Friday Round-Up: Thoughts On The Game

Riders 23 – Stamps 24

For how ugly the weather was leading up to the game (I mean like offspring of a Hamilton Cheerleader and Manitoban Uncle-Daddy ugly), it actually turned out to be a decent night for football. Personally I wouldn’t have cared if the weather was crappy, I was just pumped to be back in the stands. Back with the folks in our section. Back with the best game day host in the stadium. And back being increasingly gouged for booze.

This game lacked a lot of the excitement of the previous one but as for a preseason game I thought it served its purpose. There were some good things but also enough bad things to bring the team and fans back to reality a bit after the hype following last game. Became pretty evident which areas will need to be worked on if we want to be successful in the regular season.

As per usual for the preseason, here are my random meandering thoughts on the game.

- We got problems on the O-line. Big problems. Yet again Heenan looked overmatched and out of place. His play actually made me wish for the return of Neufeld (which if you know me, you know I’m far from a Neufeld fan). Valdez may not be amazing but you gotta think he’d do a bit better with the starting group. More concerning though was the fact that it wasn’t just Heenan as the problem. Fulton struggled and we were just completely unable to block the pass rush off the edges at times. It’s the same issues we saw in the WSF last year. Durant needs time but the line just kept letting them through in groups like they were on the guest list or something. Durant got a bit of time on that 3^rd quarter TD drive and low and behold the offense moved the ball. This needs to be priority #1.

- Well Geroy certainly did a good job of allaying fears about his durability and age and how much money we have tied up in him. Yikes! I really hope my concerns about him turn out to be false but he is not off to a good start.

- I really liked that quick slant to Taj Smith we ran right off the start but then we never went back to it for some reason. One thing that has consistently bugged me about our offense and Durant is how we can’t grasp the concept of the hot route to ease the pass rush pressure. Hope that is just a product of not wanting to show the full playbook.

- I’m shocked at how much we used Sheets this preseason. The guy is entrenched as the starter, no need to wear him down this early in the season. I love watching him run but should save it more for when it counts.

- Our D-line looked a lot less superhuman against an OL that wasn’t a patchwork of crap. Not overly concerned but this will hopefully temper some people’s ridiculous expectations.

-  Carlo Thomas has impressed me this preseason. He looks to be a solid addition to the secondary. Also, really like Machooooooooooo!

- Still not sold on Brackenridge at safety. Just don’t see him being an impact player there. Prefer him at LB.

- Levi Steinauer will make this team. And I’m not just saying that due to the requirement for us gingers to stick together. Great hustle on all plays. With all the injuries to our special team vets, he will be a welcome addition.

- As if there wasn’t enough reasons to hate Ricky Foley... now he starts taking penalties on offense. Damn him! Pretty sure the ref was just from Ontario and that was the only player he recognized. Time count 95. Offensive pass interference 95. Illegal kick 95. Illegal substitution of an import 95.

- Were it not for Greg Carr being a pussy, Tino Suneri may well have led his second straight TD drive for a come from behind win.

- Would really like to believe that all of Getzlaf’s catches are a sign that his dropsies are behind him... but we’ve been burned before.

- Jock Sanders is a good returner but he will need a tiny bit of blocking in order to accomplish things.

- So by virtue of Brody McKnight not looking all that spectacular, seems Milo has won the kicking job yet again almost by default… hows that for instilling confidence? At least Schmitt looked good.

- That segment where they showed Gainer eating a stuffed ref doll and half assed dancing for a really long time was the definition of awkward time fillers.

It wasn’t a great game but we came out healthy (save for Simon) and know what we need to work on so you can’t expect much more from a meaningless game.

Final cuts come down Saturday and here are some names I expect to see on that list: Hill, Armitage, Vonk, Harper, Riley, McKnight, Matechuk, Miller, Sumlin, Taylor, Wellman, Dorsey, Ferri and my pick for surprise cut Eddie Russ (unless he gets “injured” before cut day)

Also not convinced Greg Carr has earned a spot yet, though if Simon is hurt we may need to keep him. Dan Clark may be relegated to the practice roster again. Guess we will find out this weekend

Official Rider Prophet Preseason Drinking Game

It's back by popular demand. Read up on the rules and play along tonight at the game. Disclaimer though... I bear no responsibility for your action should you choose to participate in this activity that 4 out of 5 doctors would recommend against. Its called voluntary assumption of risk.

