Riders vs. ArgoNots

The sentiment across the prairies this week has been decidedly “they can’t lose to these argos”… unfortunately its phrased more as a cautious question than a deeply believed statement. We should this game and I believe we will but honestly I can’t rule anything out based on how this season has gone. 

We are a win away from first place. Their season is over and 2 meaningless games stand between them and going home. We are 5-2 at home. They are 2-5 on the road. We have a team briming with talent. They have O-linemen that Ryan Dinwiddie makes snarky comments about their offseason regimen. Were it not for the fact that we are starting a preseason secondary they may have employed the mercy rule in this one. Fortunately the Argos rebalance the scales by conveniently starting a preseason QB. 

Look our secondary is a mess. No Milligan, Campbell or safety. I am still not sold that anything more than voodoo magic is holding Sayles’ lower body together. Fields is suddenly legitimately one of the best DBs we are fielding.. and that is not a compliment. Secondary is potentially an issue. But here’s the thing: Our front 7 can dominate enough to compensate. Toronto has no run game whatsoever (a miniscule 51 yards per game avg), they allow the most sacks and Jarrett Doege is how the French might say “le terriblé". There will be sacks, there will be turnovers. The main thing that worries me about Toronto is the chance that their unknown 4h string Horn might come in. Rider history is littered with unknown back-ups who made a name against us. 

While injuries may be testing the limits of our defensive depth, our offense remains relatively healthy (I don’t feel great typing this and am aggressively knocking on wood as we speak). Toronto’s D struggled when they cared and had Wynton McManis playing. They have neither of those now. We need early production like last week. Get them down early and then pound it at them with Ouelette and Hudon. You can’t manufacture “care” and Toronto doesn’t care. They are not going to stand up to 60 mins of physicality and aggression. They allow the most 30+ yard passes so take shots and get points on the board. 

This is a dream scenario. Friday night. Obsidian. Home crowd. All we need is one win against the second worst team in the CFL and we get first place and 3 weeks to rest before a West Final at home. We need to seize this opportunity. We don’t want to have to play meaningful ball next week in Winnipeg of the week after when BC is here. 

I feel very old man-ish saying this but “back in my day” we would have killed for even just a Friday night game. We would have killed loved ones for meaningful football this late in the year. And we would have pretty much crossed any moral, ethical and legal line for a chance at first place. Entire generations have not seen us finish in first. I have barely seen it. I am amped up beyond belief for this game and just paying that the football gods don’t summon an untimely gale-force wind to ruin this for us again. 

Even with a battered secondary we should stomp a team that doesn’t care. Therefore I boldly predict a victory but like a 9 point victory just because that’s how we roll. 

Get loud Saskatchewan. Lights out night with a chance a t first place. It don’t get better than that.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Big Step Forward

Riders 20 – RedBlacks 13

Look, I know many of you wanted a far more resounding win given that we were playing the worst team in the league. To you I say boo-hoo. We won. Do you remember how good we played in game 15 of 2024? 2019? 2013? No you don’t. The end result of the season is all that matters and Friday’s win helped us take a massive step forward to our end goal. Sure, I would have preferred we dominate them more but that’s like saying I would prefer an 18oz steak over a 12oz one… if you offer me a 12 ouncer I’ll still be happy.

For me there were a lot of positives in that game. Are we where we need to be to make a strong playoff run? No. But we took some positive steps forward on a lot on fronts. After 2 straight loses, finding a way to win on the road was big. After a month of mediocre to bad performances I finally saw Trevor Harris show flashes of the guy who was briefly in the MOP conversation earlier this season. We actually scored a major in the quarter… something that is about as rare as the RedBlacks eclipsing 5 wins in a season. The offense showed up for more that their usual 1 quarter (yes it was only 2 quarters they were useful in this time but we are focusing on the positive progression). Defense managed to close out a game with minimal drama (there was drama but it was due to the offense). All in all lots of positives. The biggest being that we are 1 win away from clinching first. 

