Monday Morning Sentimonies: I’m Back

Riders 38 – Ti-Cats 7

Did you miss me? Did you even notice I was gone? I spent the last week fishing (hence the lack of posting). Got back on Saturday in time to attend the absolute oven of a game on Sunday. For those curious I am a so-so fisherman but pretty dependable beer drinker, so the week was moderately successful by Chris Jones standards. 

As for the game…

It was a tale of 2 halves. In the first half we drastically outplayed them in every aspect except the scoreboard. In the second half, we added the scoreboard to complete the cycle of things we dominated. 

Look, Jake Dolegala is not very good at football. And I mean that much like how a piece of insulation is not very good in a sandwich. I hope anyone who complained when we let him walk realizes how wrong you were and how right O’Day was. Since taking over for the injured Bo, he has produced exactly one TD. Unfortunately that was for the other team. He seemed to think all his receivers were taller than him and the odd time he got the ball within their actual catch radius they tended to drop it. I realize that we weren’t playing the highest level of competition but I was very happy with the defense. They were aggressive. They tackled probably the best I have seen all season. They got sacks. They got turnovers. They gave big time effort. On the 3^rd down stop, Ford diagnosed the play perfectly and attacked the right hole to make a stop. On the Woods pick, Brooks hustled his ass to make the last block necessary to get Woods to the endzone. Vaughters had a strong game. Woods may be the steal of the offseason. I even noticed Hoskins making some plays when given the chance. In a season where we let teams hang around in games, it was refreshing to see us put our feet on their throats.  

My only criticism of the offense is that they slept through most of the first half (an unfortunate recurring theme). Those 2 picks by Harris were also bad reads and would have been supper costly if we played a team with any ability to score. But other than that O did well. Ouelette had a solid return and chewed up some important yards. Baker and Emilus clearly benefited from the extra days off as they looked back to their old selves. And Tommy Time was on full display. Man does that guy ever fire up the team and the stadium. When we stuffed Dolegala it was a major momentum change. Its exactly that reason we employ a guy we does not get stopped.

Special Teams continues to be a roller coaster. It looked like Sexton was on the verge of superstardom. He made plays every time he touched the ball. So of course he becomes the latest player sacrificed to the injury list. I feel awful for him but his leg was more out of place than a competent QB in Ottawa when he went down. Kick coverage is mostly good but we continue to give up at least one big return per game (which is not a sustainable trend). Chapman is a good punter. Alex Hale shall henceforth be renamed Alex Fale. If you can’t trust your kicker when the ball is one the 40 yard line then your kicker should be seeking alternate employment. It’s obvious that even the coaches don’t trust him anymore. Rightly so. Punting from the 40 is stupid, just go for it. Maybe Hale should try kicking without the glasses, not like he can get much worth. If there is not a new kicker in camp when practice resumes after the bye then O’Day is not doing his job. Until then I am in favour of going for 2 point converts every time and gambling any FG siutation beyond the 20. 

The refs were also not doing us any favours. That was PI on Mace’s challenge. There was also PI on the Baker TD that was ignored. There was at least one time count violation they let slide. We were robbed of a fumble recovery (he tucked the ball, turned around and took a step. In what world is that incomplete?). I am unclear on how you rough a passer when there is an O-lineman still standing between the defender and the QB. Maybe the refs just decided to try an be merciful to the Ti-Cats for having to start Dolegala but it was not a very well officiated game. Just glad it did not impact the outcome.   

In the end we beat the crap out of a team that we were supposed to beat the crap out of. Would it have been different if Bo had played yes but 2014 also would have been different if Durant had not got hurt. Football is not always fair. All you can do is beat the team in front of you. Riders accomplished that and head into the bye with a 4-1 record. Other than a rash of injuries there is lots to be happy about so far.

Riders vs. RedBlacks: Rebound

Friday the Riders travel to Ottawa looking to get back in the win column against the winless RedBlacks. I am going to call this game the Saskatchewan Roughriders vs. the Ottawa Rough Riders. Ottawa’s jerseys are morphing back into the old Rough Rider jerseys and their current roster is half former Riders. Former players include Maier, Allen, Henderson, Reavis, Lauther, McEwen (technically) and Baldonado. Coaches Dinwiddie, Gibson and Tate are also former Riders. 

