Monday Morning Sentimonies: BC Beatdown

Riders 33 – 27

In a week where embarrassments abounded, including the cheating CEO being exposed at Coldplay, the Exec Director of the NFLPA losing his job because he charged strip club visits to the organization and Fortnite proudly announcing Fantastic Four skins, we were all hopeful the Riders would not add themselves to the list… turns out it was the Lions who tried to take the place on the list. 

What a resounding beatdown! The Riders went into BC (a place they have not played great in recent years) and imposed their will on the Lions. The score does not do justice to how lopsided the game was. The Riders stormed out with a 2 and out on D, a 50 yard TD bomb and a forced fumble on special teams. Before the Lions could even blink they were down double digits and failing in all 3 phases. 

This game was all about Trevor Harris. He put on a masterclass, carving through the Lions secondary (as if they were the Rider secondary). And it wasn’t just your typical dink and dunk Harris performance. He attacked the secondary. Five different receivers had receptions over 20 yards. Other than an ill-advised pick where he was trying to force it to Emulis and whatever that weird pirouette throw he did, Harris was dialed in. A key factor was success on 1^st down. Ouelette was routinely getting 4-5 yards and that opened things up for Harris. O-line gave him plenty of time. I specifically watched Washington. We gave him some help on a few plays (with an RB or FB chipping) but by and large we left him one on one and he fared OK. He had a great pulling block on the first big run. Probably the best performance of the whole O on the young season. 

Defense was equally impressive. I fully expected Rourke to throw for 400 with ease. There was nothing easy for Rourke on Saturday. D-line had one of their most impactful games of the year. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it coincided with Sanders’ return. He is a difference maker. It took Rourke making ridiculous miracle plays for BC to find the endzone at any point before garbage time. James Butler was a complete non-factor in the game as were BC’s top receivers McInnis and Hatcher. Mace called a great game. With each passing week the spotlight shines brighter on AJ Allen. Last week he had a pick. This week he should have had another and was the one tipping the ball on the Sayles pick. His growth some solid special teamer to impact starter has been great to watch. I am officially eating crow on all me preseason reservations about Campbell. He has been solid in coverage. I know Baldonado jumping offside negated it but the way he jumped that pick was like Rourke had told him the play. Can you imagine how dominant this defense could be if just one of Fields and Lokombo was useful? We are solid in-spite of those two. 

Lauther was on schedule with his alternative perfect and trainwreck performances. Does not bode well for Friday but Saturday was a pleasant treat.

There were only 2 things that did not go our way. Gotta feel for Kadeem Carey. When TSN refuses to show an injury you know its gruesome. Wishing him a full recovery no matter how long that takes. What that means for back-up RB? Gotta imagine calls are being made to Mario Anderson, Kevin Brown and Walter Fletcher.  The other thing that did not go out way was the reffing. While the review booth felt it essential to insert themselves and call a hit on Rourke, they did not seem to care about the 2 times Harris’ head was hit by BC defenders.

The end result was a hugely important win:

-        Bounced back from a bad performance

-        Won on the road (we are now 3-0 on the road)

-        Beat a western opponent (in their own stadium)

-        Most important… already secured the season series against a western rival.

It was also reassuring that we didn’t just fall into the same extended losing streak we saw last season.

Other random thoughts:

-        While I think overall O’Day is doing great work as GM, he screwed up by not putting Bane (and to a lesser extent Onyeka) on the 6 game IR to start the season. Could have saved some cap money.

-        Robustelli just makes plays. Gonna to tough to take him off the roster if/when we activate Bane.

-        Duncan-Busby makes the most of every opportunity he gets.

-        Actual logic: BC dummied Edmonton and we dummied BC so Friday should not even be close

-        Rider logic: Edmonton will damn-near beat us Friday because that’s what we do.

Riders vs. BC Lions: Rebound

Saturday the Riders are in BC looking to bounce back from a performance last week that can only be described as horriawful (a combination of horrible and awful). They face the 3-3 Lions who are on a 2 game winning streak since the last time these teams met. That match-up was a lopsided victory at home. While the hope is for a similar result, the Riders don’t get the benefit of playing Jeremiah “the turnover machine” Masoli this time. So it will not be near as easy.

