Monday Morning Sentimonies: Semi Final Thouhgts

I'd like to say that my effort level has dropped off now that the Riders are as relevant to the playoff picture as the band Len is to the current music scene, but regular readers will realize that I use the term "Monday Morning" Sentimonies rather loosely even on my good days.

Even though the Riders aren't in the mix, as a football fan, I was still interested in the East and West Semi. Here are my random thoughts on the games

- I was hoping for 7 OTs and 100 points on the board in the East-Semi. Holy points Batman! When you have 2 of the worst secondaries in the league go head to head, I guess that's what you get.

- Eric Deslauriers is irrelevant 95% of the year but always seems to sneak his way into the biggest TDs.

- How unbelievably painful did those splits Whitaker did look? I know I cringed. If that would have been me I would have retired on the spot.

- How do they keep finding records Calvillo hasn't yet broken?

- A very telling sign that your employment is in jeopardy is when you can be easily replaced by Luc Mullinder in a do or die playoff game. Enjoy free agency Stevie Baggs.


- Who was that long haired hippy playing defense for the Als? I have watched a lot of football this season and have never seen him... and you don't miss hair that

- As much as I would have loved to have seen Henry Burris sit on the sidelines while Tate led the Stamps on a long playoff run, seeing Burris completely blow the opportunity to be a hero is a damn nice consolation prize. That was a vintage Burris playoff choke. I also love how, sure of himself Henry still is. According to him he is still on MOP and doesn't want to stand on the sidelines because he's earned the right to play.... Well actually Henry you earned the right to be on the bench because you sucked, repeatedly. Good QBs don't get benched. By contrast you got benched and are headed either for unemployment or Toronto (which is much worse).

Who To Cheer For

The past few years the Riders have been in the playoffs right to the bitter end so I haven't really had to think about cheering for a non-Rider team in the playoffs in a long time. Now it's generally blasphemy to cheer for a team other than your own in an 8 team league but it just so happens that blasphemy in my specialty. I need to do something to keep things interesting (other than gambling on the games of course). But once I started to think  about it the task of choosing a team to cheer for became extremely difficult. I am a very biased man filled with hatred for various things so picking somehting I like (or a t least hate the least) is tough. So I'll have to do this by process of elimination.

I'll start off with an easy one a scratch the Stamps off the list. I hate them to the core. While it would bring me satisfaction to see Henry watch from the bench as a better QB wins it all, I just can't bring myself to cheer for them. F#@& the Stamps!

I'll also scracth Montreal off the list. I have nothing in particular against them and think that Whitaker and Richardson are among the best in the league (and that old QB of theirs ain't bar either) but I'm tired of them winning and need some variety. Le boo to the Als I say.

Normally I would be jumping on the Hamilton bandwagon but a) that bandwagon is headed for disappointment again and b) it would be a crime against all that is good in football for Marcel Bellfeuille to lead a team to a championship. For the good of the game, boo Hamilton.

By default I guess that means I'm backing the Bombers out of the East. Not particularly happy with that but its the lesser of 3 evils. I will cheer only for their defense though since I can't live in a world where Buck Pierce leads a team to the Cup.

That narrows it to a choice between the Esks and Lions in the West. I like watching BC play but I can't bring myself to cheer for Buono so I guess once again by default I'm left with the Esks.

So congratulations Bombers and Esks by virtue of me hating you the least you have earned my support. Based on the cataclysmic fall of the Riders, Vikings (and pretty much any team I cheer for) though, I would caution you that my support not be something you really want.

Taman Time

Today (to no ones surprise) the Riders announced that GM Brendan Taman would be retained a given full power over football operations. To me it was the definition of doing the right things, the wrong way.
I don’t think anyone would dispute that our structure last season was ridiculous and needed to be addressed. Even Helen Keller could have seen the problems for how obvious they were. So the fact that the Rider have decided to return to a structure where the GM has full control over football operations (as opposed to having him report through a made up position) and full authority to hire his own coach (as opposed to being forced to sign some bum that nobody else wanted) is a good one.