Up until halftime of the last game of both these teams, this was looking like an easy win for the Riders. But our injuries refuse to stop piling up and Ottawa’s offense finally figured out how not to be useless. So very quickly the complexion of Friday’s game has changed. We will soon be struggling to find 45 healthy bodies, let alone ones that display any kind of pro level football talent. 

Offensively we went from starting the week possibly starting every back-up reciever to actually being in pretty good shape and having all the usual starters. only difference will be seamlessly replacing the other Johnson with the third Johnson. Sexton steps in to return. There is justice in this world as Wiebe gets to stay on the roster. Conley gets another start at RB. With all 3 of our of top receivers in place we are in very good shape. It’s a sign of just how awful Ottawa was last season that they have dramatically improved the talent on their D (mostly by poaching Riders) and they are still not very good. They have allowed the most yards. They have the second worst run D. They have allowed the second most points. They have a so-so D-line, a pretty solid set of LBs and a not so great secondary. Their best DB is legitimately Amari Henderosn. You might recall him as the guy they get deemed expendable when Fields showed up (and we all know how much I love Fields). We know Conley has the ability to break big runs so let’s give him a bigger workload in game 2. Also, Ottawa has allowed a league high 10 passes over 30 yards (over 3 per game). Baker and Keesean should be in for big days. I have minimal faith in our defense (even against Maier) so we’ll need 30 points minimum from Harris. 

Defense had better do something this game. This is the worst offense in the CFL. Least points. Least yards. Most giveaways. Somehow the lowest completion percentage despite starting a QB who loves check downs more than Regina drivers love testing the flooded-out Alberts St underpass. Saad out is a definite loss to that DT rotation. But the Riders are tied for most sacks this season and other than Desjarlais Ottawa does not have a great OL so the pressure should still be there. If Jake Maier decides to be the guy we saw in the second half of last game then he has a ton of dangerous weapons at his disposal: Harty, Lewis, Pimpleton, Eberhart. Its sad that I’ve been reduced to being happy to see Lokombo starting at half. That does not mean he’s good, just less awful than Edouard. There is also a chance we see the Maier from the first 2.5 games who was so useless that a one-arm eunuch had a better chance of scoring. To be fair to Dru Brown, if a coach deemed me a shittier QB than Maier I would probably demand out too… though I’d like to think I’d ask to go somewhere better than Winnipeg. All of Maier’s INTs have come on deep balls so we need to take advantage if he tries to show off his arm. What we really need is some god damn tackling! Maier is going to find Harty over the middle we need to be able to bring him down before the 5^th try. 40% of all RedBlack drives are 2 and out. Jake Maier operates seemingly in slow motion. He’s a smart QB but needs time to make a decision. So our goal should be to hurry him. Force him into bad decisions and check downs. 

I unfortunately have to point out that Ottawa scored a return TD last week and we have been giving those up on a weekly basis. 

Ottawa is on a short week having played on Sunday, so even despite traveling we should be better rested. I expect our defense to make Maier look like the second coming of Ricky Ray but I expect us to counter with Harris throwing for 400 and 3 TDs. Our injury situation makes the game much close than it should be, but defense comes up with a rate turnover late in the game and we steal a win with a Hale FG that we all assume might not be good.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Partial Credit

Riders 34 – Argos 40

I will get into a lot more analysis but I can honestly simplify the results of Friday like this… we played a good team, didn’t show up at all in the first quarter, spotted them a 10 point lead and lost by 6. Its really that simple. Can’t beat good teams when only showing up for 3 quarters.  I will say that the Riders win as a team and they lose as a team. Everyone shares the blame on this: offense, defense, special teams and coaches. 

If you ignore the fact that I picked us to win, I pretty much nailed my game preview. Tons of points, tons of passing, Keesean had a big game and Wiebe scored (I’m pretty proud of that prediction). But I realize bragging about my predictions when I got the most important part wrong is like is like bragging about curing cancer when all you did was work on a research trial that did not find said cure. 

