Ba-Bye!

Since my last blog the Roughriders have gone five and oh, top of the CFL, Drew Willy and zip.....that means five glorious green victories while losing zip, zilch, nada times.

The last time the team has achieved such a feat was in 2008 under Coach Ken Miller.  The starting quarterback was Marcus Crandell, then Stephen Jyles, and Darian Durant before the Michael Bishop experiment happened.  I vaguely recall a stat about a team going 6-0 while using 4 different starting quarterbacks.  Through several setbacks and broken legs the team ended the season 12-6.

Reminiscing about the 2008 season, makes me wonder where DJ Flick is now.  It makes me recall the famous beer tossing incident in the BC Lions game.  It also reminds me that it was the year we lost Ron Lancaster.  It also reminds me of the West Semi-Final and even though we knew we weren't going to win because of all the injuries we were hopeful and then Stu Foord scored a touchdown, tore off his helmet and let his hair flow as he ran along the sidelines.

Time travel to 2013.

Through the first five games of this season our beloved Riders seem to be able to crush any opponent.  Okay, fine, we've had relatively easy teams to play so far.  I mean, the Eskimos seem in shambles especially after the Krazy Kavis remarks and then there's Kent Austin's anger from the sidelines of the Hamilton.....er, Guelph.....er, TiCats bench.  It would seem the power is in the west.  Then I have to remind myself that we've really only played 5 games.  Five isn't very much at all.  Lot's can change, and will change through the rest of the season.  The true test is the next game against the Stampeders and then later on in September when we finally play the BC Lions.

Who makes up the schedules anyway?

The Roughriders advanced their record to 5-0 against the 1989 Grey Cup winning quarterback #5 Kent Austin with a back up quarterback #5 of Drew Willy.  How much do you love that?!

In the meantime.....is the bye week over yet?......let's revel in our success.

• Darian Durant has had an incredible start with zero interceptions. 
• We found out Drew Willy is better than capable as a back up.
• Kory Sheets has set the record for rushing for 100+ yards in 5 consecutive games for a total of 712.
• Rob Bagg is back and better than ever and might make me cry every time he gets a TD
• Weston Dressler is one tough little dude.
• It is totally awesome to see Geroy Simon strike his Superman poise in green & white.
• Rey Williams is a beast.  Thank you Kent Austin.
• John Chick makes a girls heart flutter
• Keith Shologan was drafted in 2008 and this week he became a dad.  *insert warm fuzzies here*
• Chris Getzlaf has gotten married.  Tons of congrats from Rider Nation.
• Finally, Dan Clark.

The Story So Far

I don't think I really have to inform any Rider fan out there that the team is currently the only team in the CFL who remains undefeated.  I'm pretty sure everyone knows the Roughriders are 3-0.  Did you know that no CFL player has started the season with as many yards as Kory Sheets?

See?

You knew it already.

Rod Pederson said Rider Nation is swinging from chandeliers.  This might be the one!

In the first game of the season we played the Edmonton Eskimo's.  The score was 39-18.  Lot's of people said that, well, the Eskimo's aren't a very good team and we'd have to wait and find out how the Riders play against a more worthy opponent.  The high/low-light of this game was what I saw as an interfering Greg Marshall chirping at Dwayne Anderson and then saw DA get all fired up crazy and got himself a few penalties.  It also caused a bit of a controversy because tons of fans were split on whether he should even remain on the team.  Now, two games later.....meh, DA is an okay guy *if* he doesn't do it again.  Then it turns out the real crazy is the Eskimo's coach, "Krazy" Kavis Reed who could barely contain himself after their most recent loss.  My own personal opinion is.....his counting mistake caused us a Grey Cup even though I can't prove it.  His contract was just extended but how could you possibly have respect for a raving lunatic of a coach?  Edmonton is indeed in trouble.  THERE HAS TO BE CONSEQUENCES!!!

Moving on to week two and we played the Calgary Stampeders or the Stumps as I've heard a few refer to them as.  I felt a little bit bad for them because they had that horrific storm and severe flooding.....but not bad enough to let them win.  The Stamps were a more worthy opponent but we still beat them 36-21.  Of course we had Skater Dude aka Rod Black for a commentator.  Throughout the almost the entire first half all we heard was how much in control Drew Tate was and how calm he was and blah blah blah.  I shouldn't expect any less from Skater Dude.  I really thought "Kernal" Jock Sanders was going to break loose and return a punt for a touchdown.  I think he was just one tackle away.....and it could still happen in any game.  Getzlaf seemed to recover from the dropsies which plagued him last year but ohmygawd how awesome was the play calling?!  I was singing George Cortez's praises after this game.  What a catch he was! 

On to the most recent game against the defending 2012 Grey Cup champs, the Toronto Argonauts.  You know, I googled argonaut before because I had absolutely no idea what it was.  If there was ever a case for REDBLACKS, this might be it.  No confusion as to what that name means.  But I digress.....  We beat them!  39-28 was the score. I'm not a huge stats person but who can ignore Darian Durant's performance this year?!  He's thrown 8 touchdown passes already with ZERO interceptions (unless you count that one that got called back).  This is a huge improvement on previous seasons.  The witty Rob Vanstone told me that his previous season best was 25 TD's and he's on pace this year for 46!  Well, that was until his 'lower body' ankle injury.  I have complete faith in our O-line.  I'm sure Drew Willy will perform just fine this week if he is called to duty.  I know Kory Sheets has faith in them too because he's keeping them fed with BonBurgers just for blocking for him.  It's working, and hey, burgers are a huge motivator, because Kory has rushed for an incredible 442 yards in just these  three games.

So where do we go from here?  This coming Sunday we meet what some people are calling the "old Riders", the Kent Austin coached, Hhheeeeennnrryyyyy Burris quarterbacked, Andy Fantuz'd Hamilton TigerCats in front of a home town crowd at Taylor Field, er Mosaic Stadium.  I don't like to make predictions, but I have a feeling Cortez has a special offensive playbook just for the occasion of meeting his ex-team.  After all, he is what I've coined The Quarterback Whisperer.

Let's make it 4-0.  Go Riders Go!