Who Are Those Guys?

Riderville can be a funny place to monitor during a season with every loss being the end of the world and the season and every win getting us on the verge of a Grey Cup berth. I will be honest and admit the Rider performance against Montreal had me thinking either the team had reached the point of no return with injuries taking out any hope of the team operating well or had tuned out the coaching.

It turns out the lack of performance against Montreal was the spur needed to get the team to show that not only did it have talent, but it also had possibility. You could argue the addition of Kian Baker-Shaefer on offense helped the receiving corps get even more dangerous, but a part of me wonders whether the very real possibility of coaching changes took the blinders off the coaching staff and opened the possibilities of the offensive and defensive playbooks.

The Rider offense took advantage of big plays provided by special teams and the Rider defense to work with a shortened field and jake Dolegala took advantage of a BC team with not much film available on him to show off his throwing touch.

While there is a big section of Rider Nation in love with Dolegala and his arm, that love should really come with a caveat – Dolegala can hit a nice deep pass, but if he has to make a shorter pass after a longer long, he has problems completing that.

This seems to be more of a mechanical problem for Dolegala, which could be rectified by him getting regular snaps and learning to throw on a consistent basis a variety of passes instead of threading deep passes all the time. Long time Rider fans may remember the name of Michael Bishop who was brought in by Eric Tillman once upon a time when the Rider quarterbacks were racked by injuries.

Bishop could throw deep passes; he just had a problem with completing them which is something I keep in mind with Dolegala. If he can’t show he can make short passes, then defenses can plot against Dolegala accordingly and the Riders will be back to their two and out offense.

The Rider offensive line did its part in keeping Dolegala out as he used his height to read the defense and get the ball out when warranted. The initial view of the game had me think the running game was not as effective, but on second watch, the Rider running game did OK, but was not as effective as it could have been.

One of the criticisms of the Rider offensive line is that they are not as physical as other offensive lines, like Winnipeg. The Riders lack of physicality is either due to the fact they are not as strong as other offensive lines, or they have not played together as much as Winnipeg’s offensive line and lack that consistency.

The Riders were not without their growing pains during the game. Injuries in the defensive secondary forced the Riders to insert some players, like Nelson Lokombo, who need playing time to become more effective but until they get that playing time are more likely to be a detriment than an asset.

The Riders juggling in their defensive backfield showed up on a few plays as the Lions struck deep on busted coverages, but the Riders got a consistent pass rush to force Vernon Adams Jr. to scramble and even get a charley horse injury that slowed him down.

The Rider coaching staff showed it existed and was doing a job and this more than anything gives fans hope that maybe, just maybe, the Riders can be competitive for the last half of the season and who knows, maybe even in the playoffs.

The Riders also are consistently looking to upgrade their personnel. Jake Wieneke was a free agent addition at receiver but injuries and an underwhelming on field performance has led to him being replaced by Jerreth Sterns who is turning out to be the reincarnation of either Andy Fantuz or John Sandusky in being able to get open.

Schafer-Baker’s return on offense and paired with Samuel Emilius gives the Riders two receivers who can make circus catches down the field and opens the field up for a variety of plays. This means opposing defenses can no longer mug receivers at the line of scrimmage and keep them from getting more than five yards at a time.

The Riders needed a win psychologically to believe they could compete in the western division, especially against the high-flying Lions and Blue Bombers. Now they seem to have internalized they are actually moving towards being a team that can do more than be a complementary road bump for better teams.

The trick right now, as the Riders go into their final bye week of the season, is to not think the win against BC means the season is turned around, just as the three losses in a row doesn’t necessarily mean the season was over.

The bye week allows the Riders to get more people off the injury list and perhaps get some early NFL cuts up from the States, if possible, but even the addition of new players means nothing unless the players understand the system the Riders are using and can play within it.

The players get an indication that they are working towards something and if they continue to work, they will experience success. I am not sure that success is guaranteed against Winnipeg, but the Riders are experiencing something they have not felt for a while which is hope.

Hope is, as Stephen King once wrong in Shawshank Redemption, the best thing.

Hope was something that finally took root in Edmonton as the Elk rutted their way to their first win of the season, a 24-10 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats a team with Grey Cup aspirations at the start of the season but which is fading out of contention halfway through the season.

Edmonton replaced Stephen McAdoo at offensive coordinator with Jarious Jackson and Tre Ford went in at quarterback over Taylor Cornelius and Edmonton seemed to use the new combinations in ways that could spell problems for teams doing down the stretch, but one wonders if the Elk have spotted other teams too many games to make more than the occasional inconvenience.

The Elk also brought back a former team president as the community owned team now ponders whether their board of directors are nothing more than legends in their own mind by giving Chris Jones a four-year contract that hand cuffs the team from making any personnel moves because they would violate the football administration cap.

The cap was brought in after the Riders poached Jones from Edmonton for the first time along with his coaching staff and teams were upset about rich teams being able to afford to poach opposing staffs. The cap has forced Edmonton to work within its limitations and a record home losing streak tends to concentrate a team’s attention and force them to improvise to get better.

As a Canadian, it is always good to see Canadian quarterbacks gets a start, even if its for the Godless Elk whose abuse of the pre salary cap era resulted in a five Grey Cups in a row. One can argue, persuasively, that what is happening in Edmonton is karma and chickens coming home to roost, but on the other hand, a health league requires competitive teams in all cities.

You have to feel sorry for Hamilton who seemed to be ready to finally make a Grey Cup run by signing Bo Levi Mitchell at quarterback, even though Mitchell’s shoulder makes him Peyton Manning in his last season with the Denver Broncos.

