Riders move to 4-2

Rider Prophet here with all the news that is news across the Rider Nation.

The Riders avenged a loss for the second time in as many weeks. This time it was the Limping Lions who were the victims. Many will downplay this win by saying “BC was missing a bunch of key players”. But hey, what looks worse - beating a hurt team or loosing to a hurt team?

Regardless of who they were playing, it was a great all-around effort from the guys in green on Thursday night. BC’s patchwork defensive backfield was clearly no match for the Riders receivers, and the best part was having a coach that was willing to take advantage of this - how many times did you ever see Danny Barrett go right after a clearly injured player? And while the big names such as Dominguez and Cates had a great game in BC, my game ball goes to Gene Makowsky… Brent who?

The defense was also solid against the Lions, holding Geroy Simon and Jason Clermont to just 50 yards . I think it’s safe to say that the Riders days of making third string quarterbacks look like Doug Flutie in his prime are behind them - bring on Rocky Butler!

Looks like the QB crisis in BC has finally gotten to Wally Buono. Not only did he refuse to use one of the CFL’s best RB’s despite starting an inexperienced QB, he also seriously considered playing Buck Pierce who has an injured wrist, hurt ribs and turf toe currently supported by a steel plate in his shoe. You can hardly blame Wally though, going from having a 1-2 punch of Dickenson and Pierce to a world where Spergeon Wynn and Nealon Greene are worth serious consideration would be enough to push even the most stable person over the edge.

5 Ways You Can Tell Bellefeuille Is Running Your Offense:
5 - 2 words: shotgun draw
4 - You consistently complete 7 yard hooks on 2nd and 10
3 - Elijah Thurmon is your go to guy
2 - You Have a 4 time 5000 yard passer and the best play you can design for
him is to run in circles until he is sacked
1 - The only way Ben Cahoon can get on the scoreboard is by kicking a field goal

Speaking of kicking, I can’t remember a year where kicking was this bad. Pretty much every kicker has missed multiple FGs. As it stands right now, 84% is by far the best kicking percentage in the CFL (ranging all the way down to 53%) which is pretty sad.

Montreal’s success using a WR and QB for kicking has inspired other teams to experiment as well. In Hamilton, Mr Everything Corey Holmes will give it a shot, Edmonton is giving Patrick Kabongo some reps and Calgary will be replacing DiAngeles with their horse (unfortunately given that the horse is Arabian they will have do some roster shuffling to maintain their non-import ratio).

Well that's about it for now. Check back later for my thoughts on the upcoming Argo game.

Rider Prophet out….