Offense continues to put up big points but their undoing was turnovers. Harris forced that endzone throw when it was not there. The other Johnson fumbled putting the final nail in our coffin. Obviously injuries played a factor (more on that later). But it was the turnovers and sleeping through the first quarter than did us in. Even down 2 starters we put up 4 TDs. Conley looked alright. A healthy Baker continues to be a treat to watch. My man Wiebe stepped up. I have been on the Wiebe hype train since training camp. I was dumfounded that he started the year on PR and Friday only further reinforced that. He is clearly a better receiver than Mimbs. I don’t think it will be long before he surpasses Busby. He needs to be on the roster.

I find it odd that my biggest concern coming into the season was the D-line and now they are about the only part of the D I am happy with. Each week they seem to get better and Friday’s 4 sack performance was great. Unfortunately that’s about where the compliments end. You should not lose a game when you offense scores 34 points. Clearly having Milligan would have changed things. Saying Milligan is an upgrade over Edouard is like saying steak is an upgrade over Spam that’s been left in the sun for 3 days. The thing is we expected Edouard to struggle, he’s a only playing HB because there is literally no one else. But what we were not expect is a team that tackles like they are playing flag football. This is super uncharacteristic for a Mace D. When you entire defensive philosophy is bend but don’t break you cannot afford missed tackles. Friday we were handing out missed tackles like samples at Costco. Our best pass defender was a goal post. 

Special teams contributed to the loss by allowing their second TD in as many weeks. Our defense is currently not good enough to have other phases of the game also allowing points.

Coaches contributed to the loss with stupid decisions. Mainly playing Emilus at returner. Mace is a great coach who has earned the benefit of the doubt but with due respect to him even though he defended the decision post game, it was objectively a stupid decision. There are exactly 3 players on offense more important than Emilus (your highest paid and best receiver): Haris, Ferland Hardrick. So literally anyone else would have made more sense. We know Wiebe can do it as we had him do it in preseason. Conley, Hudon, other Johnson, Mimbs, Runge, Fry, nobody… all better options. We lost our best receiver to injury because of a stupid coaching decision. He doesn’t make many but this was certainly one.

We managed to get outplayed by a team whose coach stupidly challenged a 3^rd and inches rather than just going for it only to stupidly kick a FG on 3^rd and inches rather than just going for it. We lost to that. 

My overly negative sentimonies aside its not all doom and gloom. We were close against a very good team and our offense is humming (when it chooses to play) but the streak of losing 2 starters per game is clearly starting to take its toll. Each injury makes it harder for this team to overcome the mistakes it makes. We needed to play error-free ball on Friday and could not. And we will need to continue doing that until our injury list starts shrinking. 

Other random thoughts:

-       Play Daniel Wiebe!! All this guy does is make plays. #FreeWiebe

Riders vs. Argos: “Road” Game

Friday the Riders travel to… Regina for a… “road” game against the 1-1 Argos. The Riders will be wearing their much-hyped Prairie Blizzard jerseys. The hype was much like me promising my wife an all night love session she will never forget only to give her the standard 2 mins tops. They aren’t bad jerseys, just very meh… they are the same old jerseys with white numbers. 

My fashion criticisms aside, if you are a fan of offense you should like this game. It’s the top 2 offenses going head to head. Legitimately could come down to who has the ball last. Prepare your hearts accordingly. 

The Argo offense is averaging a ridiculous 37 points per game. It seems whether its on or off the field Kelly has no problem making passes with reckless abandon. I do not love facing a QB throwing 400 yards per game with a stacked receiver group featuring Coxie, Polk, Mital and Ungerer with a 3^rd string Canadian playing halfback. The Argos have a strong OL, particularly at the interior. But also on and off the field, Kelly’s reckless passes have consequences. The Argos have 8 giveaways. Kelly has personally thrown almost half of all INTs in the CFL this season. He loves his arm and has the deepest average depth of pass. We need to find a way to get pressure on him and we need to limit the deep shots. We have only allowed one pass over 30 yards so that’s good. We also need to get turnovers… something that we have failed to do even once this season. Mace and Bell have their work cut out for them trying to piece together this secondary. They will need to be as creative as our accountants at year end (“financial loss” my ass!). 

We will need Harris’ hot streak to continue. I don’t like our odds of keeping the Argos out of the endzone. I think we need 30 points minimum to even have a chance. Ouelette is out. I expect Hudon to get the bulk of the reps due to his pass blocking. I am excited to see what Conley can do. Fortunately we match up well with the Argos. They have the #1 run D but the #8 pass D. Take the over on Harris passing yards. The Argos do lead the CFL in takeaways so we need to be safe with the ball. If we can maintain possession and continue leaning on our big 3 receivers we should be ok. Not sure why, but this strikes me as a big KeeSean game. The best way to help our D is keep them off the field with long methodical drives.

