The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Riders 20-19 loss to the Toronto Argonauts was a game the Riders could have won, but probably didn’t deserve to. Despite getting off to a 13-0 start, the Riders offensive line could not keep quarterback Trevor Harris free from harassment as he threw two interceptions and failed to generate much positive first down yardage.

The Riders lost on a rouge on a missed field goal by Toronto on the last play, which seems fitting, since the team had the opportunity to kill the clock with the lead, but the receivers had problems hanging onto the ball.

The Riders were the first team to face Chad Kelly who finished serving his nine-game suspension for gender based bad attitudes towards a female trainer. Kelly had to complete a counselling course and apparently still has more to go, but the CFL seemed satisfied with getting last year’s most outstanding player back onto the field.

It was interesting to contrast the game Kelly had with the one Nathan Rourke had with the BC Lions when he returned from the NFL. Rourke was thrown to the…uh…lions and his lack of playing time while pursuing his NFL dreams became obvious quickly.

Kelly, while not practicing with the Argos, was in contact with them and knew the playbook. Toronto moved the ball, but the Rider defense put on a show of their own, stopping Argos three times on goal line stands. Toronto had some touchdowns called back from dropped passes as the Command Centre, its knuckles rapped for turning games into sideshows, stuck to identifying if the ball made it over the goal line or was caught.

Toronto fans should feel not bad about the inaugural performance by Kelly, who needs to work on his timing with his receivers. Toronto should fare better with Kelly for the last half of the season, but the question remains unanswered if Kelly has the mental and emotional toughness to handle adversity not just in games, but off the field as well.

Toronto’s defense does not look like it is missing too much, and a good defense is an essential part of any championship team. The big question for Toronto is whether they can move up on Ottawa and Montreal or whether they are better off working on their execution and preparing for the playoffs, especially if they finish third and are the road team.

The Riders have growing pains of their own, most of it self-inflicted like calling a time out that eliminated a big play getting the Riders out from the shadows of their goal posts. Rider fans, well known for their manic swings between victory and defeat, are now considering the very real prospect the sky is falling on them and their hopes of making the playoffs.

I wouldn’t go that far yet. The Riders have lost AJ Ouellette for likely the rest of the season with a torn hip labrum injury, likely suffered in training camp. One will not quibble with the heart of Ouellette in trying to run with a bad hip, but his running style and the fact he could not hit the hole fast enough means the Riders will turn to Frankie Hickson and they brought in SaRoodorick Thompson Jr., who came out of Texas Tech and went to a few NFL camps before arriving here.

If Thompson can provide the power game Ouellette was being counted on, the Riders may be alright, but it doesn’t hide that Hickson himself, while being a shifty runner, also tends to get hurt now and then and the Riders could use some serious depth.

The offensive line is kind of stable but could use some help and apparently Philip Blake may be ready to begin practicing with the team soon. If the Riders can get a consistent running game and an offensive line that can remain upright, things could very well work out for the Riders with that defense, which let’s be honest, is carrying the team right now.

The Bombers for their part have taken advantage of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the toothless BC Lions to crawl out of the primordial ooze into second place, one point behind the Riders. The Bombers beat who they had in front of them and so they come to Regina believing the best is yet to come.

The Bombers came to Riderville earlier this season and lost 19-9 in a game Shea Patterson started for the Riders. Harris had a good game in his return from injury against Montreal, although he was victimized by the last of crucial special teams play.

Other than his first few drives against Toronto, Harris fell back and again revealed an uncomfortable truth about himself – Harris is a rhythm passer and when he is on, he is difficult to stop.

If you can distract him, either through a variety of blitzes or mixing up the defensive coverages to such a degree that Harris throws before reading the situation fully and gift wraps interceptions for the Bombers, then Harris and his completion rate and quarterback rating won’t amount to a hill of beans.

