Puke, Confetti & Smith

What a beautiful day in Saskatoon. My window is open with the sounds of chirping birds outside and the Rouge White & Blue podcast piping through my wireless speaker. It's Monday, the first day of summer and ten days until the Roughriders season opener at Old Mosaic Stadium.

Let's recap. In the last seventeen days, Chris Jones has wanted to puke, we've endured the confetti canon power outage and we've released Brett Smith.

GASP!

Chris Jones is nauseous after every loss, he says, and admitted in every media scrum that there's lot's of work to be done. I believe him. I think we have the talent but remember the majority of the players are new to the Roughriders so have all new schemes and plays to learn. Is 17 days long enough to learn brand new material? To put this in perspective, it takes every beginner piano student 8 weeks to play Hot Cross Buns well. EIGHT weeks. As fans we want them to stun everyone out of the gate when I really think we have to be patient, however, Riders fans are not known for their patience. This team is going to win...eventually...and I suspect the fan base is going to lose a few to panic attacks of their own because of a slower start but I predict by Labour Day this Rider team will be rolling. Isn't it better to be a strong team at the end of the season? It's not how you start – it's how you finish.

TSN and the CFL were brought to a grinding halt over a confetti canon.

~ face-palm ~

A confetti canon is a little hand held tube which can be bought at discount stores like Giant Tiger. Seriously. This little devil was shot at various power lines, transformers and such around the Old Mosaic Stadium area sending the stadium into darkness at half time while longing eyes gazed over to New Mosaic Stadium lit up in all it's glory mocking with it's generators. We can't get over there soon enough and yet what a way to start the farewell season than with an epic blackout. It's hysterical and amazing at the same time.

To contrast, the Roughriders second preseason bout was in Edmonton against the Eskimo's. This game was not broadcast on TSN nor did the “schmoes” allow anyone to stream the game stating it would detract from ticket sales. So those of us in Saskie had to rely on good old fashioned radio like the game blackout days of the 1980's OR you could have watched the periscope of an Eskie fan via Twitter. C'mon TSN! This is the best you can do? No wonder the CFL has such a hard time being taken seriously. The story line was a huge one with Chris Jones returning to his spurned ex team for the first time, the Roughriders with the biggest fan base in the country and the Eskies being defending Grey Cup Champions. Apparently 5 TSN channels of golf is more important.

- eye-roll -

Nope. We didn't “see” a thing.

Hard to justify the player cuts which were submitted to the league office 10am Sunday morning and not made public until approx 12:15pm and 10,000 screen refreshes. Terrance Cobb, Qudarius Ford and Clarence Denmark were released but what has everyone churned up was the release of the 2015 backup QB Brett Smith. In the training camp situation I honestly couldn't tell him apart from any of the other quarterbacks with the exception of Darian Durant. I thought when I saw Smith in the Green White scrimmage that he still had the happy feet and was too eager to run and I still thought that when he was in the first preseason game. Sure, having escape-ability is one thing but after lot's of intense thought of the situation I've formed a few thoughts:

• When your QB is indecisive your offense doesn't know what you're doing and this often results in missed opportunities and holding penalties.
• The game was not slowing down. He was having issues seeing the field and going through his reads.
• Smith's instinct was to use his legs. Did our porous O line in 2015 wreck his development?
• Smith was spirited. He wasn't executing the play. He defied coaches and took selfish penalties. There is no “I” in team.

Don't get me wrong because I completely still think Smith has potential and maybe he'll have the opportunity with another team...it just won't be the Roughriders in 2016.

Now we wait for Chris Jones and crew to bring in a third Quarterback. They've got 10 days to make changes and get ready for the home opener against the Toronto Argonauts on June 30^th under the lights at Old Mosaic Stadium. In the meantime, the Riders have a week one bye which gives Rider Nation just enough time to invest in enough Pepto-Bismol to settle our stomachs. Buckle yourselves in to the bandwagon, folks, we are in for a heck of a roller coaster ride.

Is It Over Yet?

Mercifully, Sunday was the final game of the Saskatchewan Roughriders 2015 season. The Riders travelled to Montreal to take on the equally terrible Montreal Allouetes. Could we have ever imagined a season ender like this back in 2009 or '10?

