Are You Smarter Than A Toddler Week 9 Picks

 Here are the Prophet family picks for week 9:

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

Monday Morning Sentmionies: Fixing The Riders

I admire the optimism that some of you still hold for this season. Not sure if it’s related to undying Rider passion or drugs but good on you. As for me, I’m firmly in next season country. An objective look at our roster is needed. Anything that fits into the plans for 2016 is safe. Anything where there are question marks should be in consideration for trading or cutting. I’m not abdicating trading away anything and everything regardless of the return or cutting the entire roster and filling it with replacements (unless Keanu Reeves and that crazy cop linebacker guy are available) but we need to at least be entertaining any option that can make us better next season.

Though I’m sure the Riders aren’t likely to adhere to my plan (nor are they likely to pay me a consulting fee for doing their work for them), here are 6 things I feel we need to be doing to prepare for 2016:

Manage The QB Situation

Cut Sunseri immediately. He has no future with this team (or any team for that matter).  Any rep in practice or game situation he is given is a wasted opportunity to develop someone with actual potential. Brett Smith has earned the starting job and the chance to prove if he can be our #2 next season. Keith Price needs to be given some playing time. Start with a few series and build up to playing at least a full quarter. Blake Sims should also get a few reps once he’s up to speed on the playbook. Its sink or swim time for our young QBs. Thus far Smith swam, it’s time to find out if the others can do the same. If they can’t, better that we find out now so we can look for better options.

I would also explore trading Glenn. Now I realize that his injury situation may make this problematic but we need to at least explore options. I like Glenn and he more than delivered on expectations but the fact remains if Smith can be a bona fide #2 then he is not needed.  A healthy Glenn has value. Maybe Winnipeg would be interested?

Play The Young Guys

As with Price and Sims, we need to get our new recruits some playing time and figure out now if they can show enough in a game situation to be invited back next season. Guys like Roosevelt, Mertile and Bryan should see some meaningful playing time (We are off to a good start by dumping Tisdale. Suber should be next as he isn't in the future plans). If he heals up, MacDougall should be given a starting job to see if he can hack it. I would pay particular attention to our O-line. Richards, Vonk and Watman should see time with the starting unit (Not all at once since I’d rather not have to scrape Brett Smith off the turf so soon after finding out that he’s good). This is the perfect time to see if these 3 can really provide the depth we need.

Work The Phones

Outside of a token few untouchables (e.g. Durant, Dressler, Demski, Labatte, Brown), anyone on our roster is fair game for the right price. We had better be talking to every team out there about any potential trade. Obviously what we will be looking for is mid-round draft picks (to replace the ones Taman routinely trades away), young Canadians with potential and young Americans if they address an area of need… such as DE. We are currently lacking a proven rotation D end. Chick is also not getting any younger and although he will probably want to play forever to pay for the army he has fathered… it would be wise to start grooming a replacement.

I’m not expecting any blockbuster deals since we would mostly be trading role players and guys in the final year of their contract. But if we can get a couple mid-round picks or prospect players for some of our 30 years plus guys then you gotta explore those options. A guy like Tearrius George comes to mind. Solid player but he turns 33 this offseason. If you can get value for him now then take it.

Start Working On Extensions Now

One of the few upsides of your top players suffering season ending injuries is that it likely results in more cap space than you intended. I get that our constant injuries make managing the cap difficult but I would bet that given contracts like Durant, Brown and Emery largely won’t count, that we have some cap space to work with. We should use that to start extending current players that we want to retain with big signing bonuses to get a head start on the offseason and ease our cap situation next year.

Scan NFL Cuts

NFL camps are in full swing and over the next month a lot of cuts will be made. There is a chance (though no guarantee) that they may include so former CFL players who could make a big impact if the returned north. Obviously Heenan, Peters and Brett Jones are on the watch list but I would expand that to include names like Marcus Ball (who was close to signing in Winnipeg this year). Possibly the likes of Henoc Muamba, Jalil Carter, John Chiles, etc… as well. If we have cap space we may have an advantage in luring these guys here if they shake loose.