Rules

1. Every dropped pass or fumbled you drink

2. Every time the announcer screws up drink

3. Drink two if a flag bearer is out of formation during pre-game

4. Every time count, illegal formation, no yards, offside penalty you drink. Two if its on the Riders Double if its too many men.

5. Every TV Timeout you drink. (note: the game is not televised but I realize they have the timeout anyway... but hey this is a drinking game after all)

6. If someone calls for a fair catch you shot-gun a beer

7. If a player who is not dressed gets credit for a stat or penalty you drink.

8. If a cheerleader falls you drink

9. If Jordan Sisco scores a TD, pound 2 drinks

Riders vs. Stamps: Preseason Game 2

Oh baby, oh baby!!!! Its game day and we get to go to Mosaic for the first home game of the year! Preseason or not, I am jacked up! The sweet words of "Bring em out, bring em out" can't hit my ears soon enough.  It will be great to be back in our seats with the good people in our section who not only tolerate us throughout the season but also encourage us.

This will be our first look at our full starting O and D and even though both will be on a limited playbook, I'm interested to see how they perform.

Defensively it will be interesting to see if our D-line is as dominant against an O-line that is not utter garbage. Foley and Shologan will be in alongside Chick and George so this will be the first real test. Also interested to see how our LB/DB configuration looks. Still not sure I like the idea of both Butler and Brown playing LB but time will tell. I hope the aggressiveness of the secondary continues... I won't believe it until i see it for myself since Richie is as synonymous with aggressive DBs as Wilt Chamberlin was with monogamy.

Defensively I will specifically be watching Foley, Macho Harris and Brackenridge.

Offensively, we get to see Durant with his starting OL and WRs for the first time. Hopefully Durant can build on a decent game one. I'll be watching Geroy to see how his timing with Durant is coming as well as the Valdez/Heenan duel as tackle. Personally I think its ridiculous to call it a duel since Heenan is not starting material at tackle at this point and Valdez can hold his own but I guess the coaches want to give Heenan one more chance.

Some guys who are fighting to make the team I think are worth watching include Will Davis, Tristan Black (mainly because I don't know if he has a role on this team yet), Eddie Russ (because I still get the feeling he may be cut) and Ramzee Robinson.

On the Stamps side, I'll be curious to see Drew Tate play. I'm still not convinced he's near as good as his hype. Maybe he'll just fracture his arm and forget the first half... I mean joke about forgetting the first half... only jokes.

In order to maximize the entertainment value of a preseason game I will be bringing back the Official Rider Prophet Preseason Drinking Game. Full rules will be included in the next post.

See you in the stands

First Cuts

The Riders announced their first rounds of cuts this morning. Overall they weren't very suprising. In quick point form here are my thoughts on the cuts:

Levi Brown - For the 2nd year in a row Brown came into the preseason as a leading contender for a roster spot only to lose it to another QB who stepped up and performed in game action (Willy last year and Sunseri this year).  He didn't play that bad but Sunseri was just better. For me its sad because Brown/Willy as a back up QB combo had a ton of untapped pun potential... Sunseri/Willy just doesn't deliver like that.

Kenny Rowe - Slight surprise here given that Rowe had been taking 1st team reps while Foley was out. I think it came down to him being a 3rd year guy and not significantly better than some of the new guys. Chamblin said as much in today's interview.

Aaron Crawford - With guys like Hurl, Newman, Black, McCullough, Regimbald-Gagne and Spoletini... Crawford was a longshot to make the team anyway.

Phillip Livas - There's always one player who you can pinpoint the precise moment in the preseason game where his fate was sealed... for Livas that was about the time the kick he was supposed to field was bouncing around on the ground while he stood there looking as confused as an Ethiopian at a curling bondspiel.

Aaron Heygood - He was behind Rey Williams, Peters and Kromah in terms of import LBs. Considering we are planning on manning a few LB spots with converted DBs the math was clearly against Heygood.

Stefon Green - Really surprised he went before Dorsey (who I still consider a waste of a roster space) but its not like Green showed anything special in the game.

Chip Vaughn - Early reports were that people liked his size (6'2) but competition at DB was intense this year and he evidently did not have the coverage skill to go along with his size

David Rybinski - I got nothing... he was a late addition, pretty much just because he was a local Canadian. Training camp body... nothing more.

