Labour Day Classic ‘08

Well it’s been 5 days since the Michael Bishop trade that rocked Riderville. Now I have made my views on Bishop quite clear in my last post and do not intend to repeat them. Fact of the matter is Bishop is a Rider and will be our starting QB whether I like it or not. But whether you’re a Bishop lover or a sane person, there’s one thing that can unite us all… insulting Bomber fans.

The timing of the annual Labour Day Classic couldn’t be any better this year. This is exactly what we need to put all the negativity surrounding the team behind us and rally together against Winnipeg as a united front.

Regina is preparing for an invasion of toothless halfwits more commonly referred to as Bomber fans. Normally I would say hide the women and children but given that it’s Manitobans it’s more accurate to replace the word women with “anyone closely related to a Manitoban” and children with “attractive farm animals”. If you are approached by one of these creatures, do not fear. They are mostly harmless. Just avoid sudden movement and speak slowly using 1 syllable words and a series of grunts and you should be fine.

Why did O. J. Simpson want to move to Manitoba?
Nearly everyone has the same DNA.

Now onto the game itself…

The game features the Riders who, until lately, have been winning despite not having most of their best players against Winnipeg who has been losing despite having all their good players (well it’s probably best to say starters since "good" doesn’t really describe many of the Bombers).

Last year, Winnipeg came into this game as the top team in the East and boasted the best offense in the league. This year is a decidedly different story. They are tied with Hamilton for last in the league and boast the league’s worst offense and 2nd worst defense. In fact, the only thing Winnipeg seems to excel at is throwing interceptions and missing FGs... they lead the league in those categories. Their only wins this year have come over Hamilton and an upset win over Calgary when Ryan “If Kevin Glenn hadn’t broken his arm no one would know who I am” Dinwiddie saved the day. So all in all I’m about as worried about the Bombers as I am about the threat of a sudden volcano eruption on the prairies.

For the Riders, the game boils down to 2 things: Can our receivers catch, and can we stop the run. If we start completing some passes on offense it will open up the run game and lead to points on the board. If we can contain Charles Roberts (which we couldn’t do with Reynolds or Harris) then it will force Glenn to try and beat us through the air… which he can’t, and thus it will lead to interceptions being tossed up at a Bishop-like rate… sorry… it’ll take me some time to completely come to terms with this Bishop being a Rider thing. You’ll have to bear with me.

There’s just no way I see the Riders not stepping up big time in front of an even bigger crowd than normal. Riders by 12 in an emotional win.

After the game, the whole Rider Prophet crew will be hitting up the Mother of All Parties so if you see me be sure to come up and say hi… though if you want a quasi-coherent response I suggest you come speak with me early in the night.