By Greg Urbanoski

Riderville

Riders Need to Look Hard at Long-Term Game Plan

Aug 10, 2022 | 9:50 AM

“The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Pattison Media and this site.”

One of the more useful things of the bye week is it gives a football team a chance to reset, to figure out what it has been doing right, but perhaps more importantly what it has been doing wrong.

Let’s hope the Saskatchewan Roughriders spent their time wisely.

One of the bad things of a bye week is there is too much time on the hands of fans and media and with the Riders achieving a Zen like equilibrium with a 4-4 record, it is not enough for fans who have bought into the dream of the Riders playing at home for the Grey Cup.

The week started off with a bang with Wes Cates and Nik Lewis going on the Rod Pedersen show to talk about how Cody Fajardo is not an elite quarterback. After breaking through in the 2019 season, albeit with the benefit of no real game film, Fajardo has suffered trying to operate behind an offensive line that must be wearing depends because they just can’t seem to hold anyone back.

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Technically Cates and Lewis are kind of correct. Fajardo has not won a Grey Cup as a starter. He does have a ring as a back up to Ricky Ray and let’s be honest, if we had Ricky Ray, we would probably be 6=2 or 7-1 at this point.

Fajardo has been hampered by the offensive line seemingly being unable to block effectively and receivers who are either too inexperienced or perhaps just not good enough to figure out how to help their quarterback. One question is why Canadian Jamal Campbell has not been starting on the offensive line.

The Riders picked him up from Toronto as Toronto was shedding salary and the question is, how can Campbell be any worse than the Americans currently on the Rider offensive line? I suspect the crux of the Rider offensive line woes is a combination of poor recruiting and lousy coaching and I hate to admit it, but a Bomber fan made a good point in a forum.

The emergence of the USFL and XFL along with the NFL expanding their practice rosters due to Covid means the availability of offensive linemen who can block, be nasty and dominate has gone down quite a bit. This now puts the onus on developing offensive linemen on the coaches for each team.

Consider the BC Lions of 2021. With Mike Reilly leading at quarterback, the Lions should have been competitive but the Lions had an offensive line that was uh, dangerous to Reilly’s health. That did not change until the Lions changed out offensive line coaches from Brian Chiu to Kelly Bates and this year the Lions are benefiting from improved offensive line play and better quarterbacking.

That took half a season for the Lions to make the changes and get better which shows it can be done. Whether Stephen Sorrells, who is the offensive line coach and running game coordinator, has the ability to pull that off is open to question, but better coaching is the only way the Riders will improve.

One could say with NFL training camps underway, it might be possible to get reinforcements once cuts are made. However, the NFL cuts now come at the end of the exhibition schedule and with teams hanging onto their players longer and also evaluating players on other teams which might help them, credible offensive linemen may not be as easy to find as they used to be.

Winnipeg has benefitted from continuity on their offensive line and when Zach Collaros demonstrates a meh performance, the Bombers still have enough to gut out wins.

Mind you, this past week was interesting because Montreal owner Gary Stein came out to predict Montreal would beat Winnipeg and Montreal was competitive for three quarters before falling 35-20. Winnipeg is starting to shake loose a running game which if it produces consistency, will likely remove the temptation to trade for Andrew Harris to help push for a Winnipeg three-peat Grey Cup championship.

The teams trade locals this week with Winnipeg hosting Montreal and since Winnipeg is the place dreams go to die, Montreal might as well enjoy their trip to the Assiniboine Zoo. The pretence under which former Montreal coach Danny Maciocia proven to be an endemic situation for Montreal which continues to battle their own discipline problems along with the other teams.

The inability of Montreal to respond to adversity in a positive way as opposed to shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly is why they will not do better in Winnipeg. The Bombers are operating at a level that is the envy of other teams, but the question must be asked if adversity does raise its head, along with injuries, do the Bombers have enough to prevail?

I would say this week it does. The Als have Trevor Harris who can move the ball between the 30 yard lines but apparently no further which will make Montreal dependent on big plays from their receivers and defense.

Montreal can get those plays, but Montreal also has a running game that cannot help its offense keep Winnipeg off balance. So look to seek Montreal keep it close in say the first half, and then get worn down in the second half as Winnipeg maintains its perfect record.

Toronto beat Hamilton 34-20 in the first of a multiple round fight between these rivals who managed to look stupid in last year’s Eastern final with a fight between players, fans and management. Toronto again went heavy with the free agents and seems to have found a formula with Andrew Harris who if he gets some good pre game supplements can give Toronto a physical running game.

Toronto also benefitted from Hamilton making perhaps an understandable if mistaken choice in Dane Evans being the starting quarterback. Evans has looked flustered and in either the fan created pressure around him starting or his own expectations getting the best of him, has shown a quality of turning the ball over in the fourth quarter when trying to score.

