Riders Mercifully End Season

The gamble seems to be that a new head coach hired without previous constraints of the salary management system for football administration staff will result in someone who might either understand how analytics work, how to call plays, how to make adjustments at halftime, how to teach how to tackle…well, let’s just say it’s a long list. The Riders are entrusting a GM who has brought in talent but also let a lot of talent walk.

The biggest problem has been the lack of improvement in the offensive line. Sure, this year the Riders finished third worst in sacks allowed, but their running game ranked second worst in the league, so you could argue it was a systematic failure all around.

The defense finished dead solid last. Most points given up, the team that others love to pass against and if you need to give your running back a boost of confidence, just let them start against the Riders. The number of empty seats was truly impressive as Rider fans demonstrated their disgust by staying away.

A number of factors entered into this – the way the team has folded after beating Winnipeg and then getting pounded the next week in the rematch; the decision making which is easy to criticize from the seats but when you have to make the decision on the field you have better situational awareness than what the Riders showed; the matador tackling that has not been seen since Junior Mertile in his prime; the inability to stop the run; the feeling that fleecing the fans is more important than putting a winning team on the field.

The Rider board of directors bought the reasoning that O’Day brought in talent, but it was not coached up to its fullest potential. They also looked at the bottom line and felt the profitability warranted keeping Reynolds. Speaking as someone who made numerous trips from Prince Albert to Regina to take in games during the 1990s, the increase in costs is making it prohibitive for people make the trip to Regina from wherever.

When you have a product that looks disinterested and when you look at the epic failure during the Hamilton game when the Riders were honoring George Reed who had just passed away and the 2013 team, you have to ask if the Riders could not rise to the occasion then, then they didn’t deserve to make the playoffs. The Rider game against the Argos was somewhat entertaining, but from my spot in Pil Country, where you could see the players look up into the empty stands and wonder aloud where everyone was on fan appreciation day, the game was just an excuse to spend time outdoors on a nice day…unless you had better things to do.

To summarize Craig Dickenson’s run as Rider coach is pretty easy. Good special team’s coordinator, but not every coordinator makes a good head coach. Dickenson is a decent person who tried to treat his players like adults, but for the last seven games, I kept thinking about a scene from the movie Bull Durham. Kevin Costner plays Crash Davis, a vet sent down in the baseball minor leagues to tutor a pitching prospect how to be ready for the major leagues.

Costner is shaving after the Durham Bulls have lost a game and the manager comes to talk to him and says he doesn’t know what to do to get through to the kids playing on the team. “Scare them,” said Costner. “They’re kids.” The manager then gathers the team in the shower room, throws a bunch of bats in them and calls them out for being lollygaggers.

Something you could argue the Riders needed to do this year. I would think Dickenson will likely get picked up by another team looking for improvement in special teams. The reasoning for O’Day being retained is understandable to some extent, the previous GM Chris Jones had signed his assistants to contract extensions so there was not much option to fitting under the salary cap.

However, ask yourself this question – If this was the NFL and the person responsible for assembling the team had gone 6-12 for two consecutive years and ended each season with a seven game losing streak, would that person be retained? The Riders have been coasting comfortably since their 2013 run. The poaching of Chris Jones and his staff from Edmonton was a ballsy gesture, but the mercenary that is Chris Jones his ended his Rider reign the same way for his mentor Don Matthews did – by walking away for better opportunities.

The Riders placed their hopes in the coaching staff being able to rise to the occasion and not really seeing it happen. Now they are hoping the chance to bring in a coach who can do a culture reset and make the team competitive will fill seats. Since the season is over, fans have entertained themselves with speculating about the next coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The local broadcaster has floated everything from Marc Mueller, the grandson of Rider legend Ron Lancaster, to Henry Burris. Scott Milanovich, who seems to be considered the front runner, is currently employed by Hamilton, but some have wondered whether Milanovich will be allowed to have personnel decision making responsibilities, which detract from O’Day.

I imagine if O’Day could work under Jones, letting Milanovich have a say in bringing in players would not be a stretch. The question is if O’Day brings someone in and they go 6-12 again next year, will O’Day and Reynolds be able to hang onto their jobs? I would have loved to have seen the Riders bring in someone from the Argos organization for GM duties.

The Argos are a young, deep football club as demonstrated against the Riders, and the Riders could use some help in building depth. So take a look at the Rider Store site, write down some prices, and compare them against other teams. The Riders rank as amongst the highest cost sites for fans, and combined with the recent seat price increases, just gives the impression the CEO and board of directors are more concerned with selling over priced merchandize than winning championships. In the Riders 113 year history, they have won four Grey Cup championships – an average of one every 28 years.

If this is the sustained success Reynolds was aiming for, well, during his reign, the Riders have never appeared in a Grey Cup game. It feels like the Riders were happy to move into their new stadium and think that was all they needed to do, and fans would be willing to pay more for where they are sitting. As BB King once sang, the thrill is gone.

I don’t think the Riders truly appreciate how precarious their position is with the fans right now because while not renewing Dickenson’s contract was low hanging fruit, it doesn’t address the lack of strategic thinking being demonstrated. So this week there are three games, all of which are meaningless in the standings, but they kind of have meaning in other ways. Winnipeg goes to Calgary and in this battle to see what is better Ebola or Bubonic Plague, credit to Winnipeg for winning the west and Calgary for showing some character to overcoming the Riders.

It could well be a preview of the western final with the BC Lions not having a consistent running game which would really help in Winnipeg in a few weeks. Winnipeg is in the position of rotating people in and perhaps remembering how Calgary lost two key members of their defensive line in 2013 in the final game which helped the Riders run on them in the western final.

The Bombers will have a two-week break until the western final, but they will have to balance keeping players injury free while also keeping their offense and defense in sync. Calgary has the pressure off of trying to win to stay in the playoffs, so they can rest people while also trying to maintain some continuity. I would prefer to have something to play for because then you maintain your mental focus.

Calgary may not want to show too much to give BC any ideas for the western semi-final, so this is more or less an exhibition game. Winnipeg will win this 29-22 in the battle of the backups. Hamilton goes to Montreal in a preview of the eastern semi-final and again since these teams meet next week, neither team wants to tip their hands to what they might do.

Sending a message sounds like a cute idea, but you should see two teams playing possum for the fireworks next week. In this battle of the backups, Montreal’s defense should be enough to get a 25-22 win. For Rider fans, think about this – Cody Fajardo and Jason Maas are going to the playoffs and the Riders are not. Finally we have Toronto going to Ottawa as Toronto tries to tie the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos for most wins in a season.

Uh, Edmonton did not get past the Riders in the western final that year and think about how the New England Patriots went undefeated but lost in the Superbowl against their kryptonite in the New York Giants. Ottawa has been somewhat competitive after the loss of Jeremiah Masoli, but a lack of depth and questionable coaching decisions have also sunk this team, but they seem to have a good young quarterback to build around.

After Chad Kelly went down with an injury for the Argos, it should have sent a cautionary note about pushing ones luck when it is not needed. I hope they do and they have the depth beat Ottawa with their backups 31-23.