 

Despite the fact that PFF’s math somehow had Trevor Harris as the most efficient QB last week, it was clear to anyone who watched the game last week (and probably a few blind people) that the offense was abysmal last week. They did not show up until the 2^nd half and they produced exactly 1 scoring drive. If we are to have any chance to win, they need to show up. We should be bolstered by the return of Sam Emilus. That said we are also starting a new offensive tackle, the 3^rd or 4^th o-line combination on the young season. The game plan should be pretty simple. The Lions boast the #1 pass D, but the 2^nd worst run D. After a frustrating game last week, you can bet Ouelette is raring to go. He had over 100 last time he played BC and we should give him every chance to do it again. In the pass game, we should focus on getting Johnson and Emilus going. When Harris does make a good pass our receivers need to not drop it and even more importantly not fumble it. Plays will be hard to come by so we need to not piss away the ones we get.

 

Defensively, I don’t know what the over/under is on Rourke passing yards… but bet the over. BC has the most passing yards. Even with Campbell back, we are built to give up yards. The last game about the only thing that went right for BC was Butler. We uncharacteristically struggled to stop the run. That needs to change in this one. It will be tough to slow down Rourke even if he is one dimensional. We need two things in this one. First, pressure from the front 4. They have been very average this season and we need them to step up and generate pressure. Second, we need turnovers. Mace’s entire defensive philosophy is built on turnovers. Even if you factor out Masoli’s INTs, BC would still be among the league leaders in turnovers, so opportunities will be there. Most important is that unlike last game when the D does get turnovers, the offense needs to turn those into points.

 

Special teams could be a factor in this one. With Alford out McCrae is expected to make his debut. He impressed in the preseason so it would be great if he could start with a bang. Based on how the kicking game has gone this season, Lauther alternates making all his kicks and kicking like his thinks his job is to get the ball outside of the uprights. That means he’s due to make all his kicks. I don’t understand why there is not at least a kicker brought in to push him in practice. I hope O’Day knows better than me on this one.

 

I originally had this game pegged as the game our hot start ended. I thought we’d get through Calgary at home and then put up a dud on the road. I am hoping that the magnitude of just how much they sucked last week is a sufficient wake-up call to prevent the dud on the road. We are allowing 24 points per game and that seems like a likely number in this one. That means that our offense will need to find a way to produce 25 points (unless McCrae or the D can chip in a major). If Harris shows up in the first half, 25 points is possible (he did put up 400 yards in essentially 30 mins of work last week). I honestly would peg BC as the favourites in this one based on it being a road game. But I do think the Riders pull one out by a hair.

Riders by a Tommy Time TD

 

Monday Morning Sentimonies: What The Hell

Riders 10 – Stampeders 24

What the heck guys?!? I go away for one week and everything goes to hell. Team forgets how to play. Game can’t even be played on the right day. Just complete chaos without the Prophet around. And instead of finding out about the result after the fact I was forced to endure listening to it on the radio while driving back hungover. The pounding on the field was equal to the pounding in my head. 

Look, we all knew the Riders weren’t going 18-0. Well I mean I’m sure some die hard out there believed but realistically it was not happening. So a loss is not the hardest part about this to take. Its that the Riders did not bother showing up. They were outplayed, outcoached, outworked and outright embarrassed on their home turf. That’s the part that’s hard to take. The Riders got to sleep in their beds while the Stamps had to frantically try and find a dorm to house them. Watching that game I would have believed the opposite was true. 

Lots is being made of the defense’s failures in this one. Yes they allowed VA to slice through them like a hot knife through butter. He almost had 300 yards at half. Yes there were some major busts in coverage. But simply put, if you think the defense is to blame for the loss you are either an idiot, did not watch the game, or live in Manitoba (which is kinda redundant given the first point on this list). The defense was the only part of this team trying. They forced 2 turnovers in the first 5 mins and 3 overall. They held the Stamps to 24 points despite all their aforementioned struggles. They gave us a chance to win and it would have ben an absolute massacre if not for their efforts. They tried. 