Now its not all roses and sunshine. The kicker brought into solve our inconsistent kicking was consistent… unfortunately it was consistently awful. Like it looked as though Lauther paid him off top make him look good by comparison. The punter brought in to solve our mediocre punting made us long for the return of our mediocre punter. And if our secondary suffers any more injuries Micah Johnson may legitimately be lining up at corner soon. I am fairly sure that Marcus Sayles is only being held together by duct tape and horse tranquilizers at this point. So other that having no useful kickers and injuries to pretty much anyone who plays DB, things are just fine. 

Defense was fairly solid last week but they were difference makers this week. It helped that Dru Brown did his best Harris homage and forgot that linebackers existed. Each LB had a pick and Sapp damn near had a fourth. You can still see inexperience in Sapp but I actually like what he brings to the table so far. Brooks just finds ways to make plays when he gets to start. Front 4 were disruptive. Overall a solid effort. 

Offense was finally able to put yards up. They needed a lot more points for what our defense was gifting them but Harris eclipsed 300 yards and could probably have hit 400 if not for drops by guys like Baker. He hit 8 different receivers. Most importantly no picks. The fumble was not on him and 9 times out of 10 that ball just falls to the turf rather than directly into a defender’s hands. AJ Ouelette is the player of the game bar none. His stats will only show 50 rush yards and 20 receiving but each one of those yards was important and hard earned against a very good Ottawa run D. He handled short yardage with Tommy out (I don’t love his style as he tries to go high rather than low but he was effective). And he saved the game by chasing that Ottawa defender down the field. That kind of effort and refusal to give up is what champions are made of. Ouelette has been quietly killing it for a month. Good things happen when we get Dohnte Myers the ball. He took a simple slant and turned it into our best offensive play of the day. Getting him involved needs to be a priority. 3 of our 4 losses have occurred when gets under 50 yards whereas we are 5-1 when get over 75. Feed him and let the man make plays.

With Friday’s win, we now sit just one win away from clinching first. Not only would that give us a first round bye but if we manage to win next week that makes our last 2 games meaningless and gives us 3 full weeks to gets healthy (or at least as close to healthy as you can get in November) something that is desperately needed as our defensive injuries mount. The only thing standing in our way now is a home game against a team that was just eliminated from the playoffs and will be starting their 3^rd string QB who was just sacked 9 times and threw 4 picks. So I guess what I’m saying is, Friday’s obsidian game is definitely somehow coming down to the last play of the game as we find some ridiculous way to almost lose. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Not a great day for TSN. Dustin Neilson repeatedly called our punter Joe Couch (no Dustin, we only wish it was Couch… as sad as that statement is to write) and Claire Hanna spent post game congratulating our players on clinching a home playoff game (we have not). As Jay Onrait would say "Ya Blew It"

-        In addition to awful kicking our cover teams were not great. Pimpleton almost busted it a few times and we were saved by a block in the back on the one he did break.

-        Can we put some respect on AJ Allen’s name? Consistently makes impact plays on defense. GO compare his stats to Cam Judge and tell me he at least should not be in the conversation for top Canadian. He damn well better be our nominee.

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Gut Check Time

The Riders are in Ottawa tonight looking to end their first losing streak of 2025. Nothing to be worried about since things always go super normal when we travel to Ottawa.

Ottawa is circling the drain. They need to win out to have a chance. Oddly enough 3 of their 4 wins have come against Calgary and BC. For many years the issue in Ottawa was a lack of talent. That’s not the case this year… other than maybe the secondary. Bob Dyce is a phenomenal human but he couldn’t get them out of the East basement if he bribed the rest of the division. 

But if last week proved anything, its that the Riders are quite capable of losing to bottom dwelling teams. Ottawa is desperate and coming off a bye. We are starting our 4^th safety since Labour Day. All outcomes are on the table in this one.

Based purely on talent on paper, you would expect Ottawa to have a great offense (Brown, Lewis, Hardy, Pimpleton, Dedmon) and a terrible D. The stats are obviously skewed by the many games missed by Brown but they are 6^th in yards gained and 3^rd in yards allowed.

