Riderville Report

It was not that Calgary played all that better than the Riders. The Riders offense failed to execute, and while some fans liked what they say of Hugh Charles, his inability to sustain a block points to some long range problems the Riders will continue to experience, especially if they persist in having Darian Durant stay in the pocket.

Despite running for a touchdown, Durant was also his own worst enemy. The Rider's offense would not strike fear in the hearts of the Carlton Crusaders because the receivers in crucial moments failed to make catches or even show the slightest hint of being able to stretch the defence, with the exception of Weston Dressler.

Durant has regressed to looking at his primary receiver and locking in on him no matter what. The result is if the defense knows where the ball is going, it is fairly easy to adjust and react to that ball.

The chicken and the egg argument has been dominating conversation in the city that rhymes with fun since Saturday night in terms of whether it is the coaching or the players.

An easy answer is what fans would like to see. Whether it is fire Doug Berry as offensive coordinator, to give other receivers a shot, to bench Chris Getzlaf, the quick fix solutions have been crowding out rational thought on the Riders fan boards.

Having a Rider as a roommate allows me the opportunity to ask some uncomfortable questions and get some insight into what the team is thinking. Some fans felt the Riders are failing to play with passion, which they did have last week against Montreal, but not Calgary.

My roomie feels the team is playing hard and is showing intensity. He plays defense, which did play well, except for some coverage problems and inability to make tackles on running backs up the middle.

I think the Riders lacks the players to be anything better than a third place team, and that is if they get lucky. For those of us unfortunate to remember 1977, the Riders were coming off a Grey Cup year with an older club and kept many around, and failed to upgrade their talent. That failure saw them slide out of the playoffs for the first time in many years and start an 11 year drought.

On offense, the Riders lack at least two receivers, Cary Koch and Andy Fantuz. Koch still has his thumb in a cast and in a player appearance out of town this week, wondered if he would still be around after the cast comes off. This is a result of the Tad Kornegay release which sent a message that no one is guaranteed a job.

I think Koch is still good and probably too nervous about his position because Terrence Nunn and Efrem Hiill have been underwhelming. The best they can do is crossing patterns when they catch the ball and maybe stretch out a defense. Right now they are striking fear in no one's hearts.

The loss of West Cates opened the doors for Hugh Charles but as I mentioned, Charles got manhandled in trying to block ends rushing Durant. Calgary managed to effectively contain Durant by preventing him from rolling to his right, which is a plus if you are a right handed quarterback. Try rolling out to your left and trying to throw right.

The Rider offensive line was neither notable or abymsal. Any flaws on their play were overshadowed by the drops, the throws and the inability of the Rider offense to sustain a drive.

The Rider offense may be designed for the talents of the people who currently are there, but they are not performing. And whether or not the limitations in personnel talent are dictating the play calling I have to admit is a fascinating question that is not likely to be asked in Regina media, especially when the post game media talk centered around “it's a long season” and “the defense played hard”.

The inability to work the clock well at the end of the first half shows how difficult it is to determine whether it is the coaching or the players who are at fault.

The Riders blitzed more, which was nice to see, but also opened up the middle to deep passes. The Riders fell back in their inability to stop a defense facing a second and long situation.

Sloppy tackling also returned to Taylor Field, with the high light reel favority to throwing one's body at an opponent without wrapping their arms around him once again taking centre stage.

While I enjoyed Tristan Jackson's hit at the end of the game on a Calgary receiver, it seemed the Riders were more interested in playing for their own names instead of of the Saskatchewan Roughrider name.

The start of NFL camps on Monday means the Rider scout will start off in Chicago, presumably to check out the status of Andy Fantuz. Under the new NFL agreement, practice rosters will be expanded, which increases the likelihood Andy will stay in the Windy City and reduce the number of NFL players who would make a return or initial trip to the CFL.

The Riders situation is not likely to get better. Ryan Lucas tweeted on Sunday he will be going onto the Montreal Allouette roster after spending time on the Rider practice roster. The Riders may want to make more changes, and if they start cutting veterans to save money and spend on new players, that would be a sure sign they are running up the white flag on the 2011 season.

The Riders have become too complacent. The magic they counted on to spark in the fourth quarter is gone, their defense is playing better, but not well enough, and their offense is offensive.

Walking out of Taylor Field on Saturday night you felt like the Riders will get worse before they get better, and we will have many more growing pains to get through. The Riders go to BC this week, and BC has been competitive and deserves better than an 0-5 start. The Riders will likely fall to BC, before returning to Calgary returning for the second of a four game season series.

The Riders drop both of those games, and people will start tuning the team out. The Riders days of sell outs will come to an end this season, and the biggest fight will be if backing the team means ignoring what is wrong with the team, or pointing out the problems and suggesting solutions.

Which is a shame, because the atmosphere was terrific at the game. The fans have not given up on the team, but if the team fails to produce, the fans will start to think the team has given up on them.

It's unfortunate that it has come to this, but the problems with the Riders are more than skin deep. The inability to land some pass rushers going into two years has left this team looking a lot like one we saw in the start of the Shivers-Barrett era – some talent, a good QB, but a lot of holes to be filled.

by Riderville

Riderville Report

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