The offense did not. 

Here is a listing of every offensive drive in the first half: 

·        2 and out, FG (7 yards) * after defense got a pick

·        2 and out, Punt (net loss of 7 due to penalty)

·        2 and out, Punt (6 yards)

·        4 plays, Punt (net 8 yards)

·        3 plays, Punt (17 yards)

·        2 plays, Fumble (18 yards)

·        6 plays, Fumble (44 yards)

 It took until the 3^rd quarter before they put together a drive that had more than one first down and didn’t end in a fumble. I know Calgary has a good defense but that level of futility is unacceptable at a pro level. O-line got dominated. Receivers struggled to get open. Harris was not decisive. Mueller looked like he gave his playbook to Calgary before the game and had no backup plan when it didn’t work. We clearly could not run up the middle but the answer is not to ignore Ouellette completely. We should found ways to get him or Carey the ball in other ways. This is not the first time the offense has started a game like they were asleep. We need to find ways to start game better. 

My patience with Brett Lauther is about run out. In 3 out of 5 games this season he has kicked 50% or less. You can’t preach accountability for the team and continue to let one guy repeatedly fail without consequence. I am not saying cut him. But if there is not a second kicker in camp this week to at least push him then O’Day is failing at his job. 

Certainly not the end of the world to lose. It was going to happen eventually. Our 4-0 record had been hiding some of our shortcomings. Calgary is a good team. But this needs to be a wakeup call because that kind of effort can’t happen again. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Fields continues to be a glaring liability in coverage. Teams are clearly seeing it on film and going after him.

-        Brooks had a costly bust but I like his potential.

-        D-line has been very underwhelming  this year. It looks like a line with a lot a good players but no great ones. No one is stepping up to be THE guy. Pressure is lacking and without pressure our zone defense gets exposed.

-        Robustelli was obviously the only positive on offense. If we ever get to a point where every receiver is healthy, we will have some tough decisions to make.

-        For those curious about the results of my scientific expedition, it was a success. I caught fish on 100% of the days I drank beer. So did the rest of my research team. That seems pretty conclusive to me that it does indeed improve effectiveness.

 

 

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Gone Fishing

By the time you read this I will have already left on a scientific expedition. What noble pursuit of science does the Prophet devote his efforts to you might ask? Well, me and my research team will be conducting an experiment aimed at uncovering the effects of alcohol on fishing effectiveness. 

It’s hard work but I am willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge. 

I will be back next weekend. Yes I will miss Friday’s game. I think Calgary makes it close but we pull out another close one at home. 

Cheer loud for me. Wish me luck in my research. See you next Monday.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: The Easy Way

Riders 37 – Lions 18

After 3 solid weeks of heart attacks, curse words and finishes way to close for anyone’s liking, Saturday was a nice refreshing resounding win. Sure it had some moments of uncertainty but overall we did our job and comfortably beat a team that we should of. 

All eyes were on Jake Maier and… well he got the job done. If this was a exam he put in a solid 70% performance. There were times he looked unsure and panicky but he avoided making any big mistakes. When the team around you is running this well and playing defense like they were, not doing anything stupid is pretty much the whole job assignment. Maier nailed it. I’m sure Mueller’s pregame speech to Maier was “Hey Jake, how’s the arm today? Great because its going to get put to use a lot today… handing off to AJ.” We some flashes of what Maier can do on those passes to Duncan-Busby and Robustelli. 

Turns out that Ouelette on a good hip is a monster. He is chewing up big yards. Since his concussion scare in game 1 he has logged at least 90 yards and a TD in every game. He was averaging 6 yards per carry. We honestly could have just not passed and ran Ouelette and Stevens back and forth and still moved up and down the field on BC. 

After 3 weeks where the talk was primarily about how soft we are versus the pass, the defense came to make noise on Saturday. The caveat is of course that at this point in his career Jeremiah Masoli belongs under centre about as much as me after a bottle of Wisers (or sober). But you can only play the cards you are dealt the Riders were about as mean to Masoli as you can be without saying something about his heritage. That first Campbell pick took any life BC had remaining and dashed it on the turf. Masoli was so generous in handing out picks that he even let Antoine Brooks get his first career one (seriously Masoli, what makes you think that throwing to the shallow sideline is going to turn out well at this point?). Their top receiver was Eberhart. On a team featuring Hatcher, Cottoy and McInnis that’s a resounding win. 