But while what we are doing is right, the way we are doing it defies logic in so many ways. I’ll preface this by saying that I do not like Taman. I have never liked Taman. I think he is a horrible choice as GM. Just look at this top 10 I made when we first made him GM in name only. I’ll admit that a fair bit of the blame for the mess over the past year plus resides with Ken Miller as he had the final say and vetoed some of Taman’s ideas. But just because Ken Miller was a really bad football operations guy, it doesn’t mean that Taman is suddenly good.

Do I think Brendan Taman is the worst guy we could have hired as GM? No, that would be Danny Maccioccia. But to me he represents the ultimate mediocre at best hire. This used to be a team committed to excellence… and Taman is far from an excellent GM (I challenge someone to try and argue that he is). We are settling for the pudgy girl with low self esteem instead of going after the prom queen. Just ask Sean Connery

And even if you think that Taman is a good GM (you’re wrong but its fun to pretend), it makes no sense to leave him on a one year contract when we need to hire a new head coach. What kind of message does it send to perspective coaching candidates when the man who will hire them might be gone by the end of next season? We are just coming off a gong show of a season and now we can’t even ensure stability past one year and we think that the CFL’s best and brightest will be lining up to come here? Sound logic right there. So if we are really that certain that Taman is qualified to do this job why not lock him up for 3 years and at least make some commitment to our new coaches? It would kill me to live through 3 more years of Taman but this one year GM thing defies logic. We will likely be able to find a decent coach with this set up but I doubt we find an excellent coach.

So I hope you like mediocrity… its Taman’s specialty.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: And That’s The End Of That Chapter

Riders 20 – Eskimos 23

The 2011 Roughrider season ended in the most fitting fashion possible on Friday... with an embarrassing blunder. That play typified what kind of year it was for the green and white. Considering that it was meaningless game for us against a team fighting tooth and nail for a home playoff game, we actually turned in a decent performance... or maybe Edmonton just sucked. Either way it was a fair fight (well aside from Adarius Bowman who accounted for over half of the Esks offense).

In no particular order (other than the order they popped into my head) here are some thoughts I had on the game

-       Nice to see Getzlaf get 1000 yards and 10 TDs. I still marvel at just how amazing he could be if he learned to catch consistently

-       Speaking of catching consistently, evidently Richie Hall still assumed Adarius Bowman was incapable of it.

-       Look closely on all of Bowman’s big plays and you will see Sean Lucas in the trail position. He is flat out awful! I can’t believe we signed him to a new 6 figure salary this year when he was playing like this last year too.

-       The crossing route remains the natural enemy of the Richie Hall defense. After all these years he still hasn’t figured it out.

-       Wes Cates had his customary strong performance to end the season. He had me chanting “Four more years!”

-       Sadly given how in a meaningless game we gave old man Cates all the carries, none to West and didn’t even dress Bernard... I think we might be planning on starting him for 4 more years.

-       On that note, glad to see Cole Bergquist get his customary randomly placed series per half. Those 5 reps really let us get a good evaluation of him.

-       As for our other QB, while he did accomplish something that had eluded us since September (a passing TD, as sad as that is) I still think we are wasting our time with him. He will never be a starting calibre QB. If you look back on his last 2 starts, Dinwiddie has 2 plays throw it deep or run. He has no short or medium game, and he’s not very good at the long game that he insists on relying on.

-       I have to admit though that Dinwiddie did provide me with the most entertaining series of events from that game. First he scrambles out and gets run out of bounds and slips and falls on his ass. Then he reams out his receivers (rightly so) for not attempting to get open. His receiver then gives him a shove to the face and the 2 have to be separated. Next series, Dinwiddie forces a pass into double coverage looking for Baker... comedy writers couldn’t come up with stuff this good.

