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No Water Shortage as Riders Feed on Bitter Tears of Redblacks, Blue Bombers and Eskimo fans!

Jul 26, 2016 | 9:09 AM

It was in retrospect a perfect football weekend!

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers started things off by doing what they do best: get beaten by a gong by the Calgary Stampeders. It seemed almost right away after the game, the Bombers announced Matt Nicholls would be the starting quarterback against Edmonton on Thursday, like that might help with Winnipeg’s lack of blocking.

Drew Willy, former Rider back-up, is exhibiting all the classic signs of a quarterback suffering from PTSD as his deer in the headlights look indicates a man haunted emotionally, psychologically and physically by an endless parade of defensive linemen unloading on him. Try being a human piñata one day a week for six months and then get back to me about your job effectiveness.

So while Winnipeg changes quarterbacks, of more interest to me is whether they will retain their GM or coach. If you have no one able to block, you look to the GM, unless you have a problem coaching, and with Bob Wylie coaching the offensive line, I don’t think coaching is that much of a problem.

Winnipeg seems short of talented defensive backs, but their defensive line and linebackers seem to be adequate.

Receiver is a bit of a problem with Weston Dressler and Ryan Smith going down with injuries and somewhat proving Chris Jones right by releasing them. They have Andrew Harris at running back, but this is where my argument about an inadequate offensive line takes shape because Harris is not getting the touches or yards you would think – but then again, name me a good running team this CFL season.

I hope Winnipeg hangs on to its insipid band of pioneers for the rest of the season, allowing the Riders to sweep the series and force Winnipeg to go to Year 27 of their Rebuilding Campaign. I really hope the Riders make the playoffs. This will make Bomber fans go crazy, and Manitoba needs more practice handling stroke patients in their bunker hospitals.

But then Edmonton did something even better. They choked on a 25 point lead to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and lost 37-31. I thought the locally produced triple distilled Whisky was stronger than I thought as I watched Hamilton crawl closer and then overtake Deadmonton.

By the time the Schmoes realized what was happening to them, they were drooling at the mouth like Blue Bomber fans, unable to articulate the nightmare world that was unfolding before them. The Eskimos did the impossible. They gave Jeremiah Masoli the CFL record for consecutive completions. The Eskimo defense is that bad, and Jebus willing, this game marks the continual slide down the standings as the Schmoes are now just two points ahead of the Riders.

I cruised the Eskimo fan pages and imagined nursing homes across the Edmonton area filled with shuddering patients hooked up to oxygen and feeding tubes, unable to type their frustration with what they are seeing from their defending Grey Cup champions.  I think the Schmoes lost more talent to the NFL than they were expecting and replacing it is proving a little more difficult than they thought. Then again, maybe their coaching last year was better?

Which brings us to the Riders who beat the remaining undefeated team in Ottawa 30-29 in a messy affair that was redeemed by Tyler Crapigna kicking a 53 yard field goal to give the Riders a lead in the last minute, leaving the defense to clinch the win with a sack or two of Ottawa’s third string quarterback, Brock Jensen, who did not lead the Loyalists in the War of 1812..

This game was probably won on the fourth play when Ottawa’s starting quarterback Trevor Harris was tackled and then has his leg rolled on awkwardly by Rider Corey Irvin. Considering how Saskatchewan has traditionally been badly hit by injuries, it leveled the playing field for Mitchell Gale, the Rider backup quarterback who got his first start and the Rider defense.

The Riders mixture of blitzes and different looks was a bit more than what Jensen seemed willing to handle, but again, then you blitz about 88 per cent of the time, sooner or later the other team is going to hit a long pass.

Ottawa did this twice, hitting Brad Sinopoli on a 65 and then a 47 yard touchdown catch and run play. As a fan, you realize the other team is going to hit long balls, but it would be nice if the receivers could be tackled instead of running like jack rabbits across Taylor Field turf.

The Riders were helped by a couple of blocked kicks, one of them resulted in a touchdown for Trevaughn Campbell, the former University of Regina Rams player who was hung out to dry last week trying to cover two receivers in the BC game.

Gale showed an arm and moxie of his own, hitting Naimaan Roosevelt for an 88 yard touchdown and using Roosevelt on the Riders final drive to get into position for the winning kick. It was a raucous crowd that was dying to roar for a win and perhaps now the chip on the Rider shoulder has been knocked off, they can concentrate on their next game in Montreal against the Jim Popp Alouettes who may get Kevin Glenn back at quarterback.

One of the mandates the Riders talked about when Chris Jones came in was accountability and the spectacle of watching long balls getting caught and taken in for touchdowns for opponents had to have rankled Jones and his defensive schemes. On Monday the Riders released Brandon MacDonald, an American defensive back whose number (22) featured prominently chasing people in the end zone.

To his credit, when he was released, he said it was no surprise considering his play the last couple of weeks as he thanked the CFL for the experience and said he was headed back to the States. The Riders brought in Major Culbert, who played for Jones in Toronto.
So while the defensive secondary seems to be a work in progress, another area is the offensive line which resembles a MASH unit with injuries to Chris Best, Dan Clark and Brendan LaBatte. At practice it appears Clark will return to his centre position, which considering the wild snaps is good news, bad news situation. LaBatte is likely out for a while because against BC it seemed like LaBatte lost his helmet due to a kick.

The Riders brought back Aaron Picton, the former University of Regina Ram who has a good mini-camp, but seemed to plateau in training camp and didn’t make the team. However, the team apparently gives them studying material and Picton can play guard or centre positions, giving a degree of professionalism that has been lacking since the start of the season.

It’s interesting to see how the players respond after getting cut, and perhaps realizing the level they need to play or operate at to be a professional football player. You cannot outwork Chris Jones, well maybe you can out-scheme him, but the push to being a top player and top organization comes from the top and when you have leadership like that, you learn to answer interesting questions about yourself.

My hope is that Picton makes a contribution, but in the meantime, Josiah St. John, our number one pick who sat out training camp, is getting a crash course in playing offensive tackle.  It’s a learning curve on the offensive line but in the end the offensive linemen need to be physically and mentally ready to handle the position because they hold the health of the quarterback in their collective hands.

So we now await Montreal and Toronto, mostly as a reason to scout Montreal prior to Friday night’s game. I’ll come out with some predictions later on, but having the Riders win and Edmonton and Winnipeg lose is an excellent start. Since Winnipeg and Edmonton play each other this week, too much to hope for a tie I guess.