Bo Levi gets a Bo-Bo and the Riders venture to the heart of evil in Western Final

It was a pattern that repeated when Evans again appeared to give up on the ball and a second interception ensued. It could also be argued that the ball was overthrown.

What helped an awkward offense trying to find some momentum was the defense. The defense on seeing the Riders basically given some token all star spots despite having the second best record in the league.

Nick Marshall, who has undergone some personal challenges this year, kicked things off in the first quarter with a hit on Kadeem Carey of the Stampeders that flipped him.

Middle linebacker Deion Lacey, who has been a rock while playing in a position that may not best for him, also responded with a massive hit on a Calgary receiver.

The first half ended with another defensive gem with a third down stop with 1:38 left in the quarter. That was aided when Evans, who could not catch a cold in the first quarter, drew an interference penalty which helped set up a field goal.

The sort of high light of the first quarter was a missed field goal return by Jamal Morrow which was called back due to a rinky-dink blocking penalty. However, the return served as an indicator of how important special teams would be for the Riders.

At the end of the first quarter, the Riders had demonstrated a commitment to the run, even though Calgary held a distinct advantage in yards passing. That commitment held over to the second quarter, although the spark was lit for a brawl between the Stumps and the Riders with a bit of mixer before a punt halfway through the second quarter.

The Stampeders came in looking to establish their psychological advantage over the Riders. With two wins out of three against the Riders, they looked to get a big play to make the Riders start questioning themselves.

The difference became obvious when Morrow took a punt at the nine-minute mark and ran it back 69 yards to give the Riders a 10-7 lead.

The Riders in the second quarter were having some problems with handling the Calgary rushing game. Calgary was looking to take advantage of the Riders aggressive rush and used misdirection to move the ball around.

However, the Riders defense, with a collective chip on their shoulders, were bailed out by AC Leonard who responded to no all star nominations, never mind defensive player or outstanding player nominations, who used his size and reach to knock down balls from Bo Levi Mitchell.

Mitchell, who is still suffering from shoulder problems, did not go as deep as he usually does, but compensated with distributing the ball around his receiving corps. The problem Mitchell had problems in getting on the same page as his receiver when Ed Gainey got his second interception on a Mitchell over thrown in the second.

In the latter part of the second quarter, Fajardo started running when the middle of the Calgary defense opened up. However, Shawn Lemon stuffed Shaq Evans and then Fajardo threw his third interception of the game in the second quarter.

Calgary then moved methodically down the field, setting the stage for probably the crucial sequence of the game. Rene Paredes missed a 35- yard field goal that was run out by Morrow. Calgary got tagged with a rough play penalty that brought the Riders out but also was the spark that led to a brawl as the half came to an end.

Shawn Lemon had come in on the penultimate play to knock a Rider down, and on the final play Duke Williams responded by blocking out Lemon, who responded with a pushing match, then Lemon threw a punch at Williams that resulted in Lemon getting thrown out for rough play; with a 25-yard penalty applied to the kick off against Calgary for the start of the second half.

The Stampeders claimed Lemon was spit on, but the result saw the Riders attempt a short kick recovered by AC Leonard. In an eerie reconstruction of the 2013 western final where a misfiring Darian Durant took over the game with his legs in the second half, Fajardo started exploiting the holes in the Calgary defense.

Fajardo also demonstrated a new move which is a pump fake when running that freezes either the chasing linebackers or defensive linemen, and allows Fajardo to get further yards. There was also a change in focus from Evans to Williams which resulted in a great gain over the middle.

Fajardo hit Kari Shaeffer-Baker for a three yard TD. Then Reggie Begelton fumbled a punt over to the Riders. Fajardo started running more and relying on his legs to move the Riders into field goal position.

Calgary responded by running Ka’deem Carey outside on the relatively inexperienced linebacking and defensive halfback combinations.

Play selection helped to hamper Calgary but Mitchell looked to exploit the Riders new defensive back combinations. One of the few Mitchell deep passes that worked was a deep pass to Begelton that threaded the needle between two Rider defensive backs.

Calgary came up with a touchdown and field goal take a 24-20 lead in the fourth quarter with 5:41 left in the game. Then Fajardo hit Williams on a regular basis, until after driving the Riders to the goal line, Fajardo took it over for a 27-24 lead.

Calgary would not be denied with just over two minutes left and Mitchell moved the ball down the field until Pete Robertson sacked Mitchell and set up Calgary’s game tying field goal.

