Riders vs. Eskimos: Round 3

Last weekend was a test… the Riders passed with flying colours. They proved they can win the tough games. This week they need to make a statement that that can win the games they are supposed to. Let’s be honest the Esks are a terrible team and taking advantage of that and winning both of our remaining contests with them is a necessity to secure a home playoff game.  For any hope at first we need to win out and hope Calgary loses once more (presumably to BC since the Esks have about as much chance of beating the Stamps as Jacksonville has of beating the Broncos this weekend).

The Esks come into this game with just 3 wins, none of which have come against the west. They beat the Bombers twice and Hamilton once but that was in week 2 back before Kent Austin had got his team all figured out... it was also before he re-discovered razors. They have no chance of making the playoffs, there are rumours floating around that Rick Campbell may be set to replace Kavis and quite frankly watching their last game the team just gave up. They are saying all the right things in front of the camera but truthfully, much like a prostate exam, they can’t wait for this painful experience to be over. It’s as if the schedule makers have dumped a battered corpse on our front step. But humanitarianism be damned… we need to continue kicking them while they are down and maybe give them a Macho Man style flying elbow drop for good measure.

As awful as they have been I don’t expect the Esks to be a pushover. Their offense remains unchanged from previous meetings, they rely solely on Reilly airing out. That wouldn’t be such a terrible plan except for the fact that they have a dreadfully bad O-line and a recently concussed QB willing to take way many hits. We have one of the most dangerous pass rushes in the league (we already have 47 sacks after notching just 34 last year) and just added to top sack getter in the CFL. Not sure why the Esks are willing to sacrifice their franchise QB in a meaningless game but our DL will say thank you and plant him on his ass all night. Outside of Reilly's scrambling, they have no run game to speak of. They average 61 yards rushing per game if you exclude Reilly’s production. If you look back at our recent losing streak, the lack of a run game made us one dimensional and lead to turnovers aplenty and low scoring. Well that has been the story for the Esks all year so it should be no surprise that they are 2^nd last in scoring and giveaways. Reilly is a hell of a player and Stamps is too good not too make plays but overall our defense should eat this group alive, even without Weldon Brown and Rod Williams. Esks will move the ball but between sacks and turnovers will struggle to score.

I heard people pumping up the Esks defense this week saying they are playing better of late but I think that’s ridiculous. In their last 3 games they have allowed 47, 35 and 27 points… and the 27 was to freaking Winnipeg. This unit has allowed the 2^nd most points. They, more than the O, visibly gave up last week. The stat I love the most… they have the worst run defense in the League averaging over 130 yards per game and allow more rushing TDs than anyone. Assuming Sheets in done waddling like a penguin he should have a massive day. BC is a far superior D to Edmonton so if we keep a similar game plan as last week (run lots, use quick passes, take shots selectively) we should score more than we did last week. With how good our D has been playing all we need to do on O is not turn the ball over and make life easy on Edmonton. If we can get up early I expect the Esks D to once again start checking out.

If all that wasn’t enough to convince you that we should win add in the fact that the Esks take the most penalty yards of anyone (and here I thought the CONSEQUENCES would have sorted that out) and their kicking game is terrible. Hugh O’Neil will likely not play… though I’m still unsure if that decision is related to performance or provincially mandated delousing.

We can’t afford to overlook this game despite the temptation but assuming we come out focused and play our game, the Esks will have no chance. We beat them twice at Commonwealth when they still had hope. Now back in front of the raucous Mosaic faithful with hope all but gone…

Riders by 16

Sponsored Video: The Hand by 8.6 Bavaria

Here's a new commercial for 8.6 Bavaria. It features a hand made of Bavaria beer cans doing a whole bunch skateboard tricks. It seems to be based on the theory that by showing alcoholic products along with rock music it will make people inherently crave their product. It's just missing scantily clad women to hit for the cycle.

I think the makers of this commercial may have indulged in a few of their own product before making this but either way you should check it out. 

Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by Bavaria, but all thoughts are my own

Monday Morning Senitmonies: Did Not See That Coming

Riders 31 – Lions 17

Based on the fact that the Riders wore all white and Lions all black I had to reject a few potential headlines for today such as White Supremacy and Whites steal one from Blacks for a change.

Friday the Riders we had grown accustomed to in the early part of the season made a surprise appearance. You know the ones that have an offense, run the ball, can contend with any team in the league, take advantage of inexperienced QBs… and most importantly, win.

Offensively obviously getting Sheets back was a huge boost. But our offensive game plan as a whole was better. Short passes, quick hitters, hot routes, using the RB in the pass game. We were just way less predictable. Not surprisingly that made life easier on our OL and kept the BC D from dictating the terms of play to us. For us to come out on the road on a short week like that it pretty impressive. It was far from a perfect night and many plays were left on the field but our O once again showed they have the ability to score… more than once too. BC has a very good defense so hats off to Cortez, Durant and the whole O for proving that the past month is no reflective of what this offense is capable of.

While I loved seeing Sheets back in here doing his thing (pretty darn good for his first game in a month), seeing him waddle off the field like a penguin was about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I hope I wasn’t the only one saying “It’s too hot out for a penguin just to be walking around. We gotta get you back to the zoo.”. I can laugh because it was only cramping, I was damn near in tears when he first went down.