Hamilton is in the midst of re-tooling after coming up short in the last two Grey Cups and until say Khari jones gets his head around being a consultant and provides Evans with useful ways of hanging onto the ball, Hamilton is probably best suited to just working to getting a roster together for a Grey Cup run next year when Hamilton hosts.

I know some Argo fans who believe nothing good happens in Hamilton and they are wondering if the shoe will drop on their Argos while in the home field of their hated rivals.

That is possible, but the likeliest outcome if Hamilton will find a way to give the game to the Argos. Between a weak offensive line, non-existent running game and inexperienced receivers, Hamilton has all the elements in place to make this year more of a learning experience rather than another run for a Grey Cup appearance.

Last week Calgary went into Ottawa after losing to Winnipeg in what could have been a statement game for Ottawa and Calgary ended up winning a dog’s breakfast of a football game 17-3. While Ottawa’s defense has played well and their special teams have played well, their offense is another story altogether.

The story Ottawa’s offense is telling is that Ottawa Head Coach Paul La Police may be a nice guy and competent offensive coordinator but perhaps head coach is a bridge too far for him. Questionable calls on offense helped pen Ottawa into the loss it would take to Calgary and while Ottawa is continuing to whine about Jeremiah Masoli’s leg injury, Ottawa is realistically about two years away from being a contender, and that is only with adult supervision.

Speaking of Masoli, he continues to spout about how he has been wronged after the Riders Garrett Marino went low on him during a rush and then stupidly did a salute to the pro wrestling ranks when he got tossed from the game.

The problem with Masoli is he tends to have a selective memory. Where was his calls for justice when he played for Hamilton and his teammate Simoni Lawrence knocked out then Rider QB Zach Collaros out of the lineup on the fifth play of the season opener?

Masoli himself was involved in questionable activity in college and seems to have continued his sense of entitlement from those days. Marino took his suspension without appealing it, unlike say Lawrence, and I doubt Masoli tried to shame Lawrence into contributing to a foundation run by Collaros to make amends.

Calgary for its part is trying to show that despite a pair of losses to Winnipeg, Calgary is the only team keeping Winnipeg from three-peat. I think BC might also have some thoughts on that as they go to Calgary this week.

BC beat the living crap out of Edmonton 46-14 as Nathan Rourke threw for five touchdowns in the first half and ran for another in the third quarter before getting pulled. Probably the most interesting and honest quote came from Edmonton head coach Chris Jones who said he called every defense in the Edmonton playbook against Rourke and nothing slowed him down.

BC demonstrated an ability to start fast and pour the gas on opponents before they know what hit them or they have spotted opponents points before coming back. Rourke has thrown interceptions, but has shown an ability to come back from making mistakes.

Calgary’s defense will be hurt by the loss for the season of defensive back and special teams ace Tre Robertson and that will help BC’s passing game. BC did a bold thing and went with an essentially rookie quarterback while putting money into their receiving corps and coaching them their offensive line to the point of where they are consistently average as opposed to traffic pylons.

Calgary may be pleased that Bo Levi is establishing himself as the best quarterback in team history, but Calgary does not have the fire power to stay with BC, especially if the western semi final is in Vancouver. It would not be fair to expect Rourke to throw for another five touchdowns against Calgary, simply because Calgary is not as dysfunctional as Edmonton.

The trick to Rourke may be not to unleash a constant barrage of blitzes but to balance the blitz versus zone coverages to just make Rourke think for longer than two to three seconds. If a defense can do that, they can get BC out of their rhythm but fortunately for BC, Calgary at this stage no longer has a running game and so I would go bombs away on Calgary like some demented Russian invasion. BC should move closer to clinching second place with a win here against Calgary.

Finally we have the Riders emerging from their bye week, bloated from too many sprinkles at the Regina Exhibition, and wondering if the media has it right and Cody Fajardo is not going to lead the Riders to a Grey Cup.

The Riders go to Edmonton and even though Edmonton dropped the soap against BC many times last weekend, Edmonton is due to win a game at home for the first time in almost two years. Edmonton is going with the Planet of the Apes option at quarterback – Taylor Cornelius (for those who don’t know Charlton Heston played the character of Taylor, a human astronaut who landed on the Planet of the Apes, while Roddy McDowell played Cornelius, a champ who was sympathetic to the humans) who can throw on the run but who has problems adapting to changing defenses.

So, while Rider Nation debates whether Fajardo is an elite QB or not; the secret to the Riders success will be if they can mount a sustained running game against the Elkaholics. Fajardo has a strained MCL and is wearing a brace. Maybe the two weeks will help with the injury, but the Riders could do themselves a favor by actually trying a running game and learning how to block so they can take the pressure off of him.

Fortunately for the Riders Edmonton has no real run defense to speak of. The Riders will likely manage to get some grasp on the cross over spot with a win over Edmonton and maybe, just maybe, some momentum towards a better second half as they attempt to represent the east in the Grey Cup.