Hale needs a bounce back game but I have been happy with the punting of Chapman. Though we’d all be happier to not see him on the field much. Last year a big return from Mario Alford sealed the Argo game… be a great time for Letcher to make his presence known. 

A key in this game could be second down. Offensively we lead the league with a 62% second down conversion rate. Defensively we also lead the lead allowing just a 44% conversion rate. 

This is by far the best offense we have faced on the young season. I have next to zero trust in Edouard, maybe the other 4 guys can do enough to compensate. At some point our mounting injuries will become too much to overcome. This game will be a test but I think we find a way to squeeze out another ugly win. 

Bold prediction, Harris to Wiebe on with under a minute for a game winning TD. 

Please avoid the temptation of talking about the power or supremacy of our jerseys.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Slaying the Stamps

Riders 40 – Stampeders 37 (OT)

Saturday was one hell of an emotional ride. It went from we are going to pound them, to we are going to blow this, to maybe we won’t blow this, to we definitely are going to blow this, to a victory that was never in doubt. I could have done without pretty much everything that happened between the halfway point of the second Q and the second OT but the end result was a hard fought road victory and a 2-0 record. For the record in my pre-game write up I did say “I think we can grind out an ugly road win in Alberta.” And “Riders by a Tommy time TD”. 

Had we lost that game, we would have had no one to blame but ourselves. We dominated the first half with the exception of 2 plays. We fumbled on our own 14 yard line and gave up a missed FG return TD to end the half. Take those 2 plays away and we go to the locker-room up 23-0. That should have been an easy win but we decided to make it hard (both on ourselves and my heart). We played a decent 3^rd quarter and then seemed to reward ourselves by taking the 4^th off completely. Fortunately we decided OT was worth showing up for. 

Offense has put up 71 points over 2 games. Most Rider fans can remember times where 71 seemed like a more realistic target for points in an entire season. Harris played another great game. He forced it at times (mostly to the other Johnson for some reason), and overthrew a couple. But other than his customary old man nap in the 4^th you have to be pretty happy with the level he is playing at this season. O-line did very well against a strong Calgary pass rush. Until Ouelette got hurt we had pretty good balance of the run. A healthy Baker remains a dangerous man (he’s on pace for a very realistic 2600 yards this season) and the combination of him, Emilus and Keesean is tough to contain. Mueller and Harris are dialed in on the same page and it leading to great things offensively so far in 2026. 

The fire power our offense displays makes what happened in the 4^th all the more infuriating. We had 4 drives that quarter. In those drives, this high octane offense managed 3 completions, 2 first downs, 18 net yards and 4 punts. One  solitary drive would have sealed that game and we could not manage it. 

Seems counterintuitive to praise the defense when the opponents score 37 but the scoreboard does not do that unit justice. They completely shut down VA and the Stamps in the first half. The only TD’s given up were when Harris coughed the ball up on the doorstep of our own endzone and when our kicker didn’t do his job. Through 3 quarters of play they allowed one FG when given a full field to work with. We got pressure. Linebackers were flying around. They played exceptionally well. Things went down hill in the 4^th but they received zero support from our offense and lost yet another starting HB. They battled their hearts out without our best defensive player. You may look at the stats and lament that we let Mills get over 100 yards rushing but we held him to 30 yards through 3 quarters. He got 62 in the 4^th and 11 more in OT. Much like the offense, D played great in everything but the 4^th quarter. What I find most impressive is that normally Mace’s defense relies on sacks and turnovers. We largely held Calgary’s offense in check without relying on either. Just solid defensive play.

On special teams Letcher is good. Hale is lucky that we like our other American’s on the roster too much to bench them in a favour of a better kicker.

While I do not like all the drama and 4^th quarter disappearing act, what I do like is that this team is built to overcome this. For many years this is the type of game the Riders would have choked away. But under the leadership of Mace and Harris, there is a calm confidence that they can fight through whatever adversity arises. This team believes they can win and won’t just fold when things don’ go their way. They are also blessed with a coach who is not an idiot. Why on earth Dave Dickenson chose to go against the most basic of CFL strategy and take the ball second in OT is beyond me. 

