Tuesday Morning Sentimonies: Saw That Coming

Riders 1 – Eskimos 17

It was a weekend of football record setting. While Paul McCallum and Anthony Calvillo were busy rewriting the record books, the Riders were busy setting new records for offensive futility.

With any luck you consumed enough turkey dinner and drinks to nap through the majority of that game. The only thing that made that game worth watching for me was watching Ryan Dinwiddie serve up not 1, not 2 but 3 interceptions. Watching him repeatedly justify my hatred did indeed make my liberty bird taste that much sweeter. To be fair, had he received any support from his offensive team mates he may have sucked less (note how I said “sucked less” not “played good”). Dinwiddie was only one of many guys turning in embarrassing performances… but still, he sucks, and we should quit wasting our time with him… let him pursue a career in eye modelling or feasting on the blood of livestock. Durant fared no better but that doesn’t change the fact that Dinwiddie sucks. He’s just had less opportunity to prove his suckiness.

The Riders’ offensive output over the last 3 weeks has been beyond shameful. The meagre points we’ve managed to amass wouldn’t be enough to win in the NHL or MLB let alone in football. If fact the only league were our offense would be good enough to win is in the NBA and that’s only because no one is playing in that league.  Based on our sliding production over the past 3 weeks, we are on pace to score -1 points next week. Sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me if this team found a way to make that happen. It’s sad when the only guy who seemed to care/be productive was Neal Hughes. Fantuz was clearly just going through the motions out there. And his effort typified what everyone else around him was doing… going through the motions. I think we are starting to see that the consequences of assembling an O-line whose average age rivals that of our coach, are that they only have enough in the tank for 10 good games tops before their old man bodies give out on them. If we can’t find another mediocre at best import tackle who is half the age and salary of Dan Goodspeed then I’m not sure why we even bother spending any money on recruiting.

I still am scratching my head at how little we put Efrem Hill on the field. The guy has one of the most reliable sets of hands and did nothing but produce when he was at slotback. If anyone has earned the right to be on the field it was him.  Nobody else certainly earned anything.

I was actually impressed with the play of our defense. Unlike our offense, they at least played with effort and seemed to actually give a crap about the game. Admittedly they were utterly powerless to stop Jerome Messam (honestly it was like trying to stop a speeding semi-truck by placing a fat kid in its path) with but anytime your D gives up only one TD, you should win… assuming you actually have an offense which we clearly do not.

Making matters worse was that our normally reliable special teams also turned in a stinker of a performance. Obviously we spent too much time practicing the pre-onside kick dance routine and not enough practicing the actual execution of the play. It’s embarrassing enough cheering for a team that can’t score, please don’t bring further shame upon us by incorporating synchronized dancing numbers. 

I have never seen a team just give up like this. They just don’t seem to care and I no clue why. We’ve got the skill, we just don’t have the heart (paging Shane Falco). When Greg Marshall (a defensive minded coach) failed to field a decent defense it was the biggest sign to me that he had to go. Now Ken Miller (an offensive minded coach) couldn’t buy a TD if it came free with a jug of prune juice… that to me says, its time for him to go. I respect everything he did for this franchise and all the success we had under his watch but a change is needed over the offseason.

We have 4 games left, let’s use them to determine who cares enough to warrant a roster spot next year.

Other random thoughts:

-       How lame are the yearly segments with Glen Suitor and the turkey? Honestly it’s the same forced, artificial sounding segment each year.

-       How funny was Jamel Richardson throwing the record ball into the crowd? If I was the fan that caught it, I would have held out for some fiduciary compensation… like being in the photo with Calvillo and his family to commemorate the record. 

-       You just new even before it happened, that Brett Favre would not appear in a congratulatory message to Calvillo. That’s okay, I hear Favre just sent him a congratulatory text instead.

-       By the way, I personally think that you should be allowed to show your junk to whoever you want if you own all-time passing records… enjoy your new freedom Calvillo… Damon Allen, hopefully you didn’t waste your opportunity.

-       Wouldn’t surprise me to see Favre come out of retirement solely to break AC’s record… if for no other reason that for the freedom to show his junk.