By Greg Urbanoski

Riderville

Pitiful, just pitiful

Jul 9, 2019 | 9:22 AM

The 2019 CFL season is not over yet for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but following their 37-10 collapse to the Calgary Stampeders, the end is nigh.

The Riders were coming into this game on a short week, having played on Monday against Toronto but the way they played against Calgary demonstrated a team that’s players were not on the same page with each other, and worse, seemed more interested in their flight plans out of town than what was on the field.

One could chalk this up to a learning process, where players are trying to figure out where they fit under new coaches, or new players like Solomon Elimimian perhaps not being in game shape and not being able to play close to the way they did in BC.

As a former linebacker I was looking forward to watching Elimimian but I consistently saw him being blocked out of plays and his reaction times were not what one would have liked to have seen. One would have thought that Elimimian would have tightened the Rider tackling but the Riders made Calgary look like the defending champs by blowing tackles on defense, being unable to block on offense, and I shook my head as I pondered the unfathomable possibility that BC GM Ed Hervey was right and Elimimian is months away from calling it a career.

The play of Cody Fajardo was perhaps inevitable after two fantastic games where he passed for over 700 yards that suddenly he was unable to move the ball club. Part of that problem came with some injuries on the offensive line and the result was Calgary was able to not just get pressure on Fajardo, they shut down the running game and most importantly of all – they made their tackles.

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So the Riders hopes of making some room for themselves in the west ern hunt went up in smoke, and worse, the question has to be asked if some of the Rider first year coordinators are out of their depth or whether or not they can work their way out of it.

Jason Shivers had his worst game on defense, between the broken tackles, the undisciplined penalties and even worse, the lack of coverages which left Calgary Stampeders receivers more wide open than Tim Horton’s on a Saturday morning. Shivers are thought to be be able to carry on or modify the Chris Jones defense of the last couple of years, but whether a lack of personnel or worse, a lack of preparation and playcalling, has made this defense resemble somewhat the magnificent defenses seen in Saskatchewan in 2015/2016.

So the clock is ticking. The Riders have a bye week, but we’ve already seen Jeff Knox Jr. sign with the Ottawa Redblacks, former Rider punter Josh Bartel sign with BC, former Rider kicker Tyler Crapigna go to Toronto. One option the Riders may want to consider is cutting some over-priced defensive players who are not adding any value, or making a tackle.

Let’s start with Solomon Means who made some fine interference penalties to go with not knowing what coverage he is supposed to be in, but to keep an open mind, let’s maybe blame Shivers for this.

On the offensive line, the Riders are missing Brendan LaBatte, Takoby Cofield and Dariusz Bladek on the six game injured list. The Riders have Jake Bennett, the supplemental pick, on the practice roster, along with Cameron Jefferson. The Riders may be in a similar situation as they were in 1979 when they installed Roger Aldag and Bob Poley on the offensive line and took their lumps as those two legends learned to play at the pro level.

I had the Riders pegged for fourth as they learned to transition from the Chris Jones era and that might still be accurate or reasonable. While people may piss and moan about the Riders performance on Saturday night, they might want to remember that Chris Jones got blanked 31-0 in Winnipeg last year.

The thing to watch is how the Riders respond from getting beaten like a gong in their next game. Craig Dickenson may sound at times like he is out of his depth, but this is an interesting situation where Dickenson has to first let his assistant coaches do their job, or try to do their job. If they cannot, or if they can’t seem to learn from their mistakes and try to improve, then probably by Labour Day you will see some changes.

The CFL coaching cap makes things tough to pull off changes, but if Shivers doesn’t seem to be able to get this defense operating at a higher level, he might be the first major coaching casualty for the Riders. Patience may seem to be an admirable quality when looking at a new coaching staff, but the Riders have another problem they are facing, which is something the rest of the league is facing.

Attendance seems to be going down around the CFL and while the Rider fans have fed off of the perception they are rabid fans and would sell out every game, the teams’ performance, along with the gong show of trying to get to the game and compounded by the concession prices has many fans thinking that maybe picking up a six pack, ordering in a pizza and watching the game on the tube makes it a more cost effective option than showing up.

The Riders have hired some people from the Raptors and Blue Jays to make the fan game day experience more capitvating, but the results are mixed as the game day experience people are trying to find the right chords to play to appeal to fans. The Gainer eyes controversy was funny to follow, but the overall effect from the elongated entrance of players which takes away from the adrenaline rush you would normally expect during the intro.

Rider fans seem to have caught up with the rest of the CFL with diminished attention spans and even worse, a knowledge of the game that was very impressive when you went to other stadiums. Add to that the schedule of games which seem to have diminished the ability of out of towner fans to attend in an economy which is not as vibrant as our political masters would like to imagine and the prospects for the Rider attendance this year and especially next year are in doubt.

Sure the Riders are hosting the Grey Cup in 2020, but the only way right now they will be there is if they buy their own tickets for it. Mosaic Stadium may be big league, but the intimidation factor that came with Taylor Field is no longer there. The Riders have lost something in the translation and maybe bigger is not necessarily better.

So the Riders, on and off the field, are in search of who they are. They are not last year’s team, but what kind of team they are is far from certain. If they don’t come up with some answers soon, then the default response will be – not good enough.

So let’s start with Edmonton at BC. BC got gifted their first win thanks to Chris Rainey of Toronto having a brain freeze on a missed field goal and conceding a single which allowed BC to win. Edmonton is coming off a bye and a loss in Winnipeg and with Calgary winning the pressure may be on in Edmonton to do something, anything to keep scrambling on top of the western conference.

Edmonton already beat BC but another win on BC turf would go a long way to helping Edmonton stay in position in the top three spots in the west and leave BC on the outside scrambling and hoping to score a cross-over spot. The Lions may have gotten some confidence beating Toronto, but then again, you could say the Riders also should have gained some confidence beating Toronto – so let’s say Edmonton does what they should be expected to do and take this from BC to help solidify their spot on top of the western conference – Edmonton wins 31-24.

Toronto goes to Winnipeg and one suspects insomniacs across Canada will welcome this game. Close counts in horse shoes and hand grenades so for Toronto to think taking BC to the limit and almost winning is some kind of potential omen for the rest of the year. Well, the question may be if Cory Chamblin will match his final run of losses with the Riders, which I think was eight games, or if he can break through against the July Grey Cup Champs Winnipeg Blue Bombers. I think Chamblin’s losing streak continues – Winnipeg 34-16.

Montreal at Ottawa may have seen a week ago to be a blah kind of game, but Montreal came to life against Hamilton and used Thomas Stanback at the running back position to take Hamilton down. Montreal’s defense seems to be in a better spot than what people might think, with the offense being the big unknown. Ottawa got schooled by Winnipeg, who were without Matt Nichols after an ill advised run forced him from the game.

Ottawa is in a similar position with Saskatchewan in that they share a quarterback just getting their starts and learning to play the game as the leader of the team. Dominique Davis will have his good and bad moments but Ottawa should be able to mount a better offense than what they showed against Winnipeg. Ottawa wins an entertaining game 31-27.

Finally we have Calgary going to Hamilton and despite having what seems like half their team on the injury list, Calgary has not lost much of a step behind Nick Arbuckle. Calgary’s defense was supposed to be soft, but they managed to mount a great pass rush and pick off the ball from Saskatchewan with what seemed to be numbing regularity.

Calgary is coming off a win and Hamilton is coming off what might be described in retrospect as a trap game against Montreal. Can Nick Arbuckle continue his hot play? Maybe, but you would think that Hamilton has better coaching and talent than the Riders. Plus the game is in Hamilton. Hamilton wins this one 31-26.