Riders Better Hope for No Injuries – Whoops

The Riders finished their 2014 exhibition season with a resoundingly half-assed 19-14 loss to the god less Edmonton Eskimos and made their cuts on fittingly, the longest day of the year.

The game was half assed because the Rider starters had a 14-2 halftime lead over the Eskimo starters, but then the back-ups came in, and bottom line – the Eskimos have a better back-up quarterback option than the Riders do. The Riders also showed a distressing tendency to give up big runs on the ground, something we saw when Gary Etcheverry was defensive coordinator and something that happened after middle linebacker frontrunner Chad Kilgore broke his thumb and found his way onto the six week injury list.

All of this was in front of 15,000 people, barely an improvement on the 13,000 who took in the first exhibition game against Ottawa at Taylor Field, but totally understandable if you consider the rain storms that lashed Regina Friday, only easing just before game time. While the Regina media, in the race for ratings, wondered where the Rider fans were, Rider fans were wondering how this team would do over an 18 game schedule and whether it would be worth it to attend.

The difference between this year’s edition of the Riders and last year is you can see the holes, and it does cause some pause. Tino Sunseri did not impress yet again at back-up, even though Darian Durant did everything that was asked. The question the Riders have to ask themselves is what happens when and if Durant goes down with injury?

This is not a hypothetical question. Last year Durant had ankle and rib problems and actually stepped aside in a few games and let Drew Willy take the reins. While Willy did not get the ball off as quickly as Sunseri did last year, he did manage the team pretty well.

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But Sunseri has been given the chance to show what he can do, and he will get in regular season action, and he has not inspired anyone with confidence. Seth Doege survived as the third string, but a series of poor throws by both third strings at the end of the game did not inspire confidence either, although they were not helped by some stupid dropped passes. If Durant does go down for an extended period of time, the Riders season is over.

At running back, the Riders seem to have settled on Keith Toston and Anthony Allen, although none of them got what might be called a ringing endorsement. Toston has a physical style and Allen a more jitterbug style, but it looks like running back by committee, at least until one player takes control of the spot. Do not be surprised to see more running backs come in and former Edmonton and Montreal back Jerome Messam may be already in the Riders radar.

The Riders receiving corps has Chris Getzlaf, Taj Smith and Rob Bagg coming back with Eron Riley, Brett Swain, Ryan Smith and Chaz Schilens as the import wide receivers looking to replace Weston Dressler and Geroy Simon. Schilens has been having some problems making the adjustment to the CFL, and the interesting thing was the release of Canadian receivers, Alex Anthony, Kris Batien, Jade Etienne and Jordan Sisco. Expect probably Bastien and perhaps Anthony to be invited back on the practice roster. Sisco, who has drawn a lot of fan’s ire, has apparently been injured through much of his four years, but fans never really forgave him for trying out for Indianapolis the year he was drafted by the Riders.

Etienne was a former Blue Bomber drafted from the University of Saskatchewan who was picked too early in the first round and should have spent at least one more year playing university football. Etienne did not have the muscle to hang with the defensive backs and fight for balls; much like Sisco had his own problems.

The loss of Kilgore at middle linebacker has Sam Hurl getting the middle linebacker spot and Brad Peters moving to the outside although things might change. Hurl added weight to play middle linebacker, but has not synched up his speed to accommodate his weight. This means that before this season, when Hurl went in at linebacker, he was able to quickly meet the running backs hitting the holes because he was lighter.

The downside of that was it was easier to block him out of the action.

Now with Hurl being slower, it isn’t necessary to block him out because he is unable to react as quickly as he did before. I’m not sure how the Riders will respond, which will be an issue because Hamilton is visiting on Sunday and with a running back in CJ Gable and a quarterback who loves to scramble in Zach Collaros, the Riders may find themselves being run out of Mosaic Stadium by their former Grey Cup foes.

The Riders will announce their practice roster, where you can make $750 a week instead of $500 a week, on Tuesday, but this team is not satisfied with where it is and where it wants to go. I think the Riders are holding back announcing their practice team roster because they want to see who else is out there and I would expect to see a fairly interesting influx of NFL cuts around Labour Day.

Looking around the league, Jamal Richardson was cut by Montreal, but he was coming off a major knee injury and is apparently going to sign with Toronto. Hugh Charles was let go by Edmonton and Rider GM Brendan Taman was not adverse to bringing him in However the Riders will need to build up their Canadian depth and the days of a local kid being drafted and being kept on just because he is a local kid are gone.

If you want to be on the roster, you have to show you belong on the roster and that is a welcome sight to prevent complacency from setting in. Seeing some of the CFL pre-season predictions, many are saying look at BC, and judging from how they took Calgary apart, I can agree with that. We only play BC and Calgary twice this season, with both games against Calgary coming in the last six of the season. We play BC in week three and week eight. We play Winnipeg and Edmonton three times and the eastern teams twice each.

I would tentatively put us at either second or third, depending on how well our run defense comes together in the first part of the season. Drew Tate is a flake; Bo Levi Mitchell has a great arm, but needs some game experience for Calgary. Kevin Glenn may be the best back-up quarterback ever, and a great regular season quarterback, but he has a tendency to go off-kilter in the playoffs. If Travis Lulay does not come fully back from shoulder surgery, BC will not go four for four for home teams in the Grey Cup. But BC does have a good running game.

We will be competitive, and I like our chances, particularly as the season wears on. But it will not be easy, and that makes things interesting to watch.
So speaking of watching, the season kicks off with Toronto at Winnipeg on Thursday on TSN at 7:30 local time or 6:30 for us here in defending Champion country. People I talk to in Toronto are Argo fans (I too am shocked) and like their team. With Ricky Ray at quarterback, they have to be the favorite right now in the east, at least until Hamilton gets it act together with Collaros. Winnipeg has former Rider Drew Willy, and if he can survive under their offensive line, he will be ok, but for this game, Toronto will go through Winnipeg easily.

On Saturday there is a double header with Montreal at Calgary at 1 p.m. and Edmonton at BC at 4 p.m. I was less than impressed watching Montreal against Ottawa, and while Troy Smith may have won a Heisman, completing 50 per cent of your passes is not going to take you places in Montreal, especially with that receiving corps. Montreal is rebuilding, and while they have a lot of elements in place, quarterback doesn’t seem quite like it at the moment. Calgary didn’t show me much, except Nik Lewis will soon qualify for his own area code. I suspect Calgary will run at first, just to give their relatively rookie quarterbacks a chance to get comfortable. Jon Cornish is a good choice in those situations and you would have to pick Calgary just because there are more question marks on Montreal’s side than Calgary’s.

Edmonton would like to believe it is better than last year and could very well be. But BC laid an old fashioned licking on Calgary and even if it was exhibition, you cannot deny there are always signals being sent. Edmonton had a close game against BC’s back-ups, but BC wants to get off to a hot start and send a message to the west, with the Riders being the target for game three. Take BC in this game.

The Riders open their season Sunday against Hamilton at 5 p.m. This will not be a repeat of the 2013 Grey Cup, but it will be interesting because Hamilton brings in a new quarterback in Zach Collaros, and I hear some people say Hamilton has a weak offensive line. So Hamilton, as I mentioned earlier, will run and run early, considering the Riders problems at middle linebacker.

If the Riders can handle that, they should win. If they don’t, then it makes the appearance of Peter King, the dean of American sportswriters at Sports Illustrated, who is coming to Canada to cover football this week for the SI.com website, extremely interesting. King has heard about Rider fans, and if they are not happy, they can turn really ugly. For all of our sakes, let’s take the Riders to win this one.