I've been thinking lot's lately about how hopeful I was back in June. I took in many sessions of Training Camp here in Saskatoon. Seeing both Darian Durant and Kevin Glenn on the field was reassuring. We'd fixed the back up issues of last year. How silly was I? We forget quickly and even though the Riders issues go far beyond the lack of developing a competent back up...we forget the undeniable presence of Darian Durant any time he sets foot on the football field. He elevates everything. Thinking back to the season opener against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, hearing his voice call out for the snap...Wow. Its awe inspiring. Whatever that is – it's “it”.

There have been many questions about Darian's recovery and in last weeks press conference someone asked him if he'll be the same quarterback. I loved his response. “No. I won't be the same quarterback. I'm going to be better.” I believe him. That's the level of confidence I want to hear from the leader of my team. However, some still like to condemn the two time Grey Cup winner. Some are saying it's time for a trade. That's looney tunes to me. In spite of the Grey Cup win at home in 2013, haters are still going to hate.

Later on, when Kevin Glenn was injured we witnessed the evolution of Brett Smith. He really seemed to show promise. However, as the season continued and our offence started to stutter, it became evident that our offensive line just wasn't up to snuff and the poor backup had to scramble again and again. It seemed playing him was doing more damage than good. Sure, it's great that Brett Smith can scramble when he needs to but when he doesn't even have time to go through his reads because the Oline can't control the line of scrimmage (or takes holding penalties instead), well, he's rather doomed. I wish he could roll out instead of having to scramble. I like his heart and the team seems to play better with him but is that a personality choice or are they just more familiar with his play?

Shrugs.

Last week the Rider faithful saw third stringer Keith Price. When he took the snap and stepped back I admit I was wooed. He had pocket presence. Then when his first pass ended up being a touchdown pass to the “president” Naaman Roosevelt, well, it was jaw dropping. Since we've found out a few things about Price including that a Warren Moon scholarship paid for his schooling at the University of Washington. I think he has the poise to continue to develop.

An undoubtedly defining moment of the 2015 Rider season was the firing of head coach Corey Chamblin. I posted a Twitter pole and 80% of Ridernation who answered still stands by the decision. In my opinion, it was better to do it when it happened because the fans and organization found out just how badly the Riders had been patched together. Did you read “the interview” on Yahoo Sports? Did you listen to the interview with Ballzy on CKRM? I thought the Ballzy interview was really well done and asked the tough questions. I also thought Chamblin was honest but still maybe not far enough removed because it's going to take time to see clearly what happened. He didn't sound egotistical at all. In fact one of the biggest eye openers was how he said about 4 people had been interviewed for defensive coach and were offered jobs but they all declined and that led him to doing it himself. Mike McCullough thinks it's because he burnt bridges. I don't think that's the case. It takes a special breed of coach to withstand the microscope of Saskatchewan media and fans. Why would you say yes to constant criticism?! Even I praise my piano students before correcting them. Ridernation is harsh and sometimes the biggest problem.

The Roughrider season has divided Rider fans. The same amount of fans who stand by the firing of Chamblin have also stopped following the team and CFL because of the dismal season. That's a shame. There have been some excellent games including the REDBLACKS vs Ticats game Saturday. Even though my team isn't doing well, I still pride myself on being a fan of the league. Us rabid Rider fans are strongly opinionated and often find ourselves embroiled in disagreements. In spite of this, I've managed to make some great acquaintances with other fans of the other 8 teams in this 9 team league. Rnation is giving us a run for the money but I think it is so completely refreshing to have another team in the league who has passionate fans and don't mind shouting it from the rooftops. Good on you! And while I'm at it, how awesome has Smilin' Hank been?! I take back everything I've said about him. He is part of something really special there in Ottawa.

In the first game of the Riders 2015 season against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers John Chick got an interception and scored a touchdown but like so many other instances in the season, it got taken back on a penalty. In Sundays game against our old Grey Cup foes John Chick single handily changed the outcome by scooping up a fumble and sending us to over time. It was shades of Canada Day 2010. As I saw Crapigna line up for the tying field goal, I quickly counted the players on the field. Some habits die hard. But there we were and my almost dead green heart pounded a little harder. It was a boring game. It was turnovers galore. The fourth quarter and over time were exciting and just as the Alouettes had battled back in 2009, we did the same in this game. The Riders played with their hearts on the sleeves of their jerseys. After losing pretty much everything they still wanted to win this one.

3 – 15

Ugh.

The off season is going to be interesting. We're going to say goodbye to some guys we love. It's going to be upsetting. Coaches will be hired. A GM will be named. The snow will melt and it'll be time for camp again.

Here's to building for 2016.