My apologies for the lateness of this post. As Media Consultant so kindly pointed out (thanks jerk), the game was Thursday and here we are close to a week later and I’m only now getting around to writing about it. That’s bad even for me. I’d feel bad but as they say you get what you pay for. So unless anyone is prepared to step up with bags of money or the preferred non-descript briefcase full of non-sequential bills, lets just forget about my tardiness and move on.
Riders 37 – BC 13
Man oh man does BC suck. I mean I’ve seen teams suck before but they were they suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked… at least until Edmonton took to the field on Sunday and further lowered the bar.
As per usual it took our offense a while to start clicking but once it did they looked like the intimidating force we have been expecting. It’s amazing how much Durant having the energy to run the ball improves our offense. He didn’t put up the huge numbers we have become accustom to but he scored nothing but majors so I’ll take that over stats any day. His INT total continues to climb but at least they weren’t bad picks this time. The first one Getzlaf should have caught even though it was high and the 2nd was clearly a miscommunication between him and Dressler.
As expected our defense feasted on a bad O-line and an idiot QB. The one thing that amazed me about BC was their decision to stop running the ball in the second half. Robertson and Davis were shredding us along the ground and the Lions were very much in the game after the Davis TD but they inexplicably went away from the run at that point… no doubt due to the exceptional play of Jarious and the top notch pass protection he was being afforded. I’m not sure if Wally has just mentally checked out for the year or whether he’s actually going senile but for being the all-time winningest coach in CFL history he sure has been making some weird decisions of late.
How about Jerrell Freeman?! Sure it was against the worst pair of tackles in the league but you’ve got to be impressed with his showing. He managed to blow through the line like Lindsay Lohan blows through a line of coke. I thought Lance Frazier finally played a decent game (hopefully he can do that more often). James Patrick was solid as usual. I particularly like his determination to run his INT back for a TD even though he could just have easily gone down and effectively ended the game. Atta boy JP, way to pad those stats.
I knew BC’s O-line was bad and I knew they were poor blockers but I had no idea that they were in fact functionally retarded. As evidence of this look no further than Dean Valli who served up my favourite play from the entire game (and one that pretty much sums up BC’s season so far).
Faced with 2nd and long deep in their own end, the Lions astutely called a screen to Robertson. Ball was snapped, he swung out, O-lineman in tow… so far so good. It was at this point that things went terribly wrong. Dean Valli (you know the OL who was supposed to be blocking for Robertson) for reasons I can’t even fathom, decided to be a hero and catch the pass intended for Robertson. He then immediately realized his error and covertly handed the ball off to Robertson and tried to pretend like nothing happened. There are so many questions about that play. Why was Valli behind the RB he was supposed to be blocking for? When he clearly knew the call was a screen to the RB, how did he manage to screw it up? Why did an O-lineman even consider catching a ball? How did he manage to dress himself given his obvious mental deficiencies? Is there a Special Olympics sponsored football league that Valli can be sent to?
Other random thoughts on the game…
- I thought Dorsey ran well (despite the shortcomings of our blocking scheme).
- Shomari Williams is developing quite nicely.
- Rob Bagg is tough as nails!
- I have never in my life thought that anything Nik Lewis said had and value but he was right about the low tackling Lions. That’s all they do. I did love when Cates easily leaped over the low tackling DB for his 2nd TD though.
- Thanks to his black sleeves, Ryan Dinwiddie managed to sneak into the game without me noticing… at least until he attempted to pass the ball, then there was no mistaking him.
- BC sucks… did I mention that yet?
A convincing win over a weak division rival heading into the bye week is a great position to be in. We are headed into the bye week with no major injuries and provided the Szarka’s don’t decide to remodel again this week we should emerge without any. That means the team can use the bye week to rest their bumps and bruises can get rested up and revitalized for the next portion of the season.
Around the CFL…
By far my favourite story over the past few days has been the kicking drama in Winnipeg. First the finally decided to cut Alexis Serna (2 years too late but I digress) and sign Louis Sakoda. But Sakoda ended up being a last minute scratch leaving the Bombers scrambling for a kicker just before game time.
Following the game, the team took steps to ensure they would not be without a kicker again and invited pretty much any kicker who would field their calls to sign with them. What they ended up with a competition between a veritable whose who of rejected CFL kicker: Warren Keane (Eskimo draft bust who’s yet to accomplish anything of value), Ryan Elaschuk (training camp casualty of the Riders) and Justin Palardy (fresh off kicking himself out of a job in Hamilton). Honestly the only thing missing from this illustrious competition is Troy Westwood, the Wendy’s Kick for a Million guy, Alexis Serna disguised in a fake moustache and a horse. My money would be on the horse.
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