The game went into overtime and the Riders went first. After misfiring on a deep pass to Kian Schaffer-Baker, the Riders settled for a field goal, which was matched by the Riders.

Calgary then went back on offense and an apparent fumble which was knocked out of bounds by the Riders was ruled Calgary ball. Rene Paredes tried a field goal and missed it, with Morrow running it out.

The Riders then took the ball down to the 26 yard line when Brent Lauther hit a 33 yard field goal to clinch a 33-30 win sending the Riders to Winnipeg, or as the people who live there refer to it…the place where dreams go to die.

Hamilton in a preview of the winter wonderland we can likely expect for the Grey Cup, took on Montreal who had Trevor Harris at the helm in place of the injured Vernon Adams Jr. Harris is a different type of passer than Adams, who is more mobile, but none of that resonated with the Hamilton defense who dominated the line of scrimmage and provided their fans with hope of beating their hated rivals in Toronto.

Montreal will have a choice to make between Harris or Adams as their QB next year. Adams provided a spark to the Alouettes before he went down, but was also emblematic of a team with a discipline problem – In other words, too much swagger, too little discipline.

So Hamilton goes up the highway to Toronto where the latest XFL website speculates the Toronto Argonauts are looking to join the XFL and this is their last season as a CFL team.

Not sure if that affects anything, but the poor attendance is a combination of weather at this time of year and Covid restrictions. You also cannot escape the irony that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, reputed to be the best organization of its type in Toronto, has shown no interest in providing service to a potential fan base and instead is indulging in its usual southern Ontario obsession with being honorary Americans and being in the big leagues.

How that will pan out for the eastern final? Weather will be one factor with the temperature set for a high of 0 C and scattered flurries.

Toronto is a hodgepodge of free agents under the direction of Ryan Dinwiddie and with the excellent addition of Chris Jones as defensive coordinator.

While Toronto has won three of four, Hamilton is fighting to get the ultimate home field advantage as the eastern representative in the Grey Cup. Let’s be honest, Jones will be gone at the end of this season and so will a number of free agents. McLeod Bethel-Thompson managed to outlast Nick Arbuckle to take the starter’s role but whether he is just a more mobile version of Trevor Harris is yet to be answered.

Hamilton has the motivation and has been working toward this for two years. The Argos have not so I think Hamilton 22 Toronto 20 sounds about right.

Meanwhile in the west, Saskatchewan goes to a city where head lice are considered appetizers, and the Grey Cup parade has been held every year for the last three years.

Winnipeg has had the Riders number, although when you look at the games, the Riders have stayed basically even until half time, slip behind in the third and get buried in the fourth by the Bombers physical defense.

The Riders had a sloppy performance against Calgary, but here are a couple of observations to the Riders’ benefit.

The first is that the Riders did not let the Stampeders get under their skin and off their game despite throwing four interceptions. The ejection of Shawn Lemon showed Calgary’s effort to establish physical dominance would not work that day.

Winnipeg will try the same thing with a literally rabid group of Stoney Mountain parolees cheering them on. The weather will be cooler, ranging from -7 to -11 C with flurries so expect a kind of Hamilton sort of day.

The Riders showed a dedication to the running game that depended not just on William Powell, but Cody Fajardo doing his best Darian Durant impersonation. Having a running game is one of the best ways of relieving pressure on an offensive line.

The Riders showed a better offensive line performance against Calgary, giving up no sacks while nabbing two of their own. What was a little alarming to see was Calgary’s ability to run on the outside of the Rider defense, especially against the lesser experienced defensive secondary players.

The reason why a running play is ideal at this time of year is that it hurts players to tackle others in cold weather. After awhile you tend to back off and that split second can make all the difference for an experienced back.

I would expect Winnipeg to run most of the time with Zach Collaros picking his spots. That worked for Winnipeg twice this year, but will the third time be the charm?

I wonder because the good thing about playing in the semi-final is you can rekindle momentum when you win and play reasonably well.

The response I get in my mind is 1989. The Edmonton Eskimos were 16-2, the greatest regular season team in CFL history, and an overwhelming favorite against the Riders, even though the Riders had given Edmonton one of their their two regular season losses.

It was tight last week and it will be tight this week unless the Riders go completely off the rails. It will also be low scoring which most games in cold weather are like – so expect a score like Saskatchewan 19 – 16 over Winnipeg.

Who knows, maybe even another walk off field goal, or even better, this time the Bombers hit the cross bar.

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by Greg Urbanoski

Bo Levi gets a Bo-Bo and the Riders venture to the heart of evil in Western Final

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