Riders Will Go As Far As Defense and Character Will Take Them

Being lazy in tackling, coverage, or whining about passes not being exactly where the receiver wants does not indicate a team that is more concerned with winning than their personal stats.

However, the Riders do not make it easy to make generalizations. While one can argue the Riders lack of discipline would indicate they will fold like a cheap suit when the pressure is on, the Riders manage to play to the levels of their opponents and somehow managed to ride a four game winning streak to clinch second.

The Riders have one more game against Hamilton in Hamilton to finish out the regular season and with a home playoff game clinched, the Riders will be pondering how they want to approach their last game before the western semi-final against the Calgary Humane Society.

The smart thing is to rest vets for the playoff game, but also not to do anything that will disrupt whatever momentum has been created with the four game winning streak. I would think the Riders will likely rest AC Leonard, Loucheiz Purifoy, Ed Gainey and Micah Johnson from the defense.

Quarterback Cody Fajardo will likely play a quarter and a half and the rest of the game will likely be in the hands of Isaac Harker to see some game action. The Rider defense has been the determining factor in their wins while the offense continues to be a work in progress.

While everyone has pointed to the offensive line as the source of the Rider offensive woes, the thing about that is the only way for a rookie offensive line to gain consistency is to play more together.

Until the offensive line gets to the stage where it can handle four man rushes never mind blitzes from opposing defenses, the Riders offensive game plan has to rely on running, short passes and occasionally going deep to prevent defenses from keying in on the Rider short game.

Where the Riders screwed up on Saturday against the Chronic Wasters was in the offense trying to do too much. The Riders have heard how their offense is one dimensional and can’t go deep, and is trying to at least provide opposing teams with evidence to the contrary.

If Calgary, Winnipeg and whoever comes out of the east are going to beat the Riders, they will press the Rider offense unless the Riders give them more than what they expected.

The addition of Duke Williams has helped the Rider deep passing game, but Shaq Evans has not matched the impact with his return to the roster. Whether Evans is totally recovered from his foot injury, Evans has not fought for the ball and at least one Edmonton interception was the result of Evans not being aggressive in either catching the ball or preventing the interception.

Evans did talk about taking anger management courses to help with his temper, but some of his antics Saturday seem to indicate the lessons have not entirely sunk in. One worries that once in the playoffs, if something doesn’t go Evans way, he will react in such a way that will result in either a penalty or he will react in such a way that shows he is more interested in what he is doing or not than what the team is doing.

The Rider defense for its part held pretty well but Edmonton managed to get some sustained drives aided by some missed tackles, blown coverages or whatever. When push came to shove and Edmonton had a chance to clinch, an interception was erased by a questionable penalty, but then again, the Ref has said F*** them over an open microphone when told the Riders had asked for a timeout prior to the start of the second half so maybe it was an olive branch for that.

So the Riders do what is necessary to win, but lack the offensive line or consistency to be able to totally dominate teams. So what will differentiate the Riders from the Calgary Humane Society or Winnipeg Major Crimes Unit is how much the Riders want to win against their opponents.

The Bombers have been physically dominating their opposition while Calgary after have some rough patches, is also moving into that neighbourhood. For the Riders, being able to control or slow down those team’s offenses is just one piece of the puzzle separating them from Grey Cup contenders.

For the Riders offense to win, there was some signs that a running game emphasis is on the horizon perhaps with the last game with Hamilton having the Riders working out their timing on the running game.

Williams provides a credible deep threat because of his size and while Evans has not bounced back, Kian Shaffer-Baker is emerging as a potential superstar and the Riders will have to be creative to use all their players to avoid Calgary and perhaps Winnipeg from focussing on just covering Williams to stop the Riders.

The Riders may luck out against Calgary because of reports as many as four or five players have chosen not to become vaccinated. Those players will not be able to travel to Regina to play because if you want to fly in Canada, you will have to show you have been vaccinated.

The Stampeders brought in Reggie Begelton, a former all star receiver who just came back from the NFL. It may be enough to get the Stamps into the Western Final, but then again, maybe not.

So the big story this week so far is the Edmonton Chronic Wasters three games in 10 days. After playing the Riders on Sunday, the Chronic Wasters go to Toronto on Tuesday and end their season on Friday in BC.

This is an extended exhibition season for Edmonton, with Taylor Cornelius continuing at quarterback while Nick Arbuckle learns on the sidelines. The CFL gave Edmonton a dispensation to add more players because three games in 10 days is pushing the whole concept of player safety to a ridiculous extreme.

Toronto has clinched first and so has little to prove, but with a two week break before the eastern final, the Argos will likely want to make sure their starting units get the work they need while changing out players who might need the time to recover from their injuries.

Edmonton may not be as bad as it seems with their line-up, but Toronto in the interests of making sure their offensive and defensive units don’t get too rusty in the next two weeks, is still better by a 25-21 score.

Ottawa goes to Montreal and Montreal has a golden opportunity to get into second place and host the eastern semi-final. Harris seems to be a pretty good rapport with his receivers and if he gets into a groove, it will be difficult to stop him.

Ottawa is already into next year country and will likely want to audition players to determine who would be invited to next year’s camp. Ottawa is again starting from ground zero and if they want to get better, they need to figure out what talent they do have on the roster.

Montreal could start anyone, but whoever they do call is already better talented than what Ottawa can muster. Montreal gets a nice tune up for the eastern semi-final with a 27-19 win.

Edmonton wraps their season with BC Spayed and Neutered cats with both teams basically underperforming this season. BC wins this one 24-22

The Riders go to Hamilton and for the Riders, getting rest for some starters is a good place to start, but for Hamilton, they have second place to play for which is something they may not have expected when the season started and they were early Grey Cup favorites.

Since Hamilton is motivated and Saskatchewan is not, expect to see Hamilton win by a 21-20 score because the Riders win or lose by just a few points.

Finally, Winnipeg plays Calgary and this is a potential western final preview. Zach Collaros will play a half and some of Winnipeg’s benched players coming back, the trick will be to maintain some consistency. Calgary will like to convince themselves they have a shot against Winnipeg while the Major Crimes Unit wants to show anyone who wants to challenge them that resistance is futile. Winnipeg 23 -18 .

by Greg Urbanoski

Riders Will Go As Far As Defense and Character Will Take Them

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