The Sunseri Did Not Rise Over Hamilton

That was ugly.

It may not have been worst game over as some 70 year old Rider fan from England told me Monday afternoon because I have endured enough of those and this guy’s memory isn’t what it used to be. Still, this game ranks as the stinker of the season, and has raised some troubling doubts in Rider Nation as to whether or not this team has peaked or will peak on Sunday against Ottawa and will just slide out of the 2014 season.

First, after taking in two practices at Taylor Field last week, I was struck at the different in speed between what takes place at practice and what Sunseri faced on the field. Let’s be honest, if I can guess what the hell they were going to face on the field, the Rider coaches who know a hell of a lot more certainly knew that.

Sunseri had the eyes in the headlights look of a racoon about to get nailed on Highway 11. His mind could not process how fast the play was moving so he could not get the ball out fast enough and he was not confident about where to throw it. I wondered if George Cortez has a bounty on interceptions thrown with each interception costing a quarterback say $500, which when you think of it is not a bad idea. Sunseri threw one interception, probably realized his game cheque needed all the cash he could muster and did not throw it deep for the rest of the game.

The textbook says when you have a heavy rush, use your running game, and if that is being blocked up, try some screen passes. The idea is to give your quarterback a chance to duck the rush, get the defense to back the hell off, and build the momentum that is crucial for a young quarterback.

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The offensive line didn’t block, the receivers didn’t help out, there were no adjustments being made anywhere to rally around giving the team a chance to win. It seemed to me that the Riders had decided they had the excuse they needed to lose this game, which would have been the eighth win in a row for them, and mail this effort in.

Now I usually look at trends and in the CFL four or five wins in a row is usually where almost all streaks end. The Riders have put together two such streaks and rolled them into one for this season. The problem with this streak, and the hidden blessing, is that these wins were so intense the Riders may not have had anything left in the gas tank when they hit the turf at Tim Horton’s Field. The defense has been on the field for quite a long time and more importantly had been making scoring plays. The sloppy tackling on Sunday showed the defense was tired and it was the offense that was going to carry the team.

The problem was the offense did not show up. The drop off from even a sub-standard Darian Durant whose best trait this season was not turning the ball over, to a Sunseri was obvious. While Sunseri had gone into BC when Durant was hurt and did well, and then managed the game sufficiently in the Banjo Bowl when Durant went out again, there has been the issue of his play at the start of the season, seen noticeably in the exhibition games where he was not making decisions quickly as he had done last season.

That was frustrating because Sunseri has a quick release, he can read the field quickly, but it was like watching your kid walk out onto a school stage to give a public speech and he opens his mouth and nothing comes out.
With just under a half a season remaining, the Riders cannot get caught up in the panic button pushing of jumping from quarterback to quarterback or trading for Henry Burris. Burris is the worst option because if you remember the name Michael Bishop, another hired gun who was brought in because management had not faith in our back-up quarterbacks, all Bishop managed to do was take us to the western semi-final which we lost badly.

So let’s say we lose our next seven games to finish 8-10, which may be good enough for first in the east. In the West Winnipeg needs to finish ahead of us, and they have lost the season series. Crossing over to the east, which using these games as an extensive training camp to work out the kinks in our offense, find out which back-up quarterbacks can play, and find an offensive system that may give us luck in a one game play-off is not a bad idea. If Sunseri or Seth Doege or even Keith Price develops some rhythm with some receivers, that gives us the beginnings of a balanced offense which may help salvage this season.

I’m not convinced this season is spiralling down the proverbial toilet. But it is not going to be as easy as it may have appeared to Rider fans and apparently a few players on Sunday. At his best, Sunseri provides the Riders with a QB who makes quick reads, gets the ball off and moves the team quickly down the field. That was not the quarterback we saw on Sunday and quite frankly, haven’t seen much of this season, probably because the Riders emphasis on not turning the ball over.

However, the Riders have to do their best to help turn their own fortunes around by playing as a team instead of waiting for a quarterback to lead them like Moses back to the Grey Cup podium. Chris Best is out at offensive line and Dan Clark has been off and on as a replacement, but his growing pains are not as magnified as they are for Sunseri but they are no less important.