As expect Mike McCullough and Pat Neufeld were added to the 9 game. Never like to lose Canadian content like that but in both cases I think we have players to step in and take their place.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Suprisingly Early Sunday Edition

You may be wondering why a chronic procrastinator like myself is posting his Monday post well ahead of time... well with cuts looming today, I wanted to get my thoughts on the game out before they render much of my commentary useless or incorrect. I will do a separate post tomorrow on the cuts. Just don't get used to this early business. To compensate, next week's sentimonies will be posted on Wednesday.

Riders 31 – Esks 24

That wasn’t a half bad game for a preseason debut. I mean sure it was riddle with errors and far from the prettiest football I’ve seen but it was at least entertaining. I’ve kinda gotten used to the idea that the Riders tend to suck in the preseason (particularly on the road) so to see us play some half decent ball was a pleasant surprise. Who am I kidding though, not even Rod Black could put a damper on the first Rider game of the year (though he certainly tries).

Here in no particular order are my thoughts on the game:

-       Don’t get people who are down on Durant’s performance. 8 of 11 for 117 in limited action, with a scaled back play book, 2 non-starters on the OL, no Dressler/Simon and repeated screw ups on the hand offs with Sheets isn’t a bad first day at the office.  

-       Taj Smith looks good. Last year he showed flashes but was pretty inconsistent. But if this is what we can expect of 2013 Smith then he is in for a good year.

-       Really liked how Sanders looked on returns. Damn good.

-       Clearly the Ben Heenan at tackle experiment was a failure. No harm in trying and likely good experience for Heenan but hopefully Chamblin now realizes that Valdez needs to be our guy. He’ll just have to get used to standing by Best instead of his trusty donkey

-       I’ll preface my discussion of the D-Line by saying Edmonton likely has the worst OL in the league at this point and I would be very concerned if I was them… that said I still liked how strong our line looked. Chick and George looked very powerful out there. Yes it was against weak opponents but also consider that Shologan and Foley didn’t dress. My concerns about Chick taking time to regain his CFL form have been allayed. Excited to see how they will fair against a stronger Stamps OL

-       Looks like we are going to challenge the middle of the field deep more on offense and I like it.

-       I liked the little bit we saw of Spencer Moore. Wouldn’t mind seeing him stick on for special teams and the odd offensive play.

-       Love how they had Greg Carr out in the 4^th quarter just feasting on soon to be cut DBs.

-       I was about to declare Turenne a cut after getting burnt on the TD but he balanced that off with a pick and another nice cover. Tough decisions coming in the secondary

-       I really like what I see in a healthy Macho Harris. Macho Madness!!!

-       I should really have printed off a roster because by the fourth quarter even my vast Rider knowledge wasn’t enough to keep up. Didn’t help that the announcers kept going off on segues about Edmonton.

-       Poor Matt Nichols. Gotta feel for the guy but I still have no clue how he hurt his knee on that… hip maybe but knee? No clue.

-       Kerry Joseph must have been secretly smiling all night on the sidelines. Had that game gone any longer he would have moved up from 6^th on the depth chart to opening day starter by default

-       For just picking him up out of junior, Graig Newman was a hell of an addition.

-       Anyone else struggle to identify the members of Hair Force without their flowing locks?

-       Congratulations to Phillip Livas for winning the “cut before he got back to the sideline” award. 

-       For as decent as Tino Sunseri looked (maybe good enough to unseat Levi Brown) man was he god awful at plunges. ONly way he could have been worse would have been by Sanchez-ing himself on an O-lineman and butt fumbling. Cortez finally had to give up on him and let him throw for the TD.

-       Just before that Jordan Sisco showed fine form in failing to make a catch… mainly because he was inexplicably and needlessly jumping for the pass that was no higher than eye level.

-       Kicking game is still a concern. Maybe our plan is to just always score TDs on offense. Seems like a safer bet at this point.

-       Between Willy, Chick, Bagg, Brown, Johnson and Ferri this has potential to be a great year of blogging. All we are missing is Chip Cox and De’Audra Dix.

This was a great way to start the season out. Now we can start counting the days to the first home game of 2013!! 3 more sleeps!!!