Riders aren’t quite who they think they are
So after an eastern road trip where the Riders won games by one point and three, a return to Mosaic Stadium and the opportunity to perhaps clinch a playoff spot was perhaps too much to hope for.
Good teams learn how to win ugly when they need to, but good teams also know how to put away teams and rise to the occasion. For three quarters and a half quarter, the Riders showed up but seemed more interested in figuring out new choreographed touchdown routines leaving the Ottawa Redblacks 12 points behind heading into the last few minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Rider defense chose to play it safe and the result was Ottawa earned a 33-32 win which combined with Edmonton’s win over Toronto, dropped the Riders into fourth place, just four points ahead of BC for the final playoff spot and a likely crossover date with either Toronto or Ottawa.
Chalk it up to immaturity or perhaps to be more fair, a lack of focus. Rider GM and Head Coach Chris Jones has assembled a team of players looking for second chances and perhaps bigger things and while going from five wins to eight wins is impressive, probably even more is how he has juggled the various personalities and tried to get them working together in one direction.