Riderville Report

The players stopped playing for Greg Marshall after the first Calgary game, where in meetings following that game, he began the process of throwing players under the bus. Mistakes were pointed out in front of everyone in team meetings, and players who drew penalties were made to feel stupid from coaches who the players quietly questioned were capable of making intelligent coaching decisions.

The observation that popped up at that time was that Greg Marshall was out of his element. The players had no confidence in Marshall because of some of the calls being made during the game, or not being made, and because Marshall would not accept responsibility for anything.

Doug Berry getting canned was inevitable. Some of his play calling verged on being too smart for his own good and in Berry's search to be thought of as an innovative coach, his cute play-calling was too clever by half as evidenced in the fourth quarter when the Riders were driving for winning points and just stalled on the 21 yard line.

How the Rider play-calling will change now is not yet clear. At his news conference, Miller indicated he would be calling some plays himself, but a combination of Steve Buratto and Bob Dyce would likely play a major role.

The Riders face a problem of who is available at this time of year to perhaps step into an offensive coordinators position. Uh, Mike Kelly is available, I should know, I have him as a facebook friend (he does have interesting observations I have to admit). Matt Dominquez is in town and might be available, but apparently is making a killing in the real estate market. I think the Riders will continue with essentially the same playbook, but perhaps use other plays than the ones that haven't been working.

The convoluted system the Riders have for a management structure made it obvious that Ken Miller would have to step in on an interim basis, mainly because the Riders already have him under contract, the Riders have to pay out the remaining two and half years under Marshall's contract, only six months left on Berry's contract, but it points out one of the interesting questions in the Rider organization.

Greg Marshall was Ken Miller's choice, while Brenden Taman was more impressed with Cory Chamblin, now defensive coordinator with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Hopson put Miller over Taman in the organization chart because he had no confidence in Taman's complete set of GM skills. However, Miller's first big hire was a big bust, so does Taman just act as a salary cap guru with the occasional ability to find players, or does he do more?

Some may argue that Taman hasn't done much, especially in player procurement, but I think the total collapse of the Rider scouting system has been a team effort. I went to the 2011 AGM meeting where Miller said the Riders were putting money into scouting. Yet prior to being canned, Marshall had talked about going out on the road during the bye week to do some scouting.

Yet the team has failed to find one, never mind two pass rushing ends like the Blue Bummers, or Swaggerville as they like to bill themselves, have. Brent Hawkins, who the Riders pinned their hopes on to be a dominant end, blew out his shoulder and I hate to say will be out for the season. Yet the Riders had last year and this year.

I will spot the Riders the excuse the NFL lockout has tied up players who would otherwise being checking out the CFL but waited for the NFL to settle and camps to open. NFL cuts should be trickling up in about two weeks, with hopefully the names of Andy Fantuz or John Chick amongst them.

Maybe I am a bit naive, or the Riders a bit cheap, but the Riders do have former players and coaches in all areas of the States and Canada. If they divide the area regionally, pay these guys to check the universities and the games, identify prospects, keep tabs on them, and when the time comes, perhaps help sell them on coming north, then maybe we would have more and better prospects than Blue Bomber rejects.

I earlier mentioned the pressure is now on the players. I don't know about you, but I found the game against Toronto to be impossible to watch because of the mistakes made by the Riders. Yet, the Riders almost came back, but again blew it.

Expect to hear more talk about how Marshall either failed to connect with the locker room, or was out of his depth. Expect to hear how Darian Durant felt Doug Berry was not using his talents properly and was calling stupid plays.

I would expect to see some changes to the Rider line-up, especially with the September deadline for cutting vets without having to pay their full salary for the year. There may be some additions on offense, and hopefully the return of Koch to take pressure off of Weston Dressler.

I would also expect to see changes made on defense, especially in the secondary. The polite form of coverage the Riders practice, which is easily recognizable and unlikely to be corrected by the Rider staff when other teams start to capitalize on it, needs to be changed. Richie Hall has been criticized for not making changes to his bend but don't break defense, but quite honestly, I would call Gary Etcheverry and bring him back. Etcheverry may be crazy, but he made things harder for other teams by forcing them to think of everything to counter what he might do. Hall offers no such challenge and his defense does not challenge other teams as well.

Miller said all the right things, and people talked about how the players would run through walls for Miller. Well they better because the Riders have bought themselves the first half of the labor day game against Winnipeg. If they screw up the first offensive play of the game while not moving the ball, they will be booed off the field and everyone will know, the Riders do not have the horses to compete.

I have to admit, I felt chills going down my spine when I hear Ken Miller talk about making the most of these last 10 games, getting into the playoffs, maybe hosting another playoff game, and getting back to the Grey Cup and winning it.

But then again, I care about this team, and want it to do well. The trick to see in these last 10 games is if the team cares like we do and responds to the firing of Marshall and Berry. Because if they don't, then there are no more excuses and the players here will have to assume an equal share of the responsibility for the 1-7 record that cost Marshall and Berry their jobs.

by Riderville

Riderville Report

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