Manage the Kicking Situation

I know there is a distinct chance that McCallum will be kicking long enough to see New Mosaic stadium tore down and replaced with Mosaic 3.0 but we should not count on that. As refreshing as his consistency has been, we should be on the look for our kicker of the future now.   Sean Whyte is out there as an option. In Calgary, Tyler Crapigna is sitting idle behind Paredes and Maver. Not sure if you could coax him out of Calgary but it’s worth a call. Maybe we want to try out a young unproven guy (it worked out for Winnipeg with Harullaju and Toronto with Pfeffer). Whatever direction we want to go it would be easy to give a young guy a trial opportunity for a couple games to see how he handles live action. If nothing else it would give McCallum extra time to catch up on Matlock re-runs and naps (I was going to add “yelling at kids who cut across his lawn” to this list but when it comes to McCallum’s lawn, he likely has good reason to be yelling).

Friday Round-Up: Bye Week Musings

I won’t lie, I really expected some kind of big news (of the firing variety) by this point in the bye week. That said, given how my luck goes, there will likely be a big announcement within 5 minutes of this being posted. I will reiterate that I don’t want anyone to be fired (except possibly Taman but that’s a topic for another day). I just assumed given how things work in the province, the Riders would have done something to try and appease the fan base… even if that something wasn’t the right move.

The good news is given that our starting quarterback didn’t recently have his jaw broken by a teammate’s sucker punch, things in Riderville suddenly don’t seem quite so bad. That  said I can’t help but have a flashback to that time Kenton Keith had a “lower body” injury that by all accounts was inflicted by a few of his teammates. I kinda miss those whacky days.

Given the lack of actual Rider news (that I had really been banking on), I decided to instead brighten up your by week by discussing ways you can make the remainder of the season more enjoyable:

1)    Do up a bunch of bingo cards listing various penalties, whenever the Riders take one mark it on your card. First complete line wins. The beauty of this game is that the rate the Riders take penalties, you will be able to play 3 or 4 different rounds each game. 

2)    Before each game, every participant puts in $5 and picks a random injury. The prize pool goes to whoever correctly guesses the first injury that knocks a Rider player out of the game. (This game has its origins as the Buck Pierce Injury pool where you’d predict what would knock him out of the game)

3)    Every time the kiss cam is on yell out “That’s my wife!” and stomp of in a huff.

4)    Take a back pack full of helium balloons to a home game. When security asks to check your bag beg them not to open it. Then when they open it and release all your balloons have your kid (or any kid for that matter) start crying saying they ruined their birthday

5)    Leak an online report that Jim Daley will be hired to replace Corey Chamblin and watch the inter webs devolve into anarchy.

6)    Drink heavily (what? Just because its super obvious doesn’t mean it’s not good advice)

7) Bet money against the Riders. That way you can at least financially profit from their losing. Though be forewarned, the odds of them winning out of spite when you do decide to bet on them is quite high. 

 

8)    Go back and watch games from either 2011 or any of the 90s and remind yourself that things aren’t so bad

9)    Demand the Riders give as mascot soccer as a halftime show to make up for all the losing. Seriously, do it.

10)    Get Rider Prophet drunk on rye and mention the decision to draft Jordan Sisco… it’s an epic rant.

I will be back on Monday with my ambitious (and patent pending) plan for how the Riders can use the remainder of this season to effectively build for 2016.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Flag On The Play

Riders 26 - Argos 30

What you are reading is actually the second version of my sentimonies. I had written a really good post but in true Rider fashion it was negated due to penalty so I had to re-write it and the end result was not as good as the first attempt.

The game was a lot like my love life: lots of excitement but ultimately ended in bitter disappointment. I was left with the same feelings after this game as the first time these two teams met. There was a lot of positive things that happened in that game. Unfortunately, as has been the theme this season, there was too many negative things that happened for all the good we did to be enough. Good teams find ways to win. I've seen many versions of the Riders pull out victories they had no business winning. The opposite is also true. Bad teams find ways to lose. This Rider team just keeps finding ways to lose games that they really should be winning. Toronto's defensive MVP was Rider penalties as it took double digit points off the board and resulted in close to 200 yards in Toronto's favour. A good team would have a hard time winning saddled with that kind of handicap... a bad team like us just had no chance.

Brett Smith looked impressive. He made mistakes like rookies are bound to do but he played his heart out on that field and really looked like he belonged under centre. He extended plays that had no business being extended and kept his eyes down field. He looked like a play maker. After enduring duds like Sunseri and Doege its nice to actually see a back-up come in and play like a pro. It was nice to see us spread the ball around and get guys like Williams and the Space Cowboy involved. It was also nice to see Getzlaf doing considerably less Getzlafing and more catching TDs like the top Canadian receiver he can be at times.

