Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Riders 2016 is as relentless as Zombie Attack!

Nov 2, 2015 | 1:56 PM

Halloween is my sister’s birthday and ever since I found the 666 tattooed on her head, I have been forced to fight her evil, so the Riders 42-19 demolition job loss to the Calgary Stampeders on Halloween came as no surprise.

The common reaction in my neck of the woods is huh, the season is still going on? Then on the one hand you have the type of fans who urge support for the team no matter what; over yonder you have the fans who fell off the bandwagon and say this team is condemned to eternal hellfire and mediocrity. Then I’m over here with the rest of the misfits, having lived enough to have gone through such seasons (although I have to admit, not this record-breaking bad) to know it is not the end all and be all.

The latest spin out of official Riderville is the Riders loaded up for the Grey Cup win in 2013 and with hindsight; would you have loaded up the team knowing it would have imploded two years later? Most people would nod and say yes, but I reject the premise of this question.

The results of the 2015 season were not an inevitable result of the 2013 Grey Cup season. This season is the result of stupid management, stupid coaching, and stupid decisions because the person at the center of it all – Cory Chamblin – was not challenged or had his bad football craziness checked by someone more rational.

The responsibility for that starts at the top with former Rider President Jim Hopson who extended Chamblin’s contract and in the process created the monster that Chamblin would become. Next on the list is former GM Brendan Taman who although a nice guy, never stood up to Chamblin for the reason that perhaps in hindsight seems logical – he doesn’t know football.

This year at the Pros and Joes Evening to benefit Prostate Cancer research held by the Riders, there was the opportunity to ask questions. My question was why do the Riders seem to hate their Canadians? Chamblin had no respect for Canadian talent and that led to the loss of Craig Butler, Keith Shologan and Zach Evans just to start off the top of my head. They held on to Dominic Picard in the CFL expansion draft, only to lose him to Winnipeg this year where he didn’t exactly distinguish himself.

Mike McCullough, the former Rider linebacker who I thought was a second coach on the field if perhaps at time a bit physically overmatched, smiled when he saw my question and asked it. This is a question that obviously the Canadian players, especially on defense, must have been thinking these last couple of years.

If like me you taped the game to watch it again to see if it was as bad you thought it was going to be, consider this example. Paul Woldu was cut from the Riders after training camp and then brought back and other than special teams never saw any regular playing time. He went in at safety because of injuries to Keenan McDougall and did very well, including a nice takedown of Jerome Messam that had me asking, where the hell is the talent scouting for the Riders?

The third leg in the destruction of the Riders, 2015 edition, was Cory Chamblin. His inability to work well with others, his inability to teach defense, his inability to recognize and develop Canadian talent, all resulted in his living comfortably cashing in the monthly cheques from the Riders until he gets his next job. To be blunt, Cory became a legend in his own mind, and according to Rod Pedersen, this happened after he hoisted the Grey Cup over his head and started thinking he was the reincarnation of Pittsburgh Steeler Head Coach Mike Tomlin.

The All In Theory sounds good as a book title, or hey, maybe even as a marketing slogan, but never let a theory get in the way of reality. Unlike say baseball, where a team can bulk up on free agents in an effort to win a title – hey Blue Jays, see how the Kansas City Royals didn’t go for homers and won a World Series? – in football it is possible to have sustained success and excellence without going into the toilet.

Case in point – New England Patriots who have a franchise quarterback and manage to consistently win ever since say, 2001. Four Super Bowl titles and six appearances in that time frame kind of throw Pedersen’s theory, and I suggest it probably comes from Rider spin doctors, into the recyclable mess where it belongs. Here’s another example, the BC Lions have been in the playoffs for 19 years without sucking as bad as the Riders do now.

The floating of these trial balloons is part of the process of preparing the population for the naming of Jeremy O’Day as GM and probably Paul La Police as Rider coach. O’Day was part of the stupidity that has Rider fans shaking their face in disbelief at a Rider team that may go down as one of the worst in history.

Whether he gets a pass depends on whether he has a plan to build the Riders out of the hole they find themselves in, making that plan public so people have an idea that when they put their money down for this team, this team has a definite direction other than the gong show they have now.

This has an uncomfortable whiff of the Old Boys Network, and I know I would hate for the search to not be exhaustive and perhaps even imaginative. The type of excuses we have heard throughout this season are not just sad, they are insulting to the intelligence of even the semi educated Rider fan. I’m not going to say I know all and see all, but the first step is asking questions and knowing you don’t know everything.

Judging from the Riders play on Halloween, apparently they don’t either.

So the CFL season wraps up this week and we have Winnipeg, joining us in playoff purgatory, going to Toronto, who are likely finishing third and playing their last game at the Sky Dome. Winnipeg will undergo a few changes in the offseason, most likely with coordinators and while they were close, as the Riders can tell you, close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. Toronto on the other hand tried out Ricky Ray last game and his arm is clearly not up to snuff being unable to do more than 20 yards downfield with any sort of velocity. I got the feeling Toronto tried Ray after Trevor Harris had his confidence rocked the game before, and you have to wonder if Toronto will try to rotate quarterbacks to give them some work, but keep them free from injury. If Harris can recover his confidence, he should start in the Eastern semi-final while Winnipeg tries to go all out for respectability in a season where they hoped to be playing for the Grey Cup at home. Toronto 26-24.

Hamilton goes to Ottawa to complete the battle for first place and who would have guessed that the wind would play such havoc with Hamilton quarterback Jeff Matthews? This and Simoni Lawrence’s low hit on Henry Burris, combined with Kent Austin melting down after the game prompting an apology from Tiger Cat owner Bob Young shows the Cats are not the lock to make the Grey Cup as they were when Zach Collaros was running things. Ottawa has a six point lead coming home and I still think that Hamilton is a slightly better team than Ottawa, although when it counts, you have to wonder. Hamilton wins 27-23, winning a moral victory and allowing Ottawa to clinch first place.

Calgary goes to BC in a preview of the western semi-final and this reminds me of a similar situation a couple of years ago when Calgary went to BC for the last game and lost two defensive linemen and the Riders and Kory Sheets exploited that to run to the Grey Cup. If I remember that, John Hufnagel sure does and while it will be hyped as a playoff preview, I think Calgary will play as many back-ups as possible and avoid giving anything away to the Lions for the playoff game. The Lions will be playing to entertain their fans and maybe to send a message to Calgary, but I think Calgary’s depth is better than BC’s starting line-up. Calgary wins 27-23 in a game that should tell us absolutely nothing about the western semi-final, unless a rash of injuries breaks out during the game.

Finally the long nightmare that is the 2015 season ends for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Montreal. Both teams are out of the playoffs and the Riders are looking to avoid a franchise worst 16 losses while Montreal is attempting to uh, build for the future? I would not be surprised if the Riders actually pull out a win, but the game is in Montreal and the Riders have a better chance winning at Lotto Max than here. Montreal wins 27-23 and maybe Weston Dressler gets his 1000 yards receiving.