-       The one position where do seem willing to give young guys some meaningful playing time is O-line. Neufeld and Groh both got significant reps which was great to see.

And thus ends an awful season that we all hope to wipe from our memory. We have an eventful offseason coming our way, we need to sort out our GM position, hire a new coach, pursue some of our free agents (Freeman, Fantuz and Shologan top the list) and begin to build this team back into a contender (and not just one for blooper of night honours).

Thanks for sticking with me through another season and please stick around throughout the offseason because I will be posting regularly right through to next year.

Riders vs. Eskimos: Last Call For Miller Time

The 2011 Rider season will mercifully end tonight when they face the Eskimos. As much as i would love to believe that there is one more bit of Miller magic left for us, I highly doubt it.

Edmonton is playing for a chance at first, we are playing for pride. Besides we haven't managed to beat Rikcy Ray yet and now we will have to do it with Sean Lucas, 2 rookies and Patrick playing out of position. Him and Stamps should carve us up. And even if they don't Messam will plough over us repeatedly. Not to mention the fact that we will once again be relying on Ryan Dinwiddie, that always turns out well. We still inexplicably refuse to give Cole a chance. Oh well what can you do?

I just hope we turn in another respectable performance and play with some pride.

Esks by a lot.

Reflecting on Ken Miller

Friday will make the final game (this time for real) in the Coach Miller era of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He announced this week that he would be retiring completely at the end of the season. Given how this season turned out, many will be glad to see him go but there is no denying that Miller has etched his place among the greats in Roughrider history.

I will always find Ken Miller’s story completely fascinating. His meteoric rise from complete unknown to legendary coach followed by a fall from grace with a brief revival thrown in there for good measure… all at an age where most others are planning winter trips to Arizona, yelling at cashiers who no longer accept cheques and having difficulty remembering even simple things. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Miller arrived here in 2007 as part of Kent Austin’s coaching staff. Though he was our OC, he was so anonymous and behind the scenes that most people just thought some old guy decided to move his mall walking to the football field.  Despite playing a large role in a potent offense that led us to a Grey Cup victory, few people probably knew who he was at the time.

That all changed the day he was chosen to replace Austin as our head coach. Some thought we were crazy. Who appoints a 67 year man with no prior pro head coaching experience to lead the defending champions? Well Miller quickly proved them wrong and what ensued were some of the most memorable seasons I’ve had as a Rider fan.

Some of the games that will stick out from Miller’s time behind the bench include:

-       The amazing 6-0 start in 2008 where despite a ridiculous string of broken legs.

-       Finishing that year 12-6 despite being forced to play such renowned talents as Dek Bake, Henri Childs, Vincent Marshall and the trainwreck that is Michael Bishop.

-       The 2009 game in Calgary where Getzlaf scored that long game winning TD

-       The 2009 OT win over BC where James Patrick picked off BC in the endzone

-       The final game of 2009 where we clinched first place for the first time since 1976

-       The ’09 West Final

-       The infamous Double OT Shootout with Montreal last year

-       The WSF where Clermont sealed it in OT

-       The West Final

Miller never had the best players but he consistently had the best team. He found a way to get the absolute most out of his players. When he retires Miller’s resume will include a winning regular season record, 3 consecutive playoff appearances, 2 consecutive Grey Cup appearances, a Grey Cup ring as an OC (as well as another one as an assistant with the Argos), 3 nominations for Coach of the Year. As I said accomplishing all of this while in his late 60s is truly spectacular.

His legacy will no doubt be tarnished by how miserably he performed as our VP of Football Operations. He was quite clearly not qualified for the position and our team has suffered as a result of his appointment to that position. That said while you can question his abilities as VP you certainly can’t question his commitment (just ask Rob Vanstone :) ). I truly believe that Miller poured his heart and soul into that position just as he did with coaching. He gave it his all every day and for that he will always have my respect.

So while I wholeheartedly agree that his departure is necessary, you certainly can’t discredit what Miller accomplished here over the past 5 years. He was a special coach and we were lucky to have him.