Defensively we put in 3 solid quarters last week before falling apart. Gonna take all 4 to get it done in Ottawa. Reavis should be an improvement but we are still fielding a patchwork secondary against a pretty impressive group of receivers. That puts the pressure on the front 4. Ottawa is 7^th in sacks allowed and the only person on that team whose running concerns me is Crum. Best way to defend the pass is keep Brown on the turf. Ideally we get pressure with the front 4 but I think sending a 5^th rusher on pretty much every play would be fine. We can win the game with a disruptive pass rush. We can’t win if Brown has time for Geno Lewis to get open on Benny Sapp.

Offensively go back to the only thing that worked last week… Ouelette. It will be tough running as Ottawa has the #2 run D but do it anyway. Ottawa is this close to being officially cooked. If we can get an early score (what? Just because we have failed to score more than 3 first quarter points 10 times this season doesn’t mean a man can’t hope) and then pound them physically their will to continue will be a fragile as their QB. Few may be as happy as me about the return of Hudon but he’s another guy that can play a physical style. If Trevor Harris can’t get it together in this one I will officially start to worry. Ottawa has the least sacks this season and just traded away Lorenzo Mauldin. His jersey should stay whiter than a small town Saskatchewan bar. He now has all his weapons with Baker back in the fold. Time to start making good decisions, take what the D is giving and spread it around. That is a probably the weakest secondary in the CFL (aside from when we are forced to start Exume).

Lots of talk about kickers this week. As a side note, for all of you clamouring for the Riders to trade for Ward, he is currently the second worst kicker in the CFL and somehow Leone is the worst punter. Given that Dyce is a special teams guy by trade that can’t help his case to remain employed. I am glad we are giving Fair a chance due to Lauther’s “injury” (wink). The bar is set pretty low, make 3 of 4 kicks and you are officially better than the other guy. I'd rather find out now whether we have a better option than wait until playoffs. 

Look I know Ottawa has talented players and is coming off of bye but for god’s sake they just lost to a team that completed 3 passes. Our offense may be struggling but I think even declining Harris is good for a better offensive performance. We still have a very easy path to 1^st place. This is the east chance to take a big step forward in that quest… don’t blow it. 

Riders by a Tommy time TD… Tommy being Thomas Bertrand-Hudon this time.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Embarrassing Effort

Riders 25 – Elks 27

With a chance to take a massive step forward in their quest for first place and facing the worst team in the division, the Riders went out and blew it like $2 hooker in a back alley. It was ugly, it was sloppy, it was shameful. 

The blame for the loss can be placed on three people in this order: 1) Trevor Harris, 2) The Coaches, 3) Brett Lauther. I’ll give an honourable mention to the refs, though their continued awfulness was not the reason we lost.

Trevor Harris was bad. He managed a rare feat throwing not 1 but 2 interceptions on the first drive. Both were the exact same play… he seemed to forget that linebackers existed. He made bad reads. When he made the right read he threw inaccurate passes. When he actually got it there his receivers could not hold onto the ball. It continued a concerning trend. He has not been good in a solid month now. Tough to win when your most important player can only manage one good quarter per game. 

The coaches did none of the players any favours. I don’t have time to detail all their terrible decision making but I’ll summarize one from each phase to highlight my point. Special teams: The decision to even attempt a 55 yarder was stupid. Yes Lauther holds some blame (I’ll get to him) but at no point did that attempt seem like a good idea to anyone who watched the Riders this season. Defensively the all out blitz on Edmonton’s last drive that lead to a long pass completion was dumb. Send one blitzer, fine. Maybe even 2. But all out blitz leaving your patchwork secondary out to dry was a terrible call in that situation. Offensively, I could point to our questionable decision to immediately have Emilus run the same stupid screen that landed him on the injury list he just came off of. But I will instead point to the 2 point convert with the game on the line. You needed 3 yards… a low percentage deep pass was asinine. Ouelette, Tommy, short hook or slant… that are dozens of plays that had a better chance of success. As we did routinely throughout the game, the coaches chose poorly and it cost us. 

