~ Friday Football Five ~

The Saskatchewan Roughriders came out victorious after a back to back series against the Hamilton TigerCats.  Wahoo! 3-2!  Here's how I see things:

1.  The turning point of the game was when Brendan LaBatte was injured and returned to the game to gut it out in the trenches.  What tremendous character, athleticism and leadership all wrapped up in one guy nicknamed Blue.  I believe this one thing is what pulled the team together.  At the same time, I don't want to hear about why the Riders only back up was Eddie Steele.  Eddie Steele himself must be amazing to be able to play both ways even if it was only a short time. Sure there are depth problems on the offensive line but this one single storyline was the difference.

2.  I am so exhausted of hearing about the so called quarterback carousel. We heard it from Glen Suitor and we hear it from all the sports media/pundits who by the way all counted us out in this game.  The bottom line here is that one guy, whether it was Branden Bridge or David Watford, had to make a move to step forward and show that he wanted that spot.  The reward?  You play well and you get more playing time.  You falter and out you come from the game.  That seems pretty motivational to me.  Not only that, but we also saw these two quarterbacks come together to help each other out.  It wasn't that Chris Jones finally heard everyone complaining...no, it was that Air Canada was doing the right things and earned the time.  You can pat yourselves on the back if you want for thinking Chris Jones finally saw the light but you will be very wrong because he doesn't care what you think and he doesn't care what I think.  That's how a 4 Grey Cup winning coach operates and I applaud that.

3.  The play calling is boring.  Is it?  The whole first half was a set up for what was going to happen in the second half.  It became apparent to me in the end of the second quarter when the Riders kept running the ball and even instead of taking a knee on the last play, they ran once more.  This whole scheme was to set up for the second half of the game when the Ticats were keying on the run and we were able to take to the air.  The short throws from side to side are also to set up the run game.  Football is like a chess game.  If this one thing works then the next thing can work.  Instead of calling out the offensive coach let's take a step back and think about these things. Play calling is one thing and execution of the play is another.  In the game last night the Riders executed.

4.  Torches and pitch forks.  After the game when I took a cruise through the various fan pages I was surprised to see Ticats fans very upset with their team and coach.  It's surprising to see people wanting Johnny Manziel in the game.  Why?  For a few weeks those of us in the west have viewed Masoli as the hottest quarterback in the league...that was until he played the Riders.  What has Manziel proved?  These same fans are the people who also didn't like what the Riders were doing with our quarterbacks.  What do you want?  Do you want the next guy when the starter isn't doing what you want?  Do you want a guy to find a rhythm?  You can't have it both ways.  Be happy with what you do have.  Ultimately, I think Hamilton's downfall was that they game planned for the team they played two weeks ago and not the refreshed and tuned in team that was coming in.  That would explain why they tried a trick play...and, well, we know how that went for them.

5.  Funny - no one is talking about Duron Carter this week.  You remember him right?  Bo Levi Mitchell's favourite receiver?  Next week the Stampeders roll into Mosaic Stadium.  They are without doubt the best team in the league right now.  Bo Levi had a leg injury in Week 5 but has been named starter in their tilt against the Montreal Alouettes.  Will Carter get a chance to pick him off again?  We'll all have to wait to see!  I'll be in my seat in section 126 as usual.  

Thanks for reading as always.  Don't forget to look for my Power "Groupings" at the end of each week and join us on ABC Rider Fans to continue the conversation!

You Lose Some & You Win Some

The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost in tragic fashion to the worst team in the league only 6 days ago and everyone...even you Rider Nation...gave up.  All the so called CFL specialists figured there's no way this team can show up and beat the hottest team in the league aka the Hamilton TigerCats.  Except that's just what the Riders did.  They lost the game they should have won and won the game everyone figured they should have lost.  That's exactly what happens on any given week in the CFL and that's exactly how Week 4 turned out for our Saskatchewan Roughriders.

I woke up Thursday morning with a good feeling in my heart.  We were going to win this one.  I'm not a fortune teller or some sort of medium but I knew it was going to be a beautiful Thursday night of football from the best stadium in the country.  No it wasn't a sell out but when so many members of Rider Nation travels into Regina from afar for each game and given their sad performance less than a week earlier it's no surprise that just over 30,000 people were in attendance.  In my opinion, it's the fans who made the biggest difference in this game.  Just as the team came out flatter than a crepe against the Alouettes so did the fans.  There was nothing happening in the stands.  No dancing.  No cheering.  Zip.  In contrast, the Thursday night game lit a spark under the fans and people were on their feet and cheering and yelling and making noise with whatever means available.  Just like in theater the actors feed off the audiences reaction so it is in football as we saw late in the game with under 4 minutes to go members of the Roughriders standing on the benches encouraging Rider fans to be even louder.  Poor old Taylor Field would have crumbled under the vibrations.  It was incredible.

Two pundits were sitting directly behind me.  I had to hear their commentary all game long.  This was a such and such play.  That play was called this.  That guy was open.  Yaddah yaddah yaddah. The one guy didn't even know that Thigpen was on our team!  "When was he signed?"  I sat there biting my tongue when the one guy said Watford threw 4 interceptions last game.  THESE are the people who phone in to the post game shows and criticize our coaches and players for things they don't comprehend.  There's no point in conversing with them or telling them otherwise so instead I endured their lack of insight all game long.  Oh, and they didn't cheer once.  So there's also that.

O Line during warmups.

For a long time now I've said with a poor offensive line ( and offensive they are!) it's not going to matter who the quarterback is because they'll have to run for their life almost every play.  This is the number one problem with our offence in my opinion.  For whatever reason, maybe size or strength, they can't hold their own and back peddle almost every play.  Can they run block? Can they pass protect?  Are they just old and slow?  Was the release of Travis Bond a mistake?  Was there more to that story than we know? How about the development and constant injury of Josiah St John? Let's hope over this bye week there is some serious reflection and correction going on to help our quarterbacks out.

Now all that being said about our O Line what quarterback do you play?  We barely got to know Zach Collaros before his concussion injury sidelined him.  Brandon Bridge is the next guy up.  You'd think after spending 4 years in the CFL he'd have a good handle on what's required of him and starting a game.  I remember thinking last season how Bridge would look great when entering a game in relief of a pulled Kevin Glenn but when he started he was less than stellar.  Throw in an offensive line that can't protect him or any QB, poor decision making, lack of timing and you've got a guy who has to run for his life and turtle on the ground faster than Tino Sunseri can say uncle. This is why, in my opinion, we saw the use of Watford who is a rookie in the league in his first year with the Roughriders.  He looks sure of himself in the huddle, is able to move the pocket, and scramble when he needs to.  Neither quarterback threw an interception and protecting the ball was paramount. This was a huge mistake that was corrected over Week 3.  Messam was used with Bridge to pound the ball and Thigpen and Mason was used with Watford or we saw a mixture.  Instead of trying to use the tandem to confuse Hamilton's defence, I think it was used to force our O Line to protect no matter who was in the game. I think there's a lot of nonsense going around about leadership, but I'm looking for the leadership from the hoggies up front and not the guy who is forced to run for his life because of their play.  There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for which QB was in the game at any given time but that's fine with me.  I'm not the coach and I don't know what is supposed to be happening.  Just because we don't understand it doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do.  Only Chris Jones knows these details for sure.

Cue the fire Jones brigade. Some people have never liked Chris Jones and nothing I say, or anyone says, will make a difference.  But hear this.....  Chris Jones is General Manager, Vice President of Football Operations, Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator.  Chris Jones is FOUR people.  You fire him and then what?  Not only do you have to find someone to replace him but you need to replace those four other salaries as well.  Who do you get at this point in the season?  Are you prepared to pay out his salary?  Are you prepared to have a coach strip the team down and embark on another three year rebuild?  Next up, people are criticizing John Murphy for not being able to find the right talent.  Where does it end?  We won on Thursday!  We won!   Shouldn't we all be happy with that?

Apparently not because next on the bash list is Duron Carter who should be commended for his disciplined play on Thursday night.  He didn't take one penalty.  He did whatever was asked of him.  At one point he was in the secondary and in the next play was in the offence.  How many players can do that?  In the pregame he was signing autographs and this morning (Friday) answering questions over breakfast on Instagram.  The CFL likes nothing more than to pin the villain tag on a player but they are barking up the wrong turd and tree here.  If they want to pin that on someone we have to look no farther than Kyries Hebert who has a history of playing dirty and got a one game suspension for doing as much although we all know one game was not nearly enough.  I saw Duron develop in this game.  His play was entirely improved over week 3 and we saw his team mates helping him out to do it.  To all of you who think DC needs to be on offence...with the way our offence is playing do you really think Carter would be getting the ball anyway?  Let's use his incredible athletic talents in any way we can until Nick Marshall is able to return or we find a suitable replacement.  I remain, if this was just a DB in there making DB mistakes no one would care - but you do because it's Duron Carter.

The scene from my seats July 5th.

The last thing I want to discuss is how the CFL and TSN are knocking these Thursday night game broadcasts out of the park!  The crowd was electric.  People were dancing.  The music by Tim Hicks was great although personally I enjoyed the Hunter Brothers from Saturday's game slightly more but it was good nonetheless.  Kudos to the TSN crew for putting this all together and Brodie Lawson for hosting the festivities.  Let's keep doing this if not more - to attract everyone young and old out to these terrific games!

So bye week, eh..... enjoy the summer, head to the lake, spend some time with family or friends and lets all get back here to cheer our Saskatchewan Roughriders on in the rematch in Hamilton in Week 6.

GO RIDERS!