Special Teams also stepped up and contributed in this one. Lauther worked his way out of his funk and nailed all 7 of his kicks. That was also probably the best I have seen Couch punt. In the second half he had two absolute beauties that just took and unfortunate bounces into the endzone. I also am a big fan of him running the Jaime Boreham. For the younger readers, a Jaime Boreham is where you sail a short punt super high and then run down and try and recover it yourself.  

Simply put, the Riders were the better team in all three phases. When you control the ball for over 38 minutes that domination. Injuries still continue to plague us but hopefully a bye week can slow the growth of our injured list. Heading into the bye week the Riders sit a comfortable 4-0. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Even though it went in our favour if that horse collar tackle call was any later from Bradbury it would have arrived by carrier pigeon.

-        They also called a roughing the passer so bad that even Zach Collaros thought it was a soft call.

-        They all missed many offsides by BC.

-        Not a banner night for officiating.

-        I did see Lokombo make one play… and it wasn’t even by accident.

-        That play we ran that was a wide receiver screen with no blocking… let’s just rip that out of the playbook and burn the paper.

Riders vs. Lions: Quarterback Roulette

In the days leading up to Saturday’s game between the Riders and Lions there has been a lot of uncertainty on what the QB match-up will be. It could be Harris vs. Rourke. It could be Maier vs. Masoli or any combination thereof. As of writing this, its looking like Harris vs. Masoli but we may not actually know until tomorrow. 

Even four weeks into the season there is still a lot we don’t know about both teams. The Riders are undefeated but displayed all the killer instinct of a bay deer in the process. The Lions looked like world beater when playing the lowly Elks and looked worse than the lowly Elks when playing the mighty Bombers. I imagine the truth is somewhere in between but who knows? 

Offensively the Riders come into this game with the most TDs scored this season. Ouelette powers a strong run game. The passing attack can be sporadic but when its on its deadly. The Lions have allowed the 2^nd most TDs. They are 2^nd best against the pass but 7^th against the run. Any guesses where we should focus our attack? BC has a good front 4 and it scares me to have Trevor Harris coming off concussion protocol and having to be on the field with serial headhunter Micah Awe (the CFL’s all-time leader in repeated fines that don’t lead to suspensions). Running solves a lot of those concerns. I have Ouelette cracking 100. Expect the pass game to go through Johnson and Myers. This would be a great time for Harris to break his pick per game streak. 

Offensively BC is struggling. 2^nd most TDs allowed. Lowest completion %. Most turnovers. I have all the respect in the world for Masoli as a person but much like Drake, his career peaked in 2018 the years that followed have not exactly been kind, particularly of late. I am more worried about Masoli being pulled and us turning their 3^rd stringer into some sort of phenom than I am about Masoli. What does worry me is that BC’s offense (2^nd in passing yards but 7^th in running) is perfectly suited to counter our D. We won’t let you run but passing yards, yeah we give those out like STDs at Craven. So expect us to follow the Mace formula yet again. Stop the run, let them pass and hope to counter with sacks and turnovers. What we need to do is start better… i.e. don’t give them a TD on the first drive before remembering how to play. And finish better… we have allowed 11+ points in every 4^th quarter this season. 

Mario has some good returns that tease us but not TDs this week. Lauther finally breaks out of his funk. BC has averaged 18 points per game in the last 2 weeks.  Our offense have never scored less than 3 TD in a game. So hold them to 20 or less and we win. 

Once again I see us making this way closer than it has any business being but we should not lose to Masoli at home. 