Enjoy your retirement Coach Miller. You have earned it.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: We Won?

Riders 19 – Ti-cats 3

Well that was unexpected. Evidently I overestimated how much the Ti-Cats cared about this game. Turns out they didn’t. Evidently neither did the majority of Regina. Not only did a large chunk of fans decided not to come at all, we also didn’t even bother with the giant Canada flag at midfield (though it did strike me as odd that we sent out a group of people anyway to just stand there.)

Let me just start right out by addressing Ryan Dinwiddie since I have already have people bug me about how we won with him at QB. While that is technically accurate, Dinwiddie had about as much to do with the victory as my decision to wear 2 pairs of socks did. He completed 7 passes… 7! Might as well just direct snapped to West on every play for how useful our passing game was. Also, how many TDs did Dinwiddie score? Oh that right, 0. The closest thing to a compliment that you can say about Dinwiddie’s play is that he didn’t turn the ball over… which is hardly surprising when you don’t pass the ball (though to be fair Durant did accomplish the feat).
As for our other QB, was anyone else as confused about how we used him as me? We just randomly inserted him in the game for token appearances. He got on series at a random point in the first quarter, a QB plunge and was also sent on to run the direct snap to Hughes play… where all he did was line up and then get out of the way (evidently Diniwiddie didn’t get a chance to practice that one). Did Bergquist sleep with Miller’s granddaughter or something? Because he seems to be going out of his way not to give Cole a chance.
Well that’s enough ranting on what I didn’t like now on to the stuff I did like… I mean we did win after all:

- What a punt by Milo! As Media Consultant pointed out, it would taken Boreham 6 kicks to get it that far. Apologies to anyone who likes Luca Congi (Mrs Prophet included)… I think his job security is in a wee bit of jeopardy

- Jerrell Freeman hits 100 tackles and notches another sack in the process. The guy is ridiculous… can’t believe he was discovered in bowels of Div 3 NCAA.

- It’s a pleasant turn of events to see fake kicks benefiting us as opposed to last year when they were killing us.

- Nice to finally, finally, finally see some meaningful playing time for Chris Graham, Patrick Neufeld and Alex Krausnick-Groh. If only we could extend this logic to our QB.

- It may have been due to the fact that we couldn’t pass to save our soul but it was nice to finally witness what can happen when we commit to running the ball. I swear West got more rushing attempts on Saturday than Cates has had since Labour Day. Low and behold good things happened.

- Another game without Sean Lucas, another resounding success defensively. This is so far beyond being a coincidence at this point.

- How funny was Stevie Baggs’ over the top celebration after a tackle in a game where his team was getting embarrassed?

- I initially lamented the fact that we left new receivers Freddy Barnes and LJ Castile off the active roster but since we didn’t really complete any passes there wouldn’t have been any value in having them out there anyways.

- Holy picks Batman! Our DBs almost had as many receptions as our receivers.

- Poor Medlock had no chance on that punt, turned pass attempt, turned embarrassing tackle for a loss. Good work Rowe.

- Notice how much difference a little bit of youth being injected into the defense has made in their overall play?

- I honestly saw some people leave after the first quarter. Why would you just not stay home if you were just going to leave that quickly?

Huge shout out to all the old Rider fans! I noticed that when the bandwagon emptied the majority of the young people left with it leaving being the folks that have supported this team through stretches far worse than the on we are currently on. They are true fans and have my utmost respect.

Was the game a good one? Not really. Did the weather suck? Yes but then I’ve sat through worse. But hey a win is a win. I just glad to see that the players still care. We get one more game this year and I say you should tune in, it may be the last chance you get to see future hall of famer Gene Makowsky in green and white. It will also, god willing, be the last chance to see Ryan Dinwiddie in green and white. (Fingers crossed)

***Edit turns out it will also be the last chance to see Ken Miller as he just announced his retirement. I’ll have more on that tomorrow***