The Riders have quite the stable of fleet receivers, but I suspect that most of their time will consist of taking short dump passes and hoping to make the Bombers miss their initial tackling effort. Offensive coordinator Marc Mueller has come under fire for his play calling the last few games, but with the Riders performing at less than full potential, Mueller has been relying on Ron Lancaster’s game planning of setting the other team up for big plays in the fourth quarter.

If Ouellette was at his full potential, the Rider offense would be more productive, but the fact of the matter is most of the offensive team is new and the assumption that Ouellette would get through the season healthy was perhaps more wishful thinking.

All of this is really just excuses for the receiver’s relative lack of experience, the running game placed in the hands of a one-legged runner, and a quarterback whose injury history is not exactly inspiring confidence. What Cory Mace’s coaching staff must do is get the team to focus on the things they can control and not worry about everything else.

Rider fans tend to forget this is also a learning curve for a new coaching staff. How well they read their players and design the playbook to get the most of their talents will tell the tale whether the Riders will be playing in November or wondering if they are truly snakebit.

I tend to go to Rider practices because they are just down the street from where I work and the tenor and the intensity of the practices this year are much different than the last two years. The Riders seem to be working and not going through the motions and you must think they are looking at the standings and thinking that they have been fortunate BC has gone into a dive and somehow the Riders are still in first place.

If the Riders win on Sunday, they are three points up on the Bombers and more importantly, have the season series in the event the two teams are tied at the end of the season. For the Riders to win, they must play disciplined and avoid getting into the retaliation penalties being provoked by the cheaters from Stony Mountain.

The offensive line needs to stay healthy, but more importantly, play both run blocking and pass protection equally well. If the Bombers blitz as expected, expect to see a lot of dump passes and screens to make the Bombers think before they rush, which I hope they don’t do.

The weak section of the Bombers is their secondary and if the Riders can use the mostly positive match ups in their favor, the biggest being size, the Riders can move the ball on the Bombers. I am not sure yet about the running game, but if they can use all the players at their disposal and give the Bombers something to make them think for a second, the Riders may not be as offensively impotent as they looked against Toronto.

Where the game will be decided will be the battle between the Bomber offense and the Rider defense. The Bombers will use Brady Olivera to try to open up the play action passes for Zach Collaros and expect to see a lot of misdirection as the Bombers hope the Riders pursuit will be so dogged, they won’t notice if Nic Demski gets the ball.

The Riders are still without Anthony Lanier II on the defensive line, but one of the unexpected marvels this year is watching Micah Johnson in the middle of the defensive line impose his will on opposing linemen. The key to success will be discipline in maintaining their pursuit lanes and their situational awareness of when plays break down and where the Bomber offensive players are going to.

The return of Stanley Bryant to the Bombers after a scary incident in the Bomber Tiger-Cat game will come as a relief to Collaros and Bomber fans, but the Rider defense is faster, younger, and more talented than the Bombers offense. If the Riders can make Collaros second guess himself, he will throw a couple of interceptions and the Riders regularly work on stripping the ball from opposing players.

Turnovers will play a major role in this game because as I noted last week with the Riders Toronto game, the Riders do not blow anyone out. If the Riders can create turnovers and a shorter field for their offense, while limiting their own mistakes, the Saskatchewan Roughriders will emerge Sunday night with a 25-4 win over the Bombers and a three-point lead in the western conference standings.

The BC Lions have apparently decided to hell with the salary cap as they signed defensive end Mathieu Betts who was cut by the Detroit Lions this past week. The Lions have creatively used their marketing money to land Rourke and Betts and the prospect of losing their first two draft picks because they are over $350,000 in the salary cap is not deterring them because they probably expect to get a draft pick or two in return for Vernon Adams after this season.

The Lions could use Adams more right now because Rourke’s lack of game action showed in Ottawa’s 34-27 win over the Lions, but it was not as bad as his performance against the Bombers. The expectations have been sky high since Rourke came back and this week adds more pressure as the Lions play Ottawa yet again, but this time in Victoria, where Rourke comes from.

