Close Only Counts in Horse Shoes and Hand Grenades

So, after two exhibition games and two regular season games, Rider Head Coach Cory Chamblin and his new aggressive defense is 0-2 and as of now cannot be compared to the defense of the man Chamblin replaced, Richie Hall.

The Riders 42-40 loss to the Toronto Argonauts was, in the words of TSN, an early contender for game of the year. Uh, maybe TSN needs to do some hyping, but the Riders-Argos game looked more like an exhibition of flag football much like CKBI TV and the Daily Herald used to have, except we played better defense.

The Riders lost because of poor play-calling on both sides of the ball. Responsibility for that lies in the hands of the respective coordinators, Jacques Chapdelaine and Cory Chamblin who made some truly bizarre calls that cost the Riders points and ultimately paved a path to victory for Toronto.

Overall, you could not complain about the offense. Over 500 yards in total offense is more than enough to win, and the combination of running and passing the Riders have is almost the ideal of what you would want a football team to have.

However, Chapdelaine was criticized in BC for being able to move the ball between the 20 yard lines but being unable to get the ball into the end zone once there. The Riders several times were deep in Toronto territory but had to settle for field goals because the team could not engineer a touchdown. The touchdowns the Riders did score were from longer distances away.

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The Riders got good production from everyone, but Taj Smith barely put up a fight when a pass his way was intercepted and returned for a 100 yard touchdown for Toronto. Smith’s acceptance of the interception was just wrong, especially compared to the efforts of Ryan Smith, who got 171 yards yesterday.

Chamblin in his post-game comments referred to the interception as the turning point, but even with the score, Toronto was down three points at that point. The turning point came at the end of the fourth quarter after Saskatchewan scored to take the lead and Toronto had just over a minute to respond.

Rider fans will remember in previous years how Richie Hall would go into a prevent defense mode keeping everything in front of his defense and not letting anyone get behind. Usually that didn’t work and Chamblin got rid of Hall saying he would bring in a more aggressive defense.

The problem here was that last year when Darian Durant went down halfway through the season, Hall’s defense played lights out while the offense was totally incapable of moving the ball. That defense was aggressive and led the league in sacks.

By comparison, this year the defense has not been aggressive.  On Sunday we saw a three man front attempt to rush the quarterback while nine players stood in the defensive backfield, seemingly afraid to play defense. The strategy was not consistent with what Chamblin had been going off on since he started his move to get rid of Hall.

The offensive play-calling also left something to be desired. It reminded me of what some BC Lion fans said on the Riderfans website when Chapdelaine had been hired by the Riders. They said between the 20 yards lines, his offense moves the ball really well. It is scoring touchdowns where the problem lies. The hesitation to go for it on the goal line Sunday unfortunately confirmed what the Lions fans had been saying.

Overall though, I think the offense will work itself through. The Riders will score if the touchdowns are long yardage affairs, but they will have problems scoring from in close. However, whatever one wants to say about the offense, it is the one part of the team that seems to be working. If you get 500 yards offense two weeks running, you should be winning some football games.

The defense is another issue. At this stage we have a lot of ego involved in the defense, with Chamblin painting a target on him and misreading Rider fans opinion of Hall. While it is true that they were not impressed with his prevent defense, the way he got a pass rush going the last two years created the type of aggressive defense that Chamblin can only dream of.

Jake Doughty was inserted in the middle linebacker position and came up with an interception.  The Riders seem to be getting the pieces of the puzzle into place, they just don’t seem to be operating with an effective scheme, which is ironic because that is what Chamblin had been touting would be the result of his leading the defense.

The Riders were one or two plays away from winning. They are close, but they are at the stage where more losses will start to add up and they will have an entertaining, yet losing team in 2015. Add to this the news that Rider GM Brendan Taman front-loaded the contract to Darian Durant so that placing him on the six game injury list would not provide any salary cap space, makes it pretty tough to sign Ben Heenan or Brent Jones if they come back from the NFL.

The Riders seem to go with a short term just win now with a combination of rookies and vets looking for a second or third chance. There will come a time when that string will not be able to be played through to the playoffs. And you have to wonder if the Riders don’t make the playoffs this year, what will the future hold for Cory Chamblin or Brendan Taman?

So on to this week.

Ottawa goes to Edmonton on Thursday and Ottawa is riding a two game winning streak. Edmonton lost their quarterback Mike Reilly for about 12 weeks after losing their leading rusher so it is back up time in Edmonton. The question here is who does the better scouting and who can find the players to fill in the holes. You have to like what Ottawa has done so far and Chris Jones may have a fine defense in Edmonton, but Toronto made him look stupid in week one and I doubt his offense has gotten any better. Ottawa 24 – Edmonton 14.

Montreal at Winnipeg is the early game on Friday and Montreal pulled out a surprise win with Raheem Cato, who used to be on the Riders negotiation list, as the quarterback who led Montreal past Calgary. That was an impressive win, but this game is on Winnipeg’s turf, but Winnipeg will likely be without Drew Willy. Winnipeg will discover it is no fun having a one trick pony. Montreal 30-21 over Winnipeg.

The late game has the Riders in BC and if there is a desperation game for the Riders, it is this one. Believe it or not, the Riders are only a win out of first place, but relying on other teams quarterbacks to go down is no way to build a playoff contender. The Riders can score points, BC will be at home with less rust on their system, and I see the Riders emerging with a 31-29 win over the Lions.

Toronto goes to Calgary on Monday night and this game features the amazing Trevor Harris who held his own against the Riders, taking his precision passing show to Calgary. Toronto has done a great job in scouting players and getting their ready and you have to like their offense and even some parts of the defense. Toronto got cursed with a six game road trip thanks to Rogers and their desire to sink the CFL. With a win Monday, Toronto at least comes out of this road trip with a 500 record. Toronto 31-21 over Calgary.