Riders by a Tommy time TD.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Save Me Mario

Riders 39 – Argos 32

There were two all time great moments to come out of Friday’s win in Toronto. First was obviously Mario Alford. As of Saturday morning he could walk into any house or business in this province and people would give him anything he wanted: food, money, sexual favours from their wife, sexual favours from them, you name it. But the other, was an epic post game press conference from Ryan Dinwiddie.  If you haven’t watched it here the link, I can’t recommend it enough. The best line (probably of the year) was “You know one of our guards is 280 pounds. I don’t know what he did all offseason.” Gold! 

Back to Alford for a second. I hope you all appreciate that we are witnessing all-time greatness in front of our eyes. Alford has already established himself as the best returner in Rider history. He his now knocking on the door of CFL history. He is one away from tying the record for kickoff return TDs and 3 away from tying Bashir Levingston for most return TDs by a guy not named Gizmo.  With 15 games to go this season I don’t think we’ve seen his last endzone call.

There are a number of things that are just guarantees when it comes to Rider football. Our defense will allow a TD on the first drive of the game, that same defense won’t allow any semblance of a run game, and if the Riders win they will do it in the most complicated, heart attack enduing way possible. Just accept it. But as much as I don’t like how we are going about it, I am just happy that the end result keeps on being wins. 3-0 is a great start.

Offensively its amazing what a difference a healthy Ouelette makes. He is leading a strong running attack. He averaged over 5 yards per carry. Between him a Stevens we were able to put together some clock draining drives. Harris was very up and down. In his good moments we were carving through the Argos thanks in large part to a breakout game from Dohnte Myers. This is a team with Bane, Baker and Emilus on the IR and guys like Myers and Johnson are stepping up to ensure the passing attack remains dangerous. While his good far outweighed his bad, Harris did throw a pick for a 3^rd straight game (and could have had 1 or 2 more) which ended up gifting Toronto a TD. For the amount of injuries its dealt with, the O has actually been pretty solid overall. 

Surprisingly the defense is not as solid as we’ve come to expect. To their credit they do lead the CFL in sacks and you can’t run on them. They had a good redzone stand and the turnovers are starting to come. But you can pass all day on us and facing a Bo Levi Mitchell on the downside of his career and Arbuckle you can maybe get away with that but better teams are going to make us pay. Fields is the weak spot and teams are starting to attack it. I still have no clue what Lokombo does. I see him chip in in run support but in passing situations I can’t even tell what he is supposed to be doing. Whatever it is its not making an impact.

This group is allowing 27 points per game but how they are allowing it is really interesting. They allow 15 points per game over the first 3 quarters. And remember they pretty much automatically give up a first drive TD before deciding to start trying. So from drive 2 until the end of the 3^rd they play great. Then the 4^th hits and they allow almost as many points in the 4^th as in the previous 3 quarters (12 points per game). We need to spotting teams a free TD and we need to learn to close games out. 

You can blame me for all the penalties. I commented in my game preview about how much improved we were over last year. Like mentioning a possible no-hitter, I jinxed it. Sorry. The majority of those penalties were deserved and preventable. That said, its not Micah Johnson’s fault that he has tree trunks for arms and Arbuckle ducked his head into them rather than taking the legal hit Micah was trying to deliver.    

I love Lauther and everything was looking great for him bouncing back after shitting the bed last week. The with a chance to ice the game with a chip shot FG he goes and fires up the mob again. The could have cost us the game and he has single handedly (footedly?) cost us 11 points in 2 weeks. He starts next week but there needs to be a new kicker in town ASAP to push him… and replace him if this doesn’t resolve itself. Lauther won’t blame it but I really think the change from Korsak to Couch as holder is having an impact (at least mentally). Maybe time to try Maier or Stevens to see if that settles him. 

We are 3 and 0 and each week different players are stepping up to get us there. It may not be pretty but at least our Coach hasn’t had to get so mad he threatens to fire someone and singles out one player to mock his weight. Life is pretty good. 

Other random thoughts:

-        Another week, another solid showing by Aubrey Miller on teams.

-        Carney always, always, always goes inside when he’s rushing. Any slightly mobile QB is going to roast him if he can’t fix that very noticeable bad habit.

-        The Riders are playing a 5^th round pick who has dressed for 3 games and 2 American guards and they have allowed just 2 sacks. That just defies all logic on how you build an OL.