Brett Lauther’s issues finally cost us. His inability to kick even remotely consistently has been but a frustrating footnote on an otherwise successfully season so far. But Saturday it caught up with us and burned us. We lost by 1 point. Even if you forgive him the 55 yarder the coaches should not have had him try, if he makes the other kick we win. He failed… again. Any other position (except QB) that failed that often would be replaced. Mace stubbornness in treating the kicker the same is not doing us favours. 

As for the refs. Despite the fact that refs are taught to let potential turnover plays that are close playout and sort it out on review, the refs blew the whistle so quick on that fumble that Julien Grant hadn’t even hit the ground yet. We got the turnover but it cost us an obvious TD. Also, the “Command Centre has not rhyme or reason to their actions” saga continued this weekend. Friday they inserted themselves in the Montreal game to call a BS roughing the passer. Saturday when Harris clearly got hit in the head while sliding they were nowhere to be seen. Its an absolute crapshoot. The ability for the booth to review anything but challenges, turnovers and scoring plays needs to be immediately removed. I would much rather live with the on-field refs making a few mistakes. At least they have the excuse of trying to watching things in real time. If Stewart Johnston really wants to improve the on-field product there are more obvious places to start than changing the configuration of the field. 

Is it time to panic? No. We remain in first place. But the level of concern is rising steadily each week. Here’s essentially what the Riders are now: The defense will give you 3 solid quarters and cave in the 4^th. The offense will randomly decide to show up for either the 2^nd or 3^rd quarter (not both). That’s it. We can count on 4 good quarters between our 2 most important phases. Hard to win when putting in only a half game of quality effort. People keep point to the 2013 team struggling down the stretch and its true. We have the talent to turn this around. But we are doing a great Blue Jays impersonation and squandering a massive lead to make the end of the season unnecessarily stressful. Hopefully we clumsily stumble to the same result they did. 

Other random thoughts:

-        The only person I’m not mad at is AJ Ouelette. Hell of a game by him.

-        The new punter has a strong leg but the directional kicking ability of Jon Ryan. Hopefully that improves with experience.

-        Also I have a mental block and can only refer to him a Micro despite knowing full-well that’s not his name.  

Riders vs. Elks: Back At It

What a wild week. I could literally write pages on what went on this week (rule changes, owner of the Elks passing away etc…) without even touching on the actual football game. 

The Riders have an opportunity the size of Gene Makowsky’s head in front of them. With 5 games to go we have a 2 game lead on first place. The next 3 games are against the 3 lowest teams in the standings. Not one of our next 3 opponents has a winning record including the team we face on Saturday in the Elks. The football gods have essentially done this…

 

We just hope that those football gods don’t go full Will Smith and slap us.

At 5-9 Edmonton is circling the drain. They essentially need to win out to have a shot at the post season. They had a brief upswing with a 3 game win streak shortly after we first played them. But they are 1 for their last 4. Though they lost their last 2 games on last second FGs. As bad as their record may be they are playing competitive football and a desperate team is one you gotta watch out for. Much like a desperate parent fighting for that last tickle me Elmo  there’s no telling what they will resort to (kids ask your parents, I assure you this is a quality reference). 

Riders are fresh off a bye and hoping that the rest will help avoid whatever garbage performance they tried putting in last game. Mixed news on the injury front. The good news Sayles, Emilus and Hudon should be back. The bad news still no Campbell, Ray or either safety. 

