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Riders 28 – Als 34
Saturday’s game was a
shot to the nuts... both literally and figuratively.
Well I will say this,
at least when the Riders decide to play like crap they do it as a team. Since