If You Thought Friday Night’s Game was Bad…..

Sure it was raining in Regina last night, but the 26,000 in attendance is just the start of a shot across the bow of the board of directors. It was not long ago when the team held their annual meeting and saw the number for revenue lost from not hosting a home playoff game. With the team continuing to slide and no reasonable prospect for getting out of it soon, the Riders schedule which was front loaded for home games, will become wasted opportunities and a 5-13 season. This is very much a real possibility.

Speaking of 13, since Darian Durant went down with his Achilles injury in the Banjo Bowl last year, the Riders have gone 2-13 under Cory Chamblin, including the western semi-final against Edmonton that Chamblin “called all the defensive signals for and they didn’t get a touchdown!”

So let’s review Chamblin’s record as defensive coordinator this season: 0-2 in the pre-season and 0-4 in the regular season. You wonder what was the real problem with Richie Hall’s defense last year? Speaking of former Rider assistants, George Cortez managed to poke the holes in Chamblin’s defense by introducing something that I would never thought I would see – Travis Lulay rushing and getting 40 yard plus runs past our defense. That is like Ricky Ray running big time and the way this defense plays, I would not rule that out the next time we play Toronto and if Ray is playing then.

The odds of Chamblin losing his job, considering his contract was extended to 2017, is probably not going to happen this year. Chamblin’s last line of defense is he is a streaky coach – his teams win and lose games in bunches and he must be holding out hope that a six to eight game winning streak is somewhere in his future.

The Riders will likely allow him to try to work his out of this, although his comments last week at the fans telling them they don’t matter certainly didn’t strike too many as being bridge building. Chamblin’s ego makes him refuse to do the one thing Rider fans may accept at this time and may help him to keep his job – accept responsibility for his actions and that they haven’t worked out.

Chamblin and his supporters can point to injuries as a problem, and yes they are to an extent, but a bigger concern is the lack of back up Canadian talent.

If you read this column on a regular basis, I have been somewhat consistent about the Riders inability to develop, never mind keep, Canadian talent. It may be all part of the way Rider GM Brendan Taman front-loads contracts to attract free agents and then has nothing in the bank to offer when it comes time to re-sign that the Riders cannot hold talent. It may be the coaching that allows young Canadian talent to go elsewhere.

That falls on Brendan Taman’s shoulders and his record as a GM in the CFL is 83 and 100 – which means the folly at Taylor Field last night was a milestone in Taman’s career. Chamblin for his part is now a 500 coach – which despite a Grey Cup win is showing his inability to settle on being a head coach with a vision for the team, or a meddling defensive coordinator who should never have been promoted to the head spot.

My first year as a season ticket holder was 1976 and that team went to the Grey Cup and in one of the happiest wins I have seen at Taylor Field, beat Edmonton 40-0 at Taylor Field during the regular season. The next year the team fell off a cliff because it got old and Jim Eddy could not scheme to make it a playoff team. The Riders stayed out of the playoffs for 11 years afterwards.

This defense is not old, in places it is hurt, but it is the scheme brought in by the defensive coordinator/head coach that is making this team a joke. Never before in CFL history has a defense given up 500 yards offense a game for four games in a row until Cory Chamblin let this team out. To do something like that takes a combination of arrogance and stupidity that strangely a person has to salute because it is so rare.

There are other stupid decisions that have been made – when you have a short kick to be attempted, do you go with an American rookie, or a 45 year old Canadian who has tried this for many years before?

But the image that remains from the game I am left with took place at the end of the fourth quarter. The Riders got the ball down to the BC one yard line and back up Brent Smith rolled out and threw the ball and saw offensive lineman Cory Watman and back-up fullback Stephen Rea collided going for the ball in the end zone

The Keystone Kops aspect of that play sums up the Riders 2015 season perfectly.

by Riderville

If You Thought Friday Night’s Game was Bad…..

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