was definitely changing the Eskimo name that hurt attendance and not the lack of winning for a decade? Road games in Alberta always draw a big Saskie crowd.

This will be a game of adjustments. In the first game both teams displayed all the pass defending abilities of a one-legged midget. If either side can figure out how to put up even moderate resistance in the pass game it will have a huge advantage. Will Harris continue to attack Edmonton deep, or will he a Mueller change it up and dink and dunk? Will Edmonton look to re-ignite Rankin or will they let Fajardo keep slinging it until we prove we can stop it. Both teams will be looking to make adjustments and the team that is the most successful probably emerges victorious. 

I will start on offense because I think any hope of emerging with a win starts and stops with Trevor Harris. And that’s good news because he just hung 34 points on the best defense in the CFL and could have easily put up 50. Emilus is questionable but I am assuming he plays. Harris and his big 3 continue to be a problem for opposing defenses. If you key on one Harris is savvy enough to find one of the others. And his O-line is giving him the time to do so (though with Harris it’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing because I think his quick release helps the O-line look good just as much as they make him look good). Conley steps back in at RB. I don’t love that but he does add an explosive aspect to the run game that Ouelette/Hudon can’t. If Edmonton wants to sellout on slowing down the aerial Harris assault there should be room for him and his speed to do some damage on the ground. Once again we will need a minimum 30 points from Harris… no reason to think he can’t deliver. Our lowest points in a game this season is 27. We should avoid 34 point specifically though. We are 0-2 this season when scoring 34 (that’s just another super valuable piece of statistical analysis that you’ve come to expect from me). 

I would love to be more optimistic about defense but we just got shredded for 500 yards through the air and now get to do it all again without Milligan. Oddly we were better statically with Edouard in at half. Though that is a bit like saying that releases of Nick Cage movies cause swimming pool deaths correlation is not causality (the Nick Cage thing is real by the way). I think there is a temptation to over-correct and try and stop the pass in this one. But the risk is that the more you do that the more they will turn to Rankin. I would honestly rather keep Rankin at bay and bank on Fajardo not throwing 500 again rather than smother Fajardo and bank on Rankin not stomping us. We just need some god damn communication in the secondary. Way too many coverage break downs. Front 7 can help by getting pressure up front. As was demonstrated when Cody hurled that ball sideways like it was a bomb about to explode, pressure can lead to poor decisions. 

Edmonton has not lost at home. Saskatchewan has not lost a road game… unless you count that road trip to Toronto. The Elks rightly got the glory after the last game but let’s not forget we went toe to toe with them and had chances to win. This is another heavyweight battle between two top teams. 

I have been waffling between pessimism and optimism this week:

-        Optimistically there were about 5 plays that were there but we narrowly missed on last game. If we make even one of them we win. If we make 3 or 4 we win decisively.

-        Pessimistically, we just lost at home off a bye week with a healthy roster. We are now on the road with a far made depleted roster.

Pessimism has been winning out. That said, this strikes me as one of those games that will defy logic. I can very much see us losing the winnable game at home only to win a losable game on the road. Years of cheering for this team have me trying to outthink myself. 

Riders by a Conley TD from 20+ out.

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