Special teams also gave us a good spark with both Demski and Miller. Admittedly the impact could have been great but, you know, flag on the play.

The defense... well yet again they played a decent game only to collapse late in the game. They allowed two 4th quarter TDs on long passes. We just can't defend the pass... which tends to be a problem in the CFL. We know that none of the Rider defense has a future career as a baker... because they couldn't produce a solitary turnover between all of them. (yes I know that is a bad attempt at humour. I swear I had funnier material in the version of this post that got called back due to penalty.) We did manage to nicely limit Whitaker's production but unfortunately we also pretty much let the Argos get big passing plays on us at will.

There's a lot I could also critic about our coaching but in the interest of not keeping you here all day, I will zero in on one decision that really irked me.

2:51 left in the game, down by 7, 3rd and 5 from the 20 yard line. Now option 1 is to gamble on 3rd down. If you make it great you can keep driving for the tying TD. Worst case scenario you miss it and need a defensive stop and a major score. Option 2 is to kick the FG. Best case scenario you make it and still need a defensive stop and major. We chose option 2 (and done similarly this year) and it made my blood boil. We literally gained absolutely nothing by kicking that FG. Look its not like McCallum is going to catch Passaglia in all-time scoring and since it does not help our odds of winning the game I think its a terrible decision.

The bye week is now upon us and odds are pretty good that chances are coming. I can't say who or how deep the cuts will go but we are a team missing a good chunk of our top players due to injury and starting our 3rd string QB yet neither of those factors were the reason we lost. We are so close yet so painfully far from being a winning team. In 2011 I was embarrassed at how bad we played. This year, the emotion I feel is disappointment (and likely some rye induced rage). We haven't yet proven we are good enough to beat another team... it makes it all the more tougher when you pile on all those penalties and have to overcome yourself as well. The penalty epidemic is getting worse, not improving. At this rate I'm convinced we will find a way to take a penalty and lose a game during the bye week.

Riders vs. Argos: So You’re Saying There’s a Chance?

Saturday the Riders travel to Toronto to take on the 3-2 Argos in their first actual home game of the year (though there were likely as many Argo fans in Fort Mac as there will be at Rogers Centre). The last time these two teams faced off was the thrilling (yet utterly deflating) Week 2 double OT game at Mosaic. Since then we’ve had 7 players who dressed in that game go down to serious injury and parted ways with 3 others. The good news is that our defense has been a model of consistency amid all that turmoil… the bad news is that they have been consistently awful.

Offensively, Brett Smith will get his second straight start. He didn’t exactly light it up in his debut but I think he showed enough to warrant a second start. It will be interesting to see how he progresses in his second showing particularly since he will be facing a defense that is nowhere near as intimidating as Edmonton. It would be a novel concept if we could provide him with some run support to ease the pressure on him. I realize Chapdelaine may call this thinking heresy but we are kind of good at running the ball and it was a huge part of our offense part when they were actually putting up more points than any team in the league. The Space Cowboy (Steven Miller for those of who are either new to this blog or too young to get references to great music) will replace Allen this week. Hopefully we can use the combination of Messam’s power and Miller’s speed to get back to a strong ground game. Devin Wilson gets his first game action after we shut down Richardson for the year. Not sure he’ll get many looks as Smith will likely lean on Dressler, Getzlaf and the other Smith but it’s good that we are at least giving a young guy a shot. Toronto's defense is certainly not terrible but they are not among the top D's in the league. They are allowing 27 points per game (3rd worst). They are also 2nd last in sacks... Seems Ricky Foley may may have exaggerated just a bit when calling that line the best he’s ever played for. We need to run lots (including letting Brett Smith run) and start with lots of high percentage stuff to help Smith get comfortable. That said we can't be afraid to let him air it out occasionally (since I'm guess the Argos will cheat up on the run).