Let’s start on the offense. As much as the Elks have been playing better football since Fajardo stepped in, their D remains not so great and their injuries are piling up worse than ours. Elks have the #2 run D but a pass D so bad that rumour is it was the Elks who petitioned Stewart Johnston for a shorter field in an effort to reduce the yards they give up. Scouting report on the Elks’ secondary is simple. Avoid passing towards Tyrell Ford. Literally anyone else is a good option. Harris needs to step up in this one. Its been a while since he had a solid outing front to back. Lately we’ve had to settle for a brief quarter or 2 of him remembering he can play football and that just won’t cut it if we want that first round bye. Oueltte needs to be a consistent part of the O but the Elks allow the highest completion % in the CFL. For a QB like Harris this should be a dream.  Get Myers going. Mix in some Johnson and Emilus. This could be a game where Harris completes to 7 or more different players (I just hope they are all Riders). Only once in the past month has Edmonton kept a team under 28 points.

Defensively I would feel a hell of a lot better with Campbell and Ray but just having Sayles back and not going into the game with Exume being a legit option is a step forward. The book on the Elks’ offense is pretty simple Rankin is their best player, Cody is completing a high % of his passes and not turning the ball over but they give up a ton of sacks and their receivers are not very good. Last time we played them we had 8 sacks. I don’t expect that many this time around but our success will be dictated by how disruptive that front 4 can be. They were non-existent against Montreal. Hopefully a week of rest put some pep back in their step. Elks will try and counter their glaring pass blocking deficiencies (and Fajardo’s patented calmness in the pocket) by getting Rankin going, both on the ground and through the air. He is their leading receiver … can’t imagine why they are in last place. Slow Rankin down and dare them to beat us through the air. Just don’t give up the big chunk plays and I think even an injury riddled D can grind one out. 

As much as I would love to roll into Edmonton and lay an emphatic beating on them, I just don’t see it. They are too desperate and we never do anything the easy way. But here’s the reality, the Elks are 1-5 against the West. Were it not for 2 wins against the only team in the league crappier than them (Ottawa) they would be mathematically eliminated already. We are rested off a bye. They haven’t had a bye week since Week 7. We are a better team even though I’m convinced it will take a 48 yard FG from Lauther in the dying seconds to prove it. 

We all think this team has the potential to be champions. Well champions deliver the kill shot to struggling opponents when they have the chance. So let’s see it. 

Riders by a Lauther FG

Is it wrong that I hope Cody hits the uprights one last time for nostalgia sake?

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Stretch Run

 Note: By the time you read this, the CFL may have already made their big announcement which may render much of what I am about to say irrelevant or old news. I blame the CFL for not giving their old friend Rider Prophet a heads up on things or at least being more mindful of my schedule.

Hope you enjoyed the by week. I did not. With the Riders off I was forced to watch MBT suddenly rediscover how crappy he is a week too late; Vernon Adams be bad VA and throw picks and get hurt (again a few weeks too late); and one of the most disgraceful football games I have ever seen (and I watched every Michael Bishop start). After losing to a Bomber team that completed 3 passes Ottawa should miss the playoff not only this year but the next 3 years as well as punishment.

But enough about my rantings…

With 5 games to go, the path for the Riders is relatively simple. 1 win (or 1 loss by BC and Winnipeg) and we get a home playoff game. But we have our eyes set on a bigger prize. The magic number is 4 wins or Calgary losses to secure first place in the West. Our remaining schedule is as follows: @Edm, @Ott, Tor, @Win, BC.  

The perfect scenario would be winning our next 2, Calgary losing one. Then it’s a Friday night obsidian home game with 1^st place on the line. Oh baby!

But after a putrid outing before the bye, obviously some improvement is needed to reach the ultimate goal. So what is that?

Defensively we just need to get healthy. Sayles and Campbell back on the corners changes things in a hurry. We need at least one of Ford or Lokombo back to at least gain some semblance of Canadian depth back and avoid any scenario where Exume Is ever forced to play corner in a meaningful game. The front 7 I think will come back refreshed from a week off. It will be interesting to see how Ray is health-wise as he appeared to get hurt bad last game.

