Riders are Not as Good, or Bad, as you Imagine

The Bombers again are roaring like the fat dinosaur princesses they are about getting into the playoffs, and they are in third place right now. Getting Kenny Lawlor has helped to stretch the Bombers passing game which prior to this consisted of dump passes to Brady Olivera and Nic Demski.

On defense the Bombers still have the fat dog eating Adam Bighill head hunting, but it was the Bomber secondary that won the game by exploiting Rourke’s lack of playing time. The Bombers now own the season series with Calgary and BC and could make a legitimate push in a chaotic western conference.

The question should be asked if the return of Rourke was overhyped or if there were other factors involved. I mentioned the short window of getting ready for the game that Rourke had and there is the undeniable factor that players who go down to the NFL to perhaps bounce around never come back as good as they were going down to the NFL.

Rourke demonstrated some fine scrambling at times, but mentally switching from 11 man to 12-man football in a matter of days is tougher than it looks. One interception was the result of Rourke staring down a receiver without considering the Bombers had 12 men on the field.

Rourke should get better, but BC has problems with their offensive line and probably their defensive line as well. Winnipeg ran at will on the Lions and if the Bombers were not playing a prevent defense at the end, the score would have been 20-3.

It was interesting Rourke’s last game in the CFL was in the Western final against the Bombers, who shut him down then. If a team does that enough times to a quarterback, it gets into the quarterback’s head and one suspects if BC goes on the road in the playoffs, they are one and done.

The Lions go to Ottawa who are coming off a road win 31-29 over the Calgary Stampeders in an entertaining game that irritated me to no end since I picked Calgary. Figuring out which Stampeder team will show up from week to week is enough to send anyone driving an RV into the New Mexico desert to cook up meth just like Walter White in Breaking Bad.

Ottawa brought back Jeremiah Masoli whose luck being injury free is dismal and set him up to succeed. Playing in place of Dru Brown, Masoli was competent and relied on his experience, something Rourke doesn’t have enough of, and gave Ottawa confidence,

Ottawa can stack up more wins as they look to secure second place. First place may be out of the question with Montreal at 9-1, but with the return of Chad Kelly this week, Ottawa would be well advised to put as much space between them and the Argos before the Argos go on a roll.

My rule of thumb has been to pick the home team in an east-west game and while I expect Rourke to look better than last week, the question must be asked if BC is in any position to mount a serious challenge in the west. The Bombers own the Lions and while the Lions are a game ahead of Winnipeg, it is not clear the pendulum will be swinging in BC’s favor right away.

Ottawa has a good defense and I expect them to put pressure on Rourke like Winnipeg did to force him to make errors in throwing the ball. It should be an entertaining game because while many pundits and fans did not give Ottawa much credit, being underestimated could lead to them sneaking up on a lot of teams.

The Lions will look more competitive, but Rourke is likely a week away from being effective. Ottawa wins this one 29-20.

Edmonton pulled off a Saturday night massacre of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Larry Thompson’s first game as the new owner of the Elk. Edmonton, who have been so close in their first seven games, but being winless, have fired their head coach and GM Chris Jones, who ironically enough, is now a defensive consultant or coordinator with Hamilton, replacing the fire Mark Washington.

A couple of very scary moments in that game involving quarterback Charlie Powell and receiver Luther Hakunavanhu both forced from the game with head injuries and Hakunavanhu being taken off on a back board. Edmonton rolled over Hamilton and the resulting carnage resulted in Hamilton adding Jones.

Jones is a very good defensive coordinator, maybe a good head coach, but absolutely sucks as a general manager. Hamilton is only two games out of a crossover playoff spot in the west and the addition of Jones may make their defense a bit stouter or challenging for the rest of the season.

Edmonton is on a three-game winning streak as even with Canadian quarterback Tre Ford out, the Elk appear to have put the pieces all together and starting to play to their potential.

Hamilton this week goes to Winnipeg where the Bombers are salivating over the prospect of moving to a game within 500 with a win and if BC loses to Ottawa, Winnipeg will be ranked in second place. It almost sounds like the year BC went into the tank to start the year, dug themselves out and won a Grey Cup.

Bo Levi Mitchell should be somewhat competent in leading the Hamilton offense, but all eyes will be on the defense to see what impact Jones will have. This might be asking a lot from Jones who like Nathan Rourke, will only have a few practices to figure out what he is working with in Hamilton.

The Bomber fans are like the finest of the Stony Mountain population enjoying a few bags of toilet bowl win in the B Block of that fine penitentiary. The stand is being built for the Bombers to hoist the Grey Cup in front of their fans and the finest Red River carts are getting a fresh coat of varnish to keep the slivers to a minimum.

