Riders remain a frustrating work in progress

So a few observations then…

Calgary’s defensive line is probably the second best the Riders will face this year and they were in Rider QB Cody Fajardo’s face all afternoon, either sacking or hurrying his throws. For the Riders to be able to give the Winnipeg Major Crimes Unit a run in the Western Final, they will have to learn how to handle a decent pass rush.

You can argue it was either the play-calling of offensive coordinator Jason Maas or the ineptitude of Fajardo’s passing but wherever the blame fell, there was more than enough to get around.

One example sticks out. On the last drive Fajardo threw deep to Ricardo Louis who turned to his left to make the catch – the problem was the ball was on his right and easy pickings for the Calgary Stampeder defensive back.

Fajardo had his moments, but afterwards he talked about how the Riders could use a deep threat. Well, Fajardo missed on connecting on a few touchdown passes so what a speedster would add to that is anyone’s guess.

Fajardo has to recognize that with Shaq Evans out, the Rider deep threat is gone, in addition to the Riders relatively weak offensive line. That means to move the ball, it will be short small passes and runs to eat up the clock and make up for the absence of a big time killer.

Fajardo should be keeping in mind the careers of Jon Jennings and Casey Printers. Both exploded on the scenes as quarterbacks, combining scrambling and deep passes which got Printers an outstanding player award.

However, after a tryout in the NFL, Printers was cut by Kansas City and returned to sign wit Hamilton in 2007 but was released in 2009. He signed back with BC for the 2009-2010 season but was cut after he threw his helmet and yelling at his receivers.

Jennings also came out of nowhere in 2015 and racked up 5,226 yards in passing in 2016. However once coaches looked at his film and figured out how to defend him, his effectiveness went down.

After Fajardo had a fantastic breakthrough in 2019, he was all but anointed as the next great one in Riderville. However, now that other teams had film on him, the trick would be if he could continue his progress or if opponents had already figured out his bag of tricks.

Cody has had his moments, but his misthrows have me wondering if Isaac Harker, the back up, has a better understanding of the offense than Fajardo does. The problem is Harker does not have the arm to match.

The Riders are also going to have to address their penalties. They had eight for 67 yards with defense playing four penalties, two on offense and two on special teams.

The Rider defence failed to match the intensity of the Stampeders who came out firing because their season was on the line. The problem is the Riders have all the killer instinct of a kitten with a ball of wool.

The Riders may not have a true deep threat of the type that Shaq Evans represented, by Kian Baker-Shaker did come up with a 71-yard reception and has the potential to become the new Jeff Fairholm.

The Riders special teams showed their kicking teams are first rate, their return teams are lacking a bit of oomph that they had with Marcus Thigpen.

So with Calgary coming here on Saturday, it begs the question of what can we expect now?

The Riders have to figure out their offense and get the quarterback and the offensive coordinator on the same page. They need to cut down their penalties, because unless they do, they will not get any help from the officials.

If Fajardo can learn to work within the limitations of the Rider offensive scheme and line, then the Riders can continue to build for 2022. However, that is a big word…but.

So the CFL starts this week on Wednesday with Ottawa Dysfunctional Male going to the Toronto Argonaut school of wayward boys. Ottawa is coming off a shellacking of the Edmonton Chronic Wasters and with a decent defense, Ottawa may have an offense that can actually do something.

So with Ottawa no longer being the worst team in the league, it can go to Toronto and perhaps start playing itself into playoff contention. For Toronto, it’s an opportunity to explore their depth and expand their lead which is a half game over Hamilton and a full game over Montreal and two over Ottawa.

With Chris Jones calling the defensive shots in Toronto, I don’t think Ottawa’s offense would explode like they did against Edmonton, but expect Ottawa to come out strong, but eventually fall to the Argos 25-20.

The Edmonton Chronic Wasters mosey over to Dollarama Stadium to play the Winnipeg Major Crimes Unit and well, things couldn’t get better for the boys in blue.

Winnipeg took care of BC easily, and the way Winnipeg are dominating the lines of scrimmage, both offensive and defensive, is likely to ensure the Major Crimes Unit will set up shop in Hamilton for the Grey Cup.

After using their defense to harass Michael Reilly, the Bombers will look at dominating either Trevor Harris or Taylor Cornelius while excusing their GM from being vaccinated while cutting Jacob Ruby for not being forward about his lack of vaccination,

If Harris starts and gets on a roll, he can do some damage, but Edmonton’s offensive line is not all that great either. Winnipeg wins easily at home 26-17.

Calgary comes to Saskatchewan for the second round of a three round bout and after letting the Stampeders use emotion to jump to a 14-0 lead, the Riders and Cody Fajardo have to confront the truth they have not beaten Calgary since Craig Dickenson took over.

The Riders have shown a tendency to somewhat spot the other team points at the start of a game, so expect this one to be tight. As far as scores go, expect a 22-21 game, because the Riders lack the mental discipline to put teams away.

On Thanksgiving Monday, Ottawa goes to Montreal and while Ottawa may have the prospect of a small roll to go on, I usually have my doubts on first year rookie quarterbacks.

Montreal made an impressive comeback against Hamilton and won in entertaining fashion. Whether that means Montreal has finally overcome their own discipline problems in the area of penalties is open to dispute, but unless you are the Edmonton Chronic Wasters, teams usually cheer about drawing Ottawa as an opponent.

Montreal should manage to get to 500 with a 27-21 win.

Finally, on Thanksgiving we have Toronto at Hamilton in what should be a battle for first place. Toronto has been signing free agents like Justin Tuggle while Chris Jones starts to put his mark on the defense. I think this will result with the Tiger-cats winning 21-19 over Toronto.

by Greg Urbanoski

Riders remain a frustrating work in progress

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