The current pace of sacrificing multiple starters per week to injury list is not going to sustainable for much longer but for now the Riders remain a team that is going to be tough to beat. Starting the year with 2 big division wins is massive. Ugly wins count the same as pretty ones.

Other random thoughts:

-       Sacks may not be there but each week I am more reassured watching our rebuilt D-line. They are consistently getting pressure. Missed tackles have taken a few sacks off the board but then again we have played 2 of the hardest QBs to wrangle to start the season.

-       Love watching Aubrey Miller on special teams.

-       I agree that there was not enough evidence to rule that play in OT a  VA fumble but the only reason that VA was in a throwing motion was that our defenders arm hit his hand in that exact direction.

-       I don’t get how anyone (cough Stamp fans and coaches cough) were mad at that OPI call on Brooks. He literally had our DB in an armbar.

-       Definitely saw the inexperience of Bell in OT. He blew his coverage being too aggressive on trying to make a play. If he can find the righ balance of his natural agressiveness and being smart about when he uses it, he is going to be a solid player.

-       Both BC and Calgary are 0-2 and they play each other next week so one is going to start the season 0-3.    

Riders vs. Stampeders: Clash in Cowtown

Saturday the Riders travel to Calgary looking to remain undefeated and looking to keep the Stamps winless. In 2025 the Riders accomplished pretty much everything… except a victory over the Stampeders. The Stamps will prove a very different kind of challenge, mainly in the fact that unlike BC they aren’t starting to woefully inexperienced corners and anything resembling a receiver is not hurt.

Stamps are a weird team. Coming into 2025 they did not strike anyone as one of the dominant forces. But they should have easily won the west based on how they started… they finished 3^rd.

One thing that is no joke about them is their D-line. In game 1 they only had Hicks, and he was disruptive. They are likely to add in one or both of Hutchinson and Orimolade to that. Suddenly that becomes a problem. They had issues stopping the run against Winnipeg. Their secondary is better than BC. In a year where 400 yard passing games are the norm, they are one of the few to hold a team under that mark. The best way to negate a dominant pass rush is to limit how much you pass. So unlike the air show that was last week, I expect a heavy dose of Ouelette (and probably Hudon as well). That’s where I would attack first. That said, when your receivers include Emilus, Baker and Keesean it’s not like you need to be afraid of passing. Getting the ball out quickly (aka the Harris special) is also an effective way to neutralize a strong D-line. I see lots of runs and short crossers in this. Get the ball out quick and let your playmakers get extra yards. 

Calgary has a great run game in Mills (last year’s leading rusher). But in a league where 400 passing games are the norm, they have failed to even eclipse 300 yards. In fact, VA completed just 63% of his passes and was sacked 4 times (11% of all his drop backs). The book on VA is not a secret. When he’s on he looks like an unbeatable force. When he’s off, it makes people think maybe Chris Jones was right for relegating him behind Brandon Bridge on our depth chart (Jones was of course not right but the point remains). So the key is obviously get VA off his game. We don’t have a one-man game wrecker like Ceresna (who notched 3 of the 4 sacks on VA) so it will take a team effort from the front 4 to make his life miserable. They should get pressure against that Calgary OL. Begelton is still out and it does not look like Barnes is ready yet so Calgary essentially has one good receiver in Philpot. Given that we are replacing our best defender with a rookie HB that’s welcome news for us. Stop the run and get pressure on VA and I don’t like the odds of Tevin Jones shredding us for big yards. Just limit the big plays.  If you force VA to make long drawn out drives, the odds of bad-VA making an appearance go up.

After what seemed like a lifetime of Hus never missing a game or snap we are now on our 2^nd long snapper in as many games. He’s another vet so it should be ok. 

Normally a road game missing 2 defensive starters does not scream “likely win” to me. But Calgary does not have a great passing attack so if we can keep Hicks and Hutchinson from killing Harris on O and limit Mills on D then I think we can grind out an ugly road win in Alberta. Expect a slow start but a strong finish. 