The receivers have to seriously help out Sunseri. It is now obvious that Chris Getzlaf is injured and offers nothing but a token body to throw at on the field. Dressler had some late catches when the Cats were playing off the ball, but the question is where have the other receivers, with the exception of Rob Bagg gone? One can argue it takes time to work them into the offense, but when I look at what Ricky Ray does in Toronto with a new crop of receivers that are different from what he started the season with, the transition argument is losing its coherence.

We have had injuries affecting our receiving corps, which makes consistency a problem. But instead of having the players sit back and wait for the coaches to make changes, the players need to take the initiative to get together and address these issues on their own, on some park in Regina in the evenings, where afterwards they can go for wings and talk about running patterns.

On defense, I will give them the Hamilton game with the sloppy tackling. It was bound to catch up to them and I think the defense needs to realize if this team is to hoist the Grey Cup trophy at the end of the season, it will be the defense that leads the charge.

And so you ask, is that a viable option – the Riders as 2014 Grey Cup Champions?

I still think yes, even after the dog’s dinner of football games this past weekend. Calgary lost their quarterback for an undetermined time, but perhaps more seriously, two defensive players. Winnipeg lost their starting quarterback. In the war of attrition that the 2014 CFL season is turning out to be, the winner may be the one which uses its depth to the best of its ability.

If the Riders slide, I will cringe, but the important thing is to look at progress between last week and this week, and then the following week. If the Riders look like they are doing more things and more importantly, doing them somewhat well on offense, then look at these last seven games as a very long training camp with the team being geared up for the playoffs.

Durant has indicated he expects to be throwing in five weeks, and although that may be an overly optimistic view by our quarterback, you would be hard pressed to bet against him. The Riders have a bye week the second last week of the season, so the possibility is there that Durant could be on the sidelines for the Riders last game, and may even see some game action.

Now if you accept that with the recent spate of injuries, the Lions and Eskimos are best positioned to move ahead because of their quarterback situation, let’s say the finish in the west has Calgary first, BC second and Edmonton third with the Riders crossing over.

That has the Riders facing Toronto, Hamilton or Montreal in the eastern final, with let’s say Toronto and Hamilton finishing first in the east. Neither game will be easy, but if the Riders do achieve a slow slide, they can start to retool their offense and defense into the best way to go on the road and steal two from the east.

In the meantime, the west beats itself up. The Riders, with a bit of luck, face an opponent with a diminished line-up in the Grey Cup and defeats them, to win their five Grey Cup and first consecutive cup titles.

This is just a scenario but keep this in mind because depending on how the Sunseri experiment goes, it may be the only option the Riders have. And hey, I like winning Grey Cup titles

So this week we have the following games:

Toronto at BC – Toronto is coming off an epic melt-down against Calgary and apparently is looking to set up a community partnership to run the team. Yeah, so much love for the CFL’s most storied franchise. BC on the other hand is putting distance between itself and Winnipeg and now with uncertain quarterbacking in Calgary may be thinking about a push for first place. BC wins this one.

Edmonton at Hamilton – If Hamilton really wanted to do us a favor after waking up Rider Nation to Sunseri quarterbacking, they would take out the Edmonton Eskimos and help keep some dream of second place alive. The game takes place in Hamilton, which has a 2-0 record under its new stadium and Hamilton looked good in kicking our butts last Sunday. But Edmonton has a quarterback who knows how to take a beating and keep on ticking. Edmonton takes this one because we are getting no favors this season.

Calgary at Montreal – Calgary is feeling good about itself as it heads into Montreal to extend its lead for first in the west. Montreal is struggling to survive in the eastern conference. Some question marks here about how much Calgary’s defensive line will be damaged with recent injuries, and I would assume Drew Tate leads the Stamps into Montreal. Montreal is not consistent enough offensively to take advantage, Calgary wins.

Ottawa at Saskatchewan – This game could go all over the place. Let’s assume in a normal universe the Riders manage to turn things around and win this game, setting them up for an interesting showdown in Edmonton. Sunseri manages to look competent and the Riders have some hope against the Esks. That would be nice, but also conceivable is a Rider loss to Ottawa, which suddenly thinks it has the keys to victory handed over by Hamilton. And then we get some serious meltdowns over trading for Henry Burris. The hopeful side of me is going for the Rider win; the tormented side will not accept an Ottawa win.

Hopefully the Riders feel the same.