Offensively we need a spark. After working himself into the MOP conversation early in the season, Trevor Harris has been just OK over the last few. Obviously at 10-3 he’s getting the job done but the offense has been sputtering. I look for a spark in 2 places. One, hopefully we get Emilus back. Two, hopefully that gives us enough ratio flexibility to get Bane on the roster. Obviously Johnson and Myers are ahead of him and we needed Robustelli’s size at the time but if we are looking to jumpstart the offense I think Bane is a guy that can do it.

Special Teams we need bodies. We lost Korte-Moore for the season. Hudon has been out. Normal special teamers like Oneyka, Exume and Nield have been forced into starting roles. We are dressing a second fullback because we literally have no other Canadians to dress. Same with DeShawn Stevens. If we can get guys like Emilus, Campbell and Ford back it would ease the pressure on special teams. I would also love to see Hudon back because a Canadian back-up RB opens up a ton of ratio flexibility we have been missing since he went down.

We also need bums in seats. I know it will be getting colder but we gotta take advantage of this as fans. I don’t know if you have followed Rider history buts is basically decades upon decades of heartache and misery with brief fleeting moments of hope. This is one of those moments. We have had very few legit chances at first place in my lifetime. Come cheer on a winning team before the window closes and we suck again.

My only hope is that we don’t leave our chances at first up to the fate of a freak wind gust again. I’m still very bitter about that.

 

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Saturday Night Suckfest

Riders 31 – Als 48

*Editor’s note: You probably should not google Saturday night suckfest. Probably has some other connotations that may have unintended consequences on your algorithm.

In a stunning turn of events, Brett Lauther has quietly moved himself out of the conversation of things plaguing this team. On Saturday he was about the only part of the team that did his job. Defense was awful. Offense was awful. Weather was awful. My dry ribs combo was adequate at best. Just nothing was good about that game. We looked like a team that was a little too eager for a bye week. We rolled into Montreal and embarrassed a beat up Als team last month. They returned the favour om Saturday.

Look, we knew our secondary would be an issue. We had 2 starters (one of them being Fields) and 3 guys who were essentially dressed because they ranked slightly above a cardboard cutout in terms of starting options. In retrospect the cardboard cutout may have outplayed Exume. Montreal correctly identified Exume as a liability and had their way with him. It should not have taken us as long as it did to bench him. I get that we are desperate for anything resembling a Canadian on defense but I think Daniel Johnson or Ali Saad would have been as effective at CB. What I don’t understand is that we spend the entire year playing a soft zone and giving up easy completions underneath but when we get backup CBs in that’s when we decide to jump anything short? The secondary was not a surprise. The front 7 was a massive disappointment. Front 4 was invisible. Linebackers had no ability to stop one of the worst run games in the league. We needed them to step up and help a depleted back end… they did not.

Offense was kind enough to not let the defense suck alone. Interceptions. Fumbles. Drops. Total team effort on digging a hole too deep to get out of. We need to be honest with ourselves. Harris has been mediocre since the Hamilton game. His last few games he has done enough but his name is noticeably becoming absent in MOP conversations. He needs to be better. Play calling was also an issue in this one. In the 1^st quarter we had a 2^nd and 2 in FG range. All we had to do was run. Even if you get 1 yard, Tommy gets the other on 3^rd. Instead we got cute and tried to pass. It was incomplete and we were forced to settle for 3 when it should have been an easy 1^st down.

Lastly, let me just come out and say it: Screw the command centre! There is no rhyme or reason for when they intervene. Based on previous weeks we know that obvious face masks are not in their ability to remedy. But apparently procedure calls and illegal blocks are (if Montreal complains enough). Were those both penalties on us? Yes. But there is no consistency for when the booth inserts itself and it almost always seems to harm the Riders whatever they decide. There needs to be clear rules such as major penalties only. The “intervene when you feel like it approach” is not working.

This loss in not the biggest thing in the world. We were injury riddled and looking forward to a needed bye. We are also still in first place. But making a QB has terrible as MBT look like Ricky Ray is kinda like letting a one legged soccer player score a penalty kick on you.

Hopefully this bye week sees a few bodies return to the field. Legitimately we are an injury or two away from me needing to start in the secondary.