Playing in front of your hometown brings a lot of pressure and I think Ottawa surprised a lot of people with their win over BC and the fact they are in second place in the east. While Rourke learns the Lion playbook and more importantly learns his chemistry with his receivers, the Lions may find that all the stars might sell tickets, but if they can’t play together as a team, the expectations being created on the West Coast may be totally unrealistic.

You contrast what the Lions are doing with what the Redblacks are doing, growing as a team and having faith in each other, and you start to wonder if placing a bet against BC being in the Grey Cup, they are hosting would be a pretty good bet.

The Lions have sky high expectations based on bringing Rourke and Betts back, but whether those players will be enough to cover the other holes in the Lions lineup. Dru Brown is probably the most impactful free agent signing this season and with Jeremiah Masoli on the bench and ready to come in, the Redblacks confidence in themselves has nowhere to go but up.

For some reason I am thinking this game is being played on some rugby field by Victoria and while the Lions are hitting all the marketing high points, their rush to get Rourke in the lineup while Adams is injured again brought up the observation that CFL players coming back from the NFL are usually not as effective as they were when they went to the NFL.

While the Lions will win the marketing war this week with Touchdown Pacific, the signing of Rourke and Betts, the Redblacks will eke out a 24-23 win as they try to prove the pundits wrong about the Redblacks and how competitive they are.

On Monday the traditional Labor Day doubleheader opens with Toronto at Hamilton. The Argos should have blown the Riders away, but the arrival of Chad Kelly at quarterback made it clear there is a lot of practice needed before the Argos are perfect.

Hamilton added former Edmonton coach Chris Jones as their senior defensive consultant and while I was not expecting him to have an immediate impact on the Tiger-cat offense, he pushed enough buttons to give Hamilton a solid shot at beating Winnipeg.

With another week of practice to implement whatever system Jones feels is best, Hamilton’s defense should play better in the traditional rivalry game with the Argos. Jones might have even dusted off the film from last year’s eastern final where Montreal surprised Toronto and picked Kelly off seemingly at will.

Toronto will be better with Kelly having another week of practice, but so will Hamilton. Hamilton has to look at the standings and must be thinking their best route to the playoffs may be through the west where the Cats are only two games behind Calgary Stampeders.

Labor Day games are the homecoming games of the CFL, and the emotional stakes are through the roof. Hamilton is playing at home, with a new defensive coordinator who is not afraid to be imaginative with his defense and will give the Argos something they have not seen before.

Expect an emotional defensive struggle as the Tiger-Cats hope the Argos are not taking them seriously. Normally I would think Toronto should blow Hamilton out of the water, but I suspect this will be a tight game with the Cats coming away with a 19-10 win to stay alive in the crossover race.

Speaking of crossover, two of the teams involved in the battle for third in the west will conclude the action in Calgary as the Edmonton Elk head down to take on the Stampeders.

The Elk gave Montreal a good game, at least in the first half, but Montreal came on to beat Edmonton 21-17. The Elk are not a bad team, they just suffer from a lack of consistency and the departure of Jones seems to have lit a fire in the Elk.

The Stampeders though are coming off a bye week and a chance to work some new people in the lineup or welcome some others from the injury list. The Stampeders look like a 500 team, but this game will pit the Elks ground game against the Stamps defense.

Edmonton has rediscovered a ground game and used it to good effect during their three-game winning streak before it got shot down by Montreal. With Tre Ford out and McLeod Bethel Thompson in, the Elk will likely try to use players like former Rider receiver Tevan Jones who burned the Riders to spark the Elk first winning streak.

This will be another tight defensive battle because neither team can afford to fall behind the other in the standings, and with BC not yet finding some traction under Nathan Rourke, the opportunity is there to move into contention in the west and with most remaining games against western teams, both sides will look to take advantage of the moment and move into some kind of playoff contention.

Calgary strikes me as the more well rounded of the two teams. I think Calgary can handle Edmonton’s running attack, but Edmonton also has a passing game that can take advantage of Calgary’s relatively porous secondary.

Calgary should win this one 22-16.

by Greg Urbanoski

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What's Trending