Riders by a Tommy time TD.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Still On Top

Riders 31 – Lions 27

As noted philosopher Ric FLair famously said, to be the man you gotta beat the man. The general consensus coming into this season was that the Grey Cup was BC’s to lose… well Saturday the Riders made a statement that they aren’t ready relinquish the top spot without a fight. 

If you would have told me prior to the game that there would be a scenario where we needed Lokombo to play halfback I would have bet heavily against us. If you had told me that later in that same game a scenario would arise where Lokombo was no longer playing half and I wished he was, I would have openly wept. But Mace has built this team to be gritty and resilient and it took all of that to down a very good BC team. 

This one was all about the offense. Oh man can Trevor Harris dish the ball when he is fully healthy! He was hitting windows that should not have been there. He was finding guys wide open. He also got bailed out a couple times by his receivers, like when he just floated a prayer into triple coverage and Emilus managed to come down with it. Over 400 yards, over 80% completion, 3 TDs, we punted twice. Old man Harris still got game. That drive from our own 2 was a thing of beauty. Last season we had very limited times when Keesean, Emilus and Baker were all healthy. Saturday showed what a problem those 3 can be when they are on the field together. For a while Emilus was on pace for 72 receptions for 72 TDs this season and while he slacked in the second half and let that pace drop to 54 TDs he’s still a force to be reckoned with. O-line held a very strong BC pass rush relatively in check. Marc Mueller called a great game. All around a great offensive performance in a game where we needed to put up points. The offense was actually one of our primary defensive contributors. Turns out even for a guy as talented as Rourke its tough to score when you don’t have the ball. Our offense kept the ball out of his hands. Through the first 17 minutes of the game Rourke was able to get 1 drive consisting of 6 plays… that was it. 

I need to see more of our defense before I can make my mind up about them. They looked okay but certainly not great. Kinda like a 3am booty call… it got the job done but probably not something you are bragging about. But I am also mindful that they faced one of the best offenses in the CFL, without their best defender for a large portion of the game. Pass rush was not super disruptive. The ends kept contain pretty good and did get some pressure. But again is that a mediocre D line or is that a product of facing the O-line that gave up the least sack last season? I need to see more before I know for sure. But I give the D full credit they grinded out a win and made plays when it mattered most. I think Evans will be OK at edge. Obviously the sight of Milligan in a sling is not great. Hopefully he’s out too long. I will say this, for all the hype about Nathan Rourke and all the talk about what a great offensive mind Buck Pierce is Exume came into the game at corner in the 4^th and they did not test him at all. Even when Keon Hatcher (a guy who put up 1600 yards last season) was lined up on him. In what world is there a better read than that? 

Alex Hale (aka the CFL’s Rodrigo Blankenship) was mostly OK for a debut. I was perfectly happy through most of the first half when I didn’t know whether or not we dressed a punter because he was not required.

Overall a strong opening game from the defending champs. Very strong on offense. Hard fought effort for a depleted defense. We picked up a very crucial win against a division rival that is likely to be fighting us for top spot in the standings. Great way to start 2026. 

Other random thoughts:

-        I really hope 2026 doesn’t end up like 2008. As the defending champs we started that season 6-0 but it cost us a starting player to injury every week to the point where we were so desperate we had to bring in Michael Boshop. I don’t know what the modern day version of Bishop is but I’d prefer no to find out.

-        It was clear that the concessions could have benefits from a preseason game to work the kinks out. This was an actual conversation I had while attempting to get drinks:

o   Me: I’ll have 2 rye diets

o   Cashier: The pop gun isn’t working, I don’t think I can do diet.

o   M: Ok, how about regular Pepsi?

o   C: (Attempts pop gun) that also appears not to be working?

o   M: what can you put in there?

o   C: Ginger ale

o   M: Perfect, do that

o   C: Turns out ginger ale is also not working.

o   M: Just give me a beer.

-        By all accounts tailgating was a huge success. Look forward to seeing that evolve and grown.

-        In what I can only assume is thanks to my efforts to lobby for the Riders to come up to my section, they came and handed out direct west footballs in my section. I mean the lady came with exactly 3 footballs but a win is a win.

-        I remain appalled at how terrible people are at Price is Right strategy. Fortunately the person won but it was in spite of an awful bet.

-        How badly do you think Dhonte Myers wanted to get in on the aerial assault Harris was launching?