Don’t Think, It Can only Hurt the Riders

The Rider defense surprised with its pressure of Vernon Adams Jr. and a safety that would have given the Riders a lead and the ball back was wiped out by a questionable roughing penalty and after that you have to give BC’s defense credit for putting on a coaching clinic in how to tackle.

If the Rider offense was trying to spring their receivers loose by making a move on the defenders, the strategy was an utter failure. BC kept the receivers in front of them for the most part and more importantly, did not allow them to get yards after the catch.

The Riders were also unable to run the ball and the Rider coaches tried to compensate for the injured-riddled lineup by making what some would consider out of character decisions in an effort to try to spring something loose from the Lions.

The Rider coaches can best answer the question if they had too conservative a game plan for quarterback Mason Fine considering their Swiss Cheese offensive line. I would think Fine did not bad, but he was not helped by the running game going south or the receivers not being on the same page as he was.

The best cure for that is familiarity with each other and that comes from practice and from getting together and talking football and throwing it around. A good portion of Rider fans want to see Jake Dolegala in the game at quarterback and while he has the arm for deep passes, he cannot find the touch on shorter passes.

Dolegala at this stage is just a taller version of Michael Bishop, the former Rider QB who threw deep, but not accurately, just over 10 years ago. Dolegala will now go in on second or third down and short yardage and while his height may help him get a first down, his lack of upper body muscle and again, the offensive line from hell in front of him, does not make this a sure thing.

I went to the two public practices this week for the Riders and was pleasantly surprised to see Brayden Lenius, Jake Warneke and even Kian Schaffer-Baker. I would think Lenius and Warneke will be in the lineup for Saturday’s Touchdown Atlantic game and Schaffer-Baker will be likely back in the lineup by Labor Day.

The Rider receiving corps lacks speed and experience and watching Lenius in practice, his height and speed will help the Rider passing game. Not sure if Warneke can make an appreciable difference, but his experience will help an inexperienced quarterback.

The Riders have a couple of receivers on their roster, Jerreth Sterns and Jake Herslow. Sterns is a smooth route running receiver who is short but has great hands. The Riders right now are looking at a potential Smurf receiver corps which will be okay if they can run and catch but they get taller more physical dbs. covering them, the results get interesting fast.

I for one would welcome a receiving corps of Weston Dresslers who can turn it on a dime and are utterly fearless. The time for finding that out is in training camp, so a part of me wonders if the team is going to make some transition to some new offense with a new quarterback, whether Fine or Dolegala.

The Touchdown Atlantic game last year between the Riders and Toronto marked the end of the Riders hopes of making the playoffs and started Toronto on its way to being a Grey Cup champion. Not to say if the Riders lose this one they will begin another death spiral like last year, but if they can’t show they can be competitive, with three back up QBs trying to be number one, then the rest of the season will see diminishing bums on the streets and maybe the Regina Exhibition Association can raise beer prices to $10.50 to play for top heavy management and desperate events to show that even with a new stadium, they still can’t attract any top shows, especially in an era where the number of stadium selling acts is fast fading.

But I digress.

Last week Edmonton went to Winnipeg and kept it close for the first half before Winnipeg took pity and took out the Elk with a minimal amount of suffering, at least for Elk lovers. Edmonton is trying to convince either themselves or the football gods that Taylor Cornelius, the double Planet of the Apes star, has what it takes and while he has the mobility, he does the play calling acumen or the receiving corps to make this work. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the offensive line which has the Riders former offensive line coach, so the talent versus coaching argument is alive and well in the City of Chumps.

Chris Jones is looking at a shrinking folder of potential jobs because after what has happened in Edmonton, I doubt any team would feel comfortable putting Jones in charge of anything more than a defense. The four-year contract negotiated by Jones by the board of governors of the Elk before Victor Cui took over as president.

Cui has done what he could to spark fan interest including guaranteed win night promotions, but as one former Edmonton resident remarked, the Elks fan base is a “bitchy” bunch who will turn their attention to the Oilers when hockey season has a slow news day. Elk fans still revel in the days pre salary cap when they stomped on the CFL like dinosaurs to five Grey Cups before someone realized that if a salary cap helped parity in the NFL, maybe it could work in the CFL.

Since then, the Elk have made noises now and then, but the salary cap puts a premium on scouting and coaching to get the best of your players and the Elk no longer do a good job of that. I went on the Elk Herd website for Elk fans to bathe in their salty tears and the fans there are like the victims of long-term abuse, they are numb to the spectacle on the field before them with no hope things will get better by the end of the season.

Jones made noises about Canadian quarterback Tre Ford needing to earn his way to a starting spot, implying Ford is either too physically fragile (which is not unusual for a Canadian University athlete who plays roughly half the games his US counterpart would play in the NCAA) or perhaps Ford has not spent as much time in the playbook as needed so he knows what he is supposed to do on the field.

Considering how Jones has mismanaged quarterbacks, maybe the best thing for Ford is to let his rookie contract play out and go elsewhere. In the meantime, Edmonton’s defense will be asked to win games or at least keep them close, but close in Winnipeg is nothing but moral victories and those didn’t count in the standings.

Toronto went to Hamilton and crushed Hamilton 31-15 in a display of domination that resulted in calls going to the society for prevention of cruelty to animals for somebody, anybody, to help the poor cats.

The Cats traded J’Gared Davis back to Calgary for a sixth-round place, and other than playing in six straight Grey Cups, Davis did not do much on Toronto’s D Line last year, and they don’t seem to miss him this year, and in Hamilton he was not much more than and expensive pylon.

Calgary lost James Vaughters on their D Line for the season and Calgary is in the position of summoning ghosts from the past to help them get into the playoffs. The trade seems a win-win for both sides, especially with the news that Bo Levi Mitchell will be starting this week against Ottawa and the Cats needs to shed salary and perhaps underperforming free agents to make a run at second or third.

Chad Kelly is performing perhaps better than expected by CFL fans after he broke into the Grey Cup with a bang and saved a country from the spectacle of a third Stony Mountain Bomber Grey Cup title in a row. The interesting question, and a valid one this season, is are the Toronto back-ups capable of stepping in if Kelly goes down?

On the initial look of Toronto’s roster, no would be a glib first answer. The interesting thing CFL teams are finding out is that sometimes it is the third or in Ottawa’s case fourth string quarterbacks who when given a chance are performing.

Some of this is due to a lack of film other than college film on these quarterbacks who are stepping in. Some of it is due to smart offensive coordinators like Khari Jones who tailor their offensive game plan to best take advantage of their players talents.

If Kelly goes down, I weirdly have enough faith in Ryan Dinwiddie to make the most of whoever is on the roster at QB. Dinwiddie started as a back-up and had an appreciation of what the back-up quarterbacks need to succeed.

The Riders went into BC and surprised Rider fans with how well their defense played. There is even the potential spectacle of a safety to get fans excited before the CFL Command Centre gave its version of making the rules up as they go along.

In all honesty, the safety would not have played a major role in the game because the BC secondary put on a clinic in how to properly tack people to prevent them from getting major yardage. The Riders with a lack of speed at receiver, a Swiss cheese offensive line and quarterback just making his third start, combined with a coaching philosophy that was either trying to play it safe or play all the analytics it could gather from the laughable CFL stats page, played right into BC’s hands.

Mason Fine went short passing game which was understandable, hoping his receivers could shake a tackle or two which they did not. He had no running game, and the Riders were as one dimensional as Stony Mountain Bombers fans in a police lineup.

The Riders defense played inspired and had a consistent pass rush, which goes to show that you cannot make glib assumptions based on one game, or three or four. The difference was communication in the defensive secondary, which probably explains the signing and likely playing this week of Trumaine Washington, a former defensive back with Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.

BC lost Vernon Adams Jr. with a leg injury in the first quarter and Dane Evans was competent enough to get a touchdown, and basically keep the ball moving when needed against the Riders.

The Riders coaches overthought some decisions in this game, which in one respect is admirable, yet in another may have cost the team the game. I mentioned earlier the Riders tend to play up or down to the level of their competition, and in this game, they played up to the level of their competition, but failed to take advantage of that through decisions that seemed based on the coaches being scared than anything else.

While a vocal number of Rider fans feel Craig Dickenson needs to go, he has managed to reduce the number of penalties and the spirit the team shows is in stark contrast to last year. Dickenson may need to review the play calling protocol the Riders are using and perhaps resort to hiring a consultant (Hamilton did this with Scott Marinovich to skirt the football administration cap and have a potential successor available if their season sinks like a Titanic submersible) to vet plays and potential challenges so a good call is made.

The team spirit and penalty reduction are important because if the team cannot battle through adversity, it won’t be in sniffing distance of the playoffs or be competitive. Mental errors, whether by players or coaches, can be corrected so the Riders might as well see what happens when they start getting their walking injured back and if that helps out the inexperienced Fine.

The most entertaining game of the week was Ottawa’s 43-41 win over the soul-less Calgary Stampeders. Calgary is also another team battling injuries and players who are not yet experienced in choking in Grey Cups, but one would think they would have looked at the film of Ottawa’s win over Winnipeg and think, Justin Crum the Ottawa QB likes to run so we should spy him.

Calgary did that with Cameron Judge, but apparently not good enough and perhaps with not enough appreciation for Crum’s throwing ability. Calgary had the schemes in place to theoretically stop Ottawa, but the players were unable to execute.

Whether this is a reflection on the caliber of players on the Calgary roster, or the quality of coaching to impress on them why the schemes are being implemented, is something the next few weeks will answer.

Calgary squandered the momentum from their win over the Riders and Ottawa is starting to believe in themselves. You would think some team will figure out how to corral a scrambling quarterback, so let’s see what happens this week.

Hamilton goes to Ottawa and perhaps in a sign of desperation, Hamilton announced Bo Levi Mitchell will be the starting quarterback. The Cats have shredded a number of their quarterbacks to injuries this season and Mitchell, coming off an abductor injury and probably a shoulder that should be retired, is going to try to salvage the season for the Cats before a team like Ottawa sprints past them with a cheaper, hungrier roster.

I didn’t think much of Davis on Hamilton’s defensive line, and their offensive line should be a source of concern. Ottawa is believing in themselves and as mentioned, someone should be able to figure out how to defend against Crum, but he is proving to be able to pass as well as run, so defenses cannot switch to snooze when containing him in the pocket.

This is a must-win for Hamilton trying to show their fans there is a shot at their team playing in front of the home audience for the Grey Cup. For Ottawa, this is a can-win and a chance to whip their fans into a frenzy.

Ottawa should not need overtime to win this game 28-23.

The Riders season went off the rails last year at Touchdown Atlantic as Toronto unveiled their defense which led the rest of the way to defeating Stony Mountain in the Grey Cup. This year the two teams repeat their appearances, not a bad idea for Rider fans to fly out to the east coast and give Maritimers a taste of football frenzy.

The Riders will be bolstered by the return of several receivers and center Peter Godber who can direct blocking for Mason Fine and Jake Dolegala who takes over short yardage.

Dolegala will never be confused with Dominique Davis when it comes to short yardage, but he has an arm the Riders could use to their benefit. The problem with Dolegala is his arm is not that consistent, but perhaps this can be addressed with more regular game action.

I think the Argos are legitimate nine-to-10-point favorites because the Riders have shown no inkling of being able to mount a shoot out with their offense. They need to keep things close with their defense so their offense can come back from at most, 11-point deficits.

However, as I write the Argos will be missing some pieces of their amazing defense. I also think the Argos may be a bit surprised at the Riders ability to fight back and be competitive.

For that reason, and just to make things interesting, the Riders pull out a 32-31 win on an Adam Korsak rouge.

We have the BC Lions going to Edmonton to perhaps help the Elk lay claim to the record to the longest home losing streak in professional sports.

The Lions will be starting Dane Evans, who is a bit of a rhythm passer so if you can rush him, he either fumbles it away or throws it away. The Lions offensive line did not play their best against the Riders, and you can imagine Chris Jones will do everything he can to keep the pressure on Evans and off his essentially rookie secondary.

The difference in this game will come on the other side of the ball as the Lion defense will again feast on the Elk with their perfect tackling techniques, keeping the Elk from mounting more than two plays and punt.

BC will beat Edmonton 26-15 to help the Elk clinch the all-time home losing title.

Finally, we have Calgary at Montreal and Calgary should have been looking at this game to get into the discussion with BC and Winnipeg following a win over Ottawa last week.

Calgary did not beat Ottawa and Montreal’s defense is getting some reinforcements which will be good news for Jake Maier in Calgary. Calgary is facing Cody Fajardo who has his spin move and this year seems to have found receivers who can get open, so if his first look is open, he can hit them instead of getting sacked.

Montreal is coming off a bye and time to address their pass protection issues. I don’t know if that is enough time, but I like Montreal’s defense to fluster Maier and get him to make the one mistake that will lead to Montreal winning 24-23.

by Greg Urbanoski

Don’t Think, It Can only Hurt the Riders

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