Sandra's WK16 CFL Power Grouping

The title of this blog could be "How Sandra Avoids Putting Laundry Away" but here I am with a fresh cup of Pumpkin Vanilla coffee and the laundry can wait.  There is nothing more serious than football.

Poor Art is going to think I abandoned him as there are no Garfunkel's for a 3rd week in a row.  

Group A - Saskatchewan Roughriders, Calgary Stampeders, Hamilton TigerCats

Group B - Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Montreal Alouettes, Edmonton Eskimos

Group C - BC Lions, Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Redblacks

As the snow has fallen in several parts of the country I find myself yearning for my fuzzy leggings which are stashed at the back of the closet for cool autumn days or winter which I guess it is now.  The weather people assure me that all this white stuff will melt by the weekend and we will have double digit temps for the only October Roughrider home game this month.

Did you know the Rider Store has leggings?  

We don't really need them because if there is a team that's hotter than the Roughriders I don't know who they are.  Sure some will say Hamilton but what I'm seeing happen with the Riders is special and I'm not the only one saying that because Cody "Fudge" Fajardo is saying it himself.  These guys are working for each other.  They are playing for hearts and brother hood.  It's not just the sprinkles anymore.

Hamilton might have that.  * hides yellow/grey plaid leggings bought at Walmart * I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure except that it seems something special was found in Dane Evans.  And look - any day a team beats my arch rivals aka the Bombers, it's a good day.

If the Riders have a brother hood then what I see from the Blue Bombers is the exact opposite.  I see guys who have talent and stats but care more about those individual accomplishments than the greater good of the team.  All you have to do is sit back and wait until the Bombers feel confident and then hit them with your plays because they don't respond.  Is that what I hope the Riders game plan is for Saturday?  no way but it seems to be working for a lot of teams lately.

Conversation over on ABC Rider Fans has been about the return of Jordan Williams-Lambert and who will be let go as a result of getting him on the roster.  What's lost in the scuffle is - when was the last time the Riders had this much depth?  Isn't it a wonderful thing?  Since when does someone have to be released.  It's possible the Riders will see some injuries down the stretch and when that happens we will have guys waiting in the wings.

Also, Rod Pederson, what the heck are you saying on your show about "letting the Bombers have this one".  Dude, we don't let anyone have anything.  You come into our house and you better believe we are going to defend it.  No one plays to lose.  We want to win now AND in 2020.

The Montreal Alouettes were soooo close but a last minute guffaw led to the BC Lions taking the win.  I'm betting Khari Jones will be thinking about that decision for a long time.  I'm not sold on it being a bad decision because had it been executed correctly we'd be talking about them winning right now.

Attention Argos - Chapdelaine is never going to use the run game.  Some were of the opinion that the Toronto Argonauts were shopping James Franklin on Saturday.  Why I have no idea.  It wasn't that long ago lots of Rider fans were thinking he was the quarterback ex Coach Jones wanted in Riderville but I always said that if that were true he'd have been here.  Well aren't we thanking our lucky stars?!  Another quarterback in that conversation had been Jonathon Jennings but as we've seen he's not working out for the Redblacks.

By the way, the Ottawa Redblacks are the coolest team in the league.  They don't sell leggings at all.  Coincidence?

Come to the dark side!  The bandwagon has leg room and Rider Nation is a welcoming bunch.  Plus we have the leggings for your winter wearing pleasure.  See you at the game October 5th!

Apparently we are ALL IN on this Pumpkin thing...

Sandra's WK15 CFL Power Grouping

So a weird thing happened this week.  

a) I had a birthday so there are once again no doodles to share & 

b) Teams didn't sort themselves out into 3 groups.

How dare they?  Who am I to force them into a category they don't fit into?  No one wants that.  So today for the first time ever, except for my preseason joking around, we have the teams at the top of the league and teams at the bottom of the league.

Top - Stampeders, Blue Bombers, Roughriders, TigerCats, Alouettes

Bottom - Eskimos, Argonauts, Lions, Redblacks

The theme this week seems to be "pedal to the metal".  Some of the top teams know how to surge back from an early game slumber.  Some teams know how to keep the pressure on and not let up until the final whistle.  Some teams just have a certain something special that propels them to the win when they need it most.  They find a way to win.  The Calgary Stampeders have always had this ingredient.  I've always said you can't count them out.  I don't know what it is but they just always find a way and they have always been the one team good enough to have penalties and meltdowns and find ways to overcome them to win.  Just as the Stamps have this, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers do not.  Lot's of people seem to think the Bombers were too busy thinking they won the game and let the Montreal Alouettes come back but I choose to look at it differently.  I think the Als sat back and waited until the Bombers let up on the gas and then they took full advantage of it.  My Roughriders were on bye week in Week 15 of the CFL however I believe they belong in this group as well because they've had 2 games come down to last minute winning field goals.  Some might say those games shouldn't be so close and maybe they shouldn't be but having a kicker who can come through in one game to clinch the win is cool but doing it twice is awesome.  I only saw bits of the Hamilton game so I don't feel that I can totally comment BUT I did see and hear the outrage over another Simoni Lawrence incident which I am sure *sarcasm alert* he's SO sorry for.  This player needs to be taught a lesson and it's apparent that what happened in game 1 of the season wasn't enough to do it.

It seems some Winnipeg fans and players are also upset that Vernon Adams seemingly ripped off the helmet of Adam Bighill and hit him with it.  Some even called it a weapon.  Well, you know, sometimes a player is just ticked off.  We know RTP calls are iffy at the best of times.  I know some Quarterbacks seem to get them far easier than others.  If a QB fights back then good on him.  Now, I'm not condoning what happened but I can totally see a different side of it.  Will VA get a fine for it?  Who knows.  

As I stated previously I didn't see the Hamilton/Edmonton game closely.  Some are saying Edmonton will be the cross over team and I think it all depends on who is at the helm.  Harris is still out with a hand injury and Logan Kilgore has the reigns.  At times he has flashes of Tino Sunseri and other times he's got flashes of Ricky Ray.  I did see the halftime where number 15 Ricky Ray was honoured and I thought it was really well done and maybe choked up a little when Ray did.  Whether we like him or not we can't deny the CFL legend he is.  I don't know how the Argonauts played because I was at work for that game.  They've named James Franklin Quarterback for the Saturday match up against my Riders.  The BC Lions thumped the Ottawa Redblacks in the Saturday double header.  I heard one Twitter person say their team got beat by the worst in the league.  Dude, I hate to break it to you but, the Redblacks are indeed the worst in the league.  I watched a bit of the post game show with Coach Campbell and I've never seen a coach in such a low state of mind.  They are making a QB change of their own for week 16 and going with Arndt.  Let's hope they can eek out a few more wins to make the season somewhat respectable.