Defense yet again did great considering how our starting group changes every week. 5 sacks, 3 picks, less than 20 points allowed. Scary to think how good this unit would be with Rey, Weldon and Macho all healthy. Rod Williams looked great for being back in the CFL for 3 days. His conditioning is obviously lagging but he was a huge improvement over the likes of Russ and Miller. Butler had a solid game. That pick was something else! Foley looked particularly jacked up. I thought we did a good job of shutting down Andrew Harris but man if I was a BC fan I would be livid at Chapdelaine for how little he was used.

Return game even had an extra bounce in its step. Love having Sanders back in the mix. Milo needs to be better. Let’s just hope he’s getting this crap outta the way before November.

Overall it was a great game. Team came out on the road fired up and playing great on both sides of the ball. With all the talent on this team that’s all we need to come away with wins. Hopefully we can build on this and start playing our best ball down the stretch.

The Riders weren’t done making news with the win. They also make waves by trading for CFL sack leader Alex Hall. Rider also get a 2^nd rounder and send OL Pat Neufeld and a 4^th rounder to Winnipeg. While adding a DE as good as Alex Hall is never a bad thing, I’m not really sure why we made the move. With Chick and Foley, pass rush was hardly an area of weakness. Not sure how much of an impact this will have. Certainly won’t be negative but to give up depth along the OL (yes I consider Neufeld depth, not a starter… but a solid 6^th OL) is a ballsy move, especially when we aren’t addressing an area of weakness and only getting an American for 7 games tops. In case you needed a reminder, Taman is gambling all in on this year. Next year be damned. Let’s hope the gamble pays off.

Are You Smarter Than A Toddler - Week 15 Picks

Here are the Prophet Family picks for Week 15:

Prophet Jr. - Toronto, Saskatchewan, Edmonton, Calgary
Step-Prophet - Hamilton, Saskatchewan, Montreal Calgary
Rider Prophet - Toronto, BC, Edmonton, Calgary
Mrs. Prophet - Hamilton, Saskatchewan, Montreal Calgary
Momma Prophet - Toronto, Saskatchewan, Montreal, Calgary

Riders vs. Lions: Make It Stop!

You know it’s a sad state of affairs in Riderville when the best news of the week is our QB uttering profanity on Twitter towards idiots. Good for Durant I say, given all the crap he takes he should be allowed to call out the most idiotic of his detractors. But if he was going to drop and F bomb and incur a fine he should have at least made it worth his while and swore at a few more while he was at it.

Alas, the action on the field is nowhere near as entertaining as the action off. We are mired in a depressing 4 game losing streak that has the fans questioning everything from the players to whether we should be getting better production from our water boys. We haven’t won since Labour Day, forgive us for being a bit cranky (or in my case drunk). The initial outlook is not good this week either as we have to travel to BC Place (a stadium we have no won in since July of 2010) to play the Lions. Be forewarned neighbours: Friday night football plus rye plus Rider losses in BC tend lead to rage filled tirades emanating from the Prophet household.

I really shouldn’t feel this down on our team. A solitary TD more in each of our previous 3 games and we would be 11-2. It’s not like we are getting blown out. Our injury ravaged defense is still playing some solid ball. It’s just our offense that blows. You’d have a better chance of scoring by calling Quest than with our offense of late. The one glimmer of hope is that Kory Sheets is back (cue choir singing Alleluia!). In case you forgot just how good this guys is, he still leads the league in rushing despite not playing in close to 3 games. While I don’t expect him to single handedly win us the game in his first action in close to a month, hopefully his presence will at least encourage Cortez to consider running occasionally. Since he went down teams have been able to ignore the RB and focus purely and pass coverage and pass rush… a leading factor in why our OL and subsequently Durant are struggling. Sheets will at least force some defensive attention upon himself which should open things up in the passing game. As much as I’m excited to see him running again I hope we get creative in using him add in some dump passes, some screens etc… using him in a lot of ways will lead to yards for him and focus more defensive attention on him. Stubler will force us to be patient and take yards in small chunks. Using the run and the quick/short passing game will make for sustained drives. There will be opportunities for long bombs but we need to be patient and selective as this veteran group will make you pay if you start forcing passes.

Defensively things will be shook up a bit with newly acquired Rod Williams and Tristan Jackson penciled in on corner. I can only assume this is a direct result of Miller displaying a tackling style that would convince you he thinks he may contract SARS from the receiver if he gets too close and Russ just plain struggling. Williams is a quality DB so hopefully he helps secure that secondary. D played well last time just came up short late. Given how much the O is struggling we really need a big defensive play like a pick 6 to help give them a boost. It’s asking a lot from a unit that is already pulling their weight but this is a team game and one unit needs to support the other when they are struggling. We did a tremendous job containing Harris last game so I’m hopeful we can do it again. This will allow the D-line to tea of on that chach DeMarco. Much is being made of this young QB but he’s only beaten us (which requires minimal offensive output) and Winnipeg (which requires being able to get to the field in time for kickoff). He hasn’t shown anything special yet.

Were this game at home given the addition of Sheets I’d be tempted to take us in an upset. With the game in BC though, I’m just not feeling confident. Our D will do fine but our O does not instill confidence in me. In true Rider form I bet they make it close enough to get me really emotionally invested and then break my heart but I just don’t see the slump ending this week.

BC by 7

PS – You should know that by me picking against the Riders their odds just went way up. They frequently do things to spite me.