Defensively, last week was probably the best they've played this year... sadly it still wasn't good enough but the progress is at least promising. Hopefully we can build on that (minus the ridiculous over blitzing of Brackenridge). Toronto is among the league leaders in giveaways but given that the Riders are on pace for a CFL record low 6 turnovers this season, I sense that tidbit (true story spell check just recommended I change that to titbit... my mind is amused by simple things) of info is as useless my attempts to come up with a funny end to this sentence. Mark LeGree will be back in the line-up and I really liked him last year (my suggestion would be play him at LB and bump Macho back to HB but I realize I'm not a defensive guru like Chamblin). Sounds like we may get Tristan Jackson back too which would be big. Chad Owens may be out but the trio of Gurley, Hazelton and Elliot (aka that idiot who spins the ball after every catch no matter how insignificant) seem to be doing just fine. Not sure how we are struggling to find a solitary receiver when Toronto can find 3 but that's a topic for another day. 

The biggest key will be limiting Brandon Whitaker. In Toronto’s 2 loses, he averaged 41 yards from scrimmage. In their 3 wins, he averaged 124 yards from scrimmage. Any chance of victory will require our D-line playing like they played last week, our tackling being at a level somewhere above blindly flailing bodies at empty air and we will need at least one turnover. We will also need to cut down drastically on penalties. Currently we are the worst in the CFL averaging 14 penalties and 122 yards per game. 

As much as this could be a trap game for Toronto and as much as I think the Riders will be somewhat competitive, it all boils down to this... Toronto has the best passing attack in the CFL and we offer so little resistance to the pass that even Bill Cosby wouldn't feel the need to drug us. 

Is it possible we win? Sure. Is it likely... lord no. 

Argos by 10.

Are You Smarter Than A Toddler - Week 7 Picks

Here are the Prophet Family picks for Week 7

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

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Another Loss

Riders 5 - Eskimos 30

So there were no miracles performed on Friday. Brett Smith could not walk on water, nor could he turn our losing season into something more palatable. But hey, at least he didn't utterly embarrass himself... unlike some other Rider QB that played in that game. The game went pretty much according to script. The winless team with 3rd string QB got pounded by a team with a winning record and one of the best defenses in the league. Predictably as well I had to pour increasingly stronger drinks as the game went on in order to endure it.

Brett Smith actually didn't do too bad given the situation. He had happy feet, he made some mistakes but he also made some good throws (some of which were taken back due to penalty). I would be okay with him starting a few more games to see if he progresses. As previously alluded to I see no reason for Tino Sunseri to have a job as a anything but a hair model. He does not belong on a professional football field. I don't care how little of the playbook Keith Price and Blake Sims know, there is no way they can be any worse than Tino. At this point an empty chip bag would likely be more useful under centre.

My main issue with our offense was how we completely let Edmonton dictate our game plan. Predictably Edmonton run blitzed and dared us to run and while I get that we can't just blindly run into a pile of defenders, that doesn't mean abandon the run completely. We are a good running team, how about showing some balls and seeing if we can run despite the strong opposition? We let Chris Jones take away our run game without even a fight, leaving a rookie 3rd stringer to carry the offense on his arm. Its a ludicrous strategy. We might as well have just asked Chris Jones prior to each series which offensive plays he was okay with us using.

Friday was actually the first time our defensive line decided not to be useless. The main factor was Alex Hall actually having his first good game of the season. Overall the defense was probably the best I've seen all season... not saying they were good, just improved by our low standard. We still can't get off the field on second down, or defend the pass. It's probably the least creative defense I've ever seen. Apparently Chamblin's answer to our lack of pressure is blitz Brackenridge... on every play, the same way every time. The only blitzing philosophy I've seen that was worse was the Scott Gordon safety blitz (aka Gordon disappearing into a pile of players while adding nothing of value to the play).

The bottom line is that 2015 is now officially over for the Riders. If you think I'm being overly pessimistic then you should watch the following Jim Mora rant.



All attention should now be placed on building a team for 2016. We essentially now have a really long preseason. So we should be evaluating all our practice roster players with some live game action. I want to see Keith Price get some playing time. We should also look at cutting ties with anyone who does not fit into the plans for 2016.

Coach Chamblin is one guy I think should stay (I also know that given my luck, 5 minutes after I post this he will be fired). He did not suddenly become a bad head coach. He did just fine in 2012, 2013 and the first half of 2014. He is a good head coach... he is just a really awful defensive coordinator. If he could relinquish that he could once again focus on his actual coaching duties. I bet you would see his game management improve. He's done some dumb things this year but I do not want to see him fired. If you want a scapegoat maybe you should be looking at the guy whose job it is to provide talented players for the coach and build depth.