By Greg Urbanoski

Riderville

Toronto new Grey Cup contender as Riders slip quietly under the covers

Sep 14, 2021 | 11:35 AM

It was somewhere east of Saskatchewan, in a thatch of chemically contaminated ground sown with salt where nothing natural grows, that the 2021 Rider season came to an early conclusion.

Technically there are still three months left before the Grey Cup is awarded in mid-December in Hamilton, but the Riders 33-9 loss to the Bombers in the Banjo Bowl has put out the challenge to Cody Fajardo and the Riders.

For the Riders to be anything more than pundit picks, they need to beat two teams – Calgary and Winnipeg. Until they do, the Riders might as well audition people to get ready for the 2022 season when the Riders look to host the Grey Cup.

The last four games the Riders played the Bombers, the Bombers have not only shut down the Rider offense, they have dominated them. The Bombers won the opening game at Mosaic, they won the first playoff game, they won the first western final.

This pains me to write, but the Bombers are in the Riders’ heads and until the Riders respond to what Winnipeg does on the field, the Bombers will have clear sailing to represent the West yet again in the Grey Cup.

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The Riders have managed to stay with the Bombers for a half in each game, but a combination of poor discipline and judgment has combined to ensure the Riders have let victory slip out of their grasp. The Riders problems start with the offensive line, go on to lack of discipline on defense, and continue to plague the receiving corps.

So what have we learned about the Riders as the 2021 season reaches the 1/3 mark?

1) The Riders receiving corps has no deep threats. Losing Shaq Evans meant the Riders lost the one receiver that sent shivers down the spines of defensive coordinators because he often went deep. When Evans went down with an injury, the Riders hoped Kyran Moore would step up and to an extent he has, but Moore is an underneath receiver, he cannot compete with a defensive back going deep. The Riders have an interesting mix of Canadian receivers, but they need to find some speed to stretch the defenses or opposing teams will be able to beat up on the Rider receivers, keep them to five yard outs and wait for them to self-destruct.

2) The Riders have a discipline problem with players taking selfish penalties. While the beat down in Dollarama stadium in Winnipeg featured a brawl with two Riders getting ejected while performance enhancing drug user Andrew Harris skates scott free for tearing the helmet off a Rider player and Nic Demski gets away with punching another Rider story, you have to wonder if CFL officials have bought into the Refs for the W craze. That being said, the Riders have gone through stretches of stupid penalties that extended drives for their opponents. The Rider bye week may have encouraged the team to read their clippings and assume they would coast to first place so their penalties are even worse because they are reactions to not getting their way, which is the sign of a selfish team.

3) Cody Fajardo should review tape of Casey Printers and Jon Jennings, two former BC Lion quarterbacks who broke through with amazing seasons, only to disappear once teams had film on them and were able to game plan against them until they were no longer in the league. Two years ago Fajardo was the toast of Regina, but now with an offensive line made of paper mache, he seems compelled to try to do everything to compensate for no line by running and in doing so, making him available for opposing defenses to tee off against him. Fajardo in the last two games has been seeing ghosts, a tribute to Winnipeg defensive coordinator Richie Hall and the way he planned for the Riders. If Fajardo wants to be more than just a one year wonder, he needs to adapt his game to reflect the way teams are defending against him or he will end up being like Printers and Jennings, a guy who shone for a short time but did not last.

4) Fajardo did not beat Calgary in their two games in 2019, and now with Winnipeg having a four game winning streak, Fajardo needs to show he has what it takes to take his team past a quality opponent. Unfortunately, the answer to this may not come this year, but perhaps next.

So the Riders now have to deal with the spectacle of their former GM, Head Coach and defensive coordinator in Chris Jones making his way to Toronto as a defensive consultant. Jones ended up in Toronto when Glenn Young, who was the Argos defensive coordinator, was let go after not going along with a vaccination request from his employer. Considering how the CFL will allow forfeits of games with no game pay for teams unable to post a roster because of Covid, the question has to be asked, if you are not willing to do what it takes to help the team win and not lose money, then why are you on the roster?

Jones will not be on the sidelines Friday since he has to pass Covid quarantine first, but the arrival of Jones to straighten out the Argo defense while Hamilton struggles to field a healthy QB, means the door is open for Toronto to make a move on first place and hold it before Hamilton gets its act together.

With Calgary looking to revive their season one game at a time and looking forward to their three game stretch with the Riders which may decide second or third place, The Riders will be facing a western conference that is slowly rounding into competitive shape.

BC appears to be getting their act together but two games against Ottawa is probably not the best way to gauge a team (just ask the Riders who played Ottawa before their bye week and the two game set against Winnipeg

Edmonton is a team that may or may not put a run together depending on whether the team can find a rhythm under Trevor Harris. Harris is a streaky passer and when he gets on a roll, he is difficult to stop, but when he is stopped, Edmonton is going nowhere.

So this week we have Calgary going to Hamilton with Hamilton trying to compensate for losing quarterback Dane Evans for four to six weeks with a lower leg injury. The first choice might be Jeremiah Masoli who is coming off an injury, leaving former Rider back up David Watford as the starter.

Calgary looked good dumping Edmonton in Edmonton and Hamilton might have to start facing the possibility it is no longer a shoe-in to represent the east in the Grey Cup. Calgary wins this one 20-19.

Toronto goes to Saskatchewan for the second game on Friday and the Riders have to try to snap out of this funk or they will spiral down through the western conference until they finish in fifth. The Riders catch a break with the dismissal of Toronto’s defensive coordinator and defensive backfield coach because of their refusal to get vaccinations and former Rider coach and GM Chris Jones will be in quarantine until after the Riders game.

If Cody Fajardo starts by passing concussion protocols the Riders should be able to win, if he is forced to sit out a game, the Riders will get a look at Paxton Lynch who will likely be activated to back up Isaac Harker. Lynch is 6’7” and a former NFL first round draft pick who can get a ball into a tight window. Whether he can handle the game better than Vince Ferragamo is a question which is still unknown.

My guess is there are enough holes for the Riders to exploit, which they desperately need for their own confidence. The Riders win 21-20 because psychologically they are still very tender.

BC goes to Montreal and the general rule of thumb is teams travelling to the opposite side of the country tend to lose. However, Montreal has its own discipline problems, much like the Riders, and BC after a two game sweep of Ottawa (yeah I know, doesn’t mean much) has confidence in themselves. Whether that translates into a win is an open question, but I would think that BC has shown more tendency to team play than Montreal has – BC wins this one 26-23.

Finally we have the Winnipeg Major Crimes Unit visiting the Edmonton Chronic Wasters with Edmonton discovering that the Winnipeg Major Crimes Unit, along with the Beast of the Book of Revelations, cannot be reasoned with. Winnipeg will be fat and sassy after their sweep of the Riders and who can blame them – their season is already a success and they win this one 23-16.