You must wonder if Hamilton has built their stadium over some former lunatic asylum whose spirits now clutch at the hopes of Ti Cat fans to keep them from celebrating a Grey Cup win for owner Bob Young.

Hamilton has now bottomed out against Edmonton, and I suspect they are done for the season. What is going on in Hamilton is now nothing more than next year’s pre-season starting early as they evaluate who they have and if they can contribute.

Whenever Winnipeg plays Calgary, I like to characterize those games as Ebola versus the Black Death because regardless of who wins the game, CFL fans lose.

This game featured Dru Brown as quarterback for the Bombers showed while Brown had a good performance filling in for an injured Zach Collaros, Brown may not be fit for anything more than fill-in duty.

Winnipeg got a pick six off Calgary QB Jake Maier who again demonstrated a lack of touchdown acumen for the Stampeders as they outlasted Calgary in a 19-18 snoozer.

The Bombers did the Riders a favor by keeping the Stamps in fourth place and demonstrating that if Collaros does go out of a game, the Bombers are beatable, but only if you have a functional offense.

Another close game came up with the Ottawa Montreal game as Ottawa blew an 11-point lead with a couple of minutes left to allow Caleb Evans to lead Montreal to busted coverage to win the game by one point.

Montreal did this without resorting to an injured Cody Fajardo who returns this week against the Bombers, who have probably haunted his dreams since the 2019 western final when he hit the cross bar on his last play.

While Rider fans may have some resentment of Fajardo for not turning into the winning quarterback he hinted at when he came off the bench initially, both Fajardo and former Rider offensive coordinator Jason Maas seem to have turned Montreal into a quiet contender in the east who should probably be looking at surprising Toronto in the eastern final if they keep relatively injury free.

Ottawa for their part until quarterback Dustin Crum showed that while Ottawa has hope at their quarterback position, they have work to do on their defense and perhaps some aspects of their offense. While Ottawa is another team that has seen their starting quarterback go out along with others, they do have some promise and will be an entertaining team to watch regardless of who they play, and that is a good recommendation for Ottawa fans.

So, Montreal comes out of their narrow win against Ottawa to go to Stony Mountain where the Bombers wait, with Collaros back in tow. Montreal has cleaned up on teams below them in the standings, and now this game gives them a good idea of where they stand against the top third teams in the league.

My take on Montreal is they are positionally solid but with Fajardo, they have a question mark with a quarterback who is prone to making the same moves when under pressure.

Winnipeg is still a solid team, but they are not as dominating as they once were. The Bombers are aging, and a younger defense may be able to swarm an older and not so mobile offense. The question this week is whether Montreal is that defense.

Montreal can play Winnipeg close, and Montreal has the advantage of not being as touted as Toronto and BC which means Winnipeg may look at Fajardo and think, meh, we’ve got his number, and then look to phone the effort in.

This might not be wise against the Als, who face the question of whether they are ready to compete against the best of the league. I think this is going to be a close game with Winnipeg getting a 25-23 win based on muscle memory against Montreal, but Montreal does have an opportunity to make a statement.

Calgary goes to Toronto and Calgary is a team that based on previous years records should be better than 3-6, but injuries, especially to their receiving corps, has a team that is run heavy and in the hands of a quarterback in jake Maier who is a game manager along with lines of Matt Nichols, formerly of the Bombers.

Calgary had an opportunity to take advantage of a Bomber team playing without Collaros but was unable to capitalize The Rider win which dropped the Stamps to four points out of the playoffs now forces the Stamps to try to get some traction against probably the best team in the league.

Toronto is coming off its final bye and now faces a solid run from here to the end of the regular season. Toronto has been fortunate in avoiding injuries and getting an interesting schedule which keeps them from Toronto, and now have an opportunity to beat teams they should be beating in Calgary.

Calgary does not have the offense to stay with Toronto, who may decide to just beat the Stampeders into submission while showing just enough to keep the fans excited. Toronto wins this one 30-23, basically on the assumption that Calgary’s defensive secondary keeps this close enough to be competitive, but not too competitive.

Hamilton goes to BC and while BC may have lost to the Riders, you can argue that BC probably took the Riders too lightly, based on how the Riders turtled against Montreal and gave no indication they could muster any offensive production.

Vernon Adams Jr. did have a Charlie horse injury, but he also showed a lot of leadership in leading BC back and almost winning the game. While the Lions lost, they also demonstrated some character and leadership that may help the team later on this season.

This week against Hamilton the Lions get the advantage of an eastern team going west and playing out of their time zone. Hamilton also has the problem of not having an identity on offense and an aging defense and result should be a 27-20 win for the Lions who rebound from the Rider game to stay within hailing distance of Stony Mountain.

Finally, we have Ottawa going to Edmonton where the question of whether Edmonton is ready to finally break their North American home losing streak.

The Elk have been trending upwards in their play the last two weeks, including the win over Hamilton, and this game may be just what the Elk need to position themselves for their Labor Day series with Calgary where Edmonton hobos will battle Calgary hobos for the title of biggest losers in Alberta.

While it is good to see Tre Ford make a case for Canadian quarterbacks, both teams have more than enough question marks to make this perhaps one of the more entertaining games due to the various gaps in both teams.

Ottawa may have choked in their defensive coverages of Montreal in the last minutes of their game, but Ottawa is a team in the making and while they are far from polished, they do bring more consistency than Edmonton does.

Both teams are kind of a mirror image of the other, but I have more faith in Khari Jones than Jarious Jackson. Ottawa wins this one 24-21 as the brief glow in Edmonton after their win over Hamilton is revealed to be nothing more than a burp in the universe.

by Greg Urbanoski

Who Are Those Guys?

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