Monday Morning Sentimonies: Well At Least We Won

Riders 30 – Argos 20

In retrospect we probably should have seen a game of that quality coming. I mean this was the 2 worst teams in the CFL squaring off after all. At one point in the first half I probably would have fallen asleep were it not for 3 drunks and punching bag that we noticed in one of the side streets. Now that was entertainment... unless of course you happened to have parked your car on that particular side street. The important thing however is that the Riders won... when you are trying to dig yourself out of a hole this big you have to take the wins anyway you can get them be it pretty, be it ugly, be it offspring of Jason Maas and a Hamilton Cheerleader. Good teams find ways to win and the Riders did just that.

Credit needs to be given to our defense. While I’m not overly happy about the ease with which Toronto was able to drive the field in the first half, you can’t complain about only giving up 12 points when the Argos had the ball for 20 minutes. If we had given up a major on those first half drives I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be celebrating at this point... well maybe the drunks with the punching bag would be. Actually that would make a great idea for a reality TV show, I think I’ll go pitch it to FOX. Now where was I? Oh yes, defense. With the exception of Nick Graham (who is currently averaging 2 bad plays to every good play) I was very happy with the defense, particularly in the 2^nd half. JP and McKenzie (who picked a fantastic time to finally learn how to intercept) had nice INTs and Tearrius George (who I will try and refrain from calling Curious lest I inadvertently make and ill advised monkey joke) added a nice forced fumble as the D locked things down in the 4^th quarter.

Offense struggled but made things happen when it counted. Chris Getzlaf shot his “I only catch TDs” mantra all to hell with a tremendous performance. Of all the people I would have picked to step up his game when Fantuz got hurt, he would not have cracked the top 3 but props to him for a monster game. I’ve always wondered just how high Getzlaf’s ceiling could be if he could play like that in every game instead of continually fighting the ball like he did to start the season. Durant used his legs well and controlled the ball for the most part and with good support from the D and special teams it ended up being enough to seal the deal. They will need to get better but a win is a win and that’s all I care about. Hell there were times early in the season where 30 points in a game seemed like a pipe dream.

Toronto ended up playing better than their record would indicate and we can’t expect to eviscerate teams every week (we are still a sub .500 team after all). So let’s celebrate the win and get ready for a massive show down next week.

Other random thoughts:

-        Had to laugh when the announcer called a 5 yard pass to Hughes and there was a smattering of applause and he then corrected himself and called a 5 yard pass to Clermont and there was damn near a standing ovation. Really people? Really? 

-          Not a bad game by Clermont though. He may no longer be a go to guy but he proved he can still be useful in small doses.

-          I hope the injury to Fantuz isn’t too long term (it looked nasty) but worst case scenario he can take solace in the fact that at least he accomplished more in his return to the Riders (3 catches) than he did in his tryout with Da Bears (2 catches).

-          After watching Prefontaine put a perfect touch a spiral on that fake punt maybe the Argos should put him in at QB.

-          The Argos should just give up on actually kicking the ball and just start calling a series of progressively more ridiculous fakes.