This game should not stop them from beating their chests like King Kong on a Jameson and Lemonade bender but for Hamilton the point will be to try to keep Winnipeg from more than a 10-point win and show some consistency and fire on defense.

On offense the idea will be to keep Mitchell from turning the ball over at the worst possible moment and trying to get a diversified running game. If Hamilton can show some run defense, even if they lose, that will count as a win and hope for the last eight games of the season.

I am still not sold on Zach Collaros recovering his form. He and Mitchell are two guys whose effectiveness is not what it used to be. However, this is in Winnipeg, and it is apparently pepper steak night at Stony Mountain so the fans will be full of protein for the game and the noise will be a factor in stopping the Hamilton offense.

Winnipeg should move into a tie for second with a 27-3 win over Hamilton.

Edmonton for their part has found a running game that will also make it interesting in the west. Edmonton will go to Montreal who probably sent Rider kicker Brent Lauther some poutine for missing four field goals against Montreal in Montreal’s 27-24 win over the Riders, with one miss being ran back for a touchdown.

Montreal has Davis Alexander playing very good football, even when he pushes off on the sideline when running for a touchdown (I was in Pil Country right in front of him and if TSN moves the clip up a frame or two, you can see Alexander turn his foot onto the sideline marker as he moved away from the sideline).

Alexander’s play gives Montreal depth at the quarterback position so when Cody Fajardo, who dressed, but did not play against the Riders, returns and exploits the return of receiver Austin Mack, Montreal may be the frontrunner for the Grey Cup.

But.

What the Riders tried to do against Montreal which worked at times is run more at the Als to keep the Montreal defense from blitzing the return of Trevor Harris. The Riders used AJ Oullette who is a power runner but if they had added Frankie Hickson who is a shiftier runner, the Riders might have been able to sustain more drives.

Edmonton by comparison has two running backs who can run through Montreal like grass through a goose. Running on Montreal is the secret to beating them and with the obnoxious air horns that appear to be allowed only in Montreal but nowhere else in the league, a running game is the best way to eat up the clock and hopefully silence the racket.

So while I usually go with the home team in an east west game, Edmonton has momentum but they also have running backs who can wear down the Montreal defense. If Edmonton can keep Montreal’s offense off the field and wear down the Montreal defense, Edmonton will be able to move into a playoff challenge position.

I have more faith in Edmonton’s running game than I do the Riders running game to make a big impact on the Montreal defense. Edmonton will beat Montreal 23-13 because when you are dedicated to running the ball, you use up a lot of time and keep the score down.

Which leads us to the game starting off the week, the Riders going into Toronto. Apparently, Chad Kelly will be playing, maybe not starting as the tape of Rourke stumbling against Winnipeg is a good lesson about not bringing back a quarterback who has been off for half the season a game start.

Kelly, who signed a last chance agreement with the CFL following allegations of harassing a trainer, will likely face a divided crowd. Yes, he seems to have done the counselling required and may still require, but not one was impressed with what he did, and a lot probably feel he should not get a second chance.

I suspect either Cameron Dukes or Nick Arbuckle will start, and Kelly may get in in the second quarter or second half, depending on the game situation. This puts the onus on the Riders to prepare for not just one, but three quarterbacks.

The Riders should get back Kian Shaffer-Baker who can stretch the opposing defenses and give Harris the ability to go deep. The question mark for me on the Rider offense is the offensive line, which is a work in progress, but compared to the last two years under Craig Dickenson, this group of offensive linemen is getting adult coaching and not turning into another Swiss cheese sandwich.

The Argos last year went 16-2, a record matched by the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos and both teams got blown out of their respective finals. The Argos offense under Kelly imploded and while we can speculate whether it was a choke by Kelly or just good defense led by Noel Thorpe, Rider Head Coach Cory Mace whose defense kept Toronto in the Eastern Final, probably has some ideas on how to exploit Kelly should he appear under center.

The Riders get some people back on defense and it will be a chess match between Mace and Argo head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. The difference between this game and the first time these two teams played is Shea Patterson was the starter and this time Trevor Harris takes the reins.

Harris gets the ball out quicker, and he had 350 yards against arguably the best defense in the league. If the Riders add Ajou Ajou to the receiving corps along with Schaffer-Baker, the Riders have a good chance of winning 29-24, because Toronto is a good team, and the Riders haven’t blown anyone out.

At this point with the Riders winless in their last four games, any kind of win would do.

by Greg Urbanoski

Riders are Not as Good, or Bad, as you Imagine

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