Monday Morning Sentimonies: At Least The Food Was Good

Riders 3 – Stamps 40

The annual Rider Prophet road trip to Calgary was a resounding success… you know minus those painful few hours that involved the actual football game.  Good Lord. I know that being a Rider fan I should be accustomed to enduring painful games but this one was beyond anything we should have expected. This was just embarrassing… embarrassing like this guy.

 

Offense was a comedy of errors… well initially it wasn’t a comedy but by the end I was finding the humour it all with the aid of a few adult beverages. Any chance of a respectable showing came crashing down when Durant momentarily forgot what sport he was playing and executed a textbook volley ball set… the only thing missing was Wes Cates emphatically spiking it. My hatred of Ryan Dinwiddie is well documented but at that point even I was calling for him to be put in. I’m not sure whether Durant accidentally looked into Dinwiddie’s eyes and had his soul stolen or his he’s developed some sort of degenerative brain injury but he doesn’t even look like the same QB as the last 2 years. His decision making has been mind boggling (3 yards pass attempts into tight coverage on 2^nd and long? Almost throwing a pick while trying to float it to the sidelines? Come On Man!!) and his ability to make reads is regressing (the idea of a hot route seems foreign, he is locking on to receivers) and he can’t even handle a the snap now (Parenteau may not be the world’s most accurate snapper [understatement of the century] but Durant is proving to be just as problematic if not more).  Not sure where the good Durant from the last 2 seasons is but this new version is not cutting it. I like Durant and believe he still has a future with this franchise but this year it just ain’t working… figure it out or sit him down for a while.

While it’s hard to rag on defense when they receive no support on offense (well to be more accurate the offense is actually doing harm which is worse than no support) but what a pathetic performance that was. Ken Miller may yell at me for saying this but there was no friggin effort. Anytime the Stamps ran off tackle or threw a pass underneath it was guaranteed 10 yards and usually much more. That is simply not acceptable. The Stamps plan of attack was so simple I was calling out their next plays from the second deck but every time it seemed to catch our hapless defenders and even more hapless Defensive Coordinator by surprise.  I’ve seen better tackling attempts in my touch football league.

Plain and simple, we sucked and in the process likely blew any chance of the post season. Boourns!

Other Random Thoughts:

-       James Robinson had more receptions than Dressler... that should never happen, ever

-       Anytime Sean Lucas is in with our starters we suck... coincidence? I think not.

-       That said, James Patrick (who I do like) was doing his best Sean Lucas impression i.e. he was in the trail position all day.

-       No one sings O Canada in Calgary, they just stand there while a band plays it... very odd.

-       I realize a gopher has little to do with a Roughrider but at least it’s a prairie thing... but can someone explain what the hell a dog has to do with the Stamps or Calgary?

-       Oddest part of the game was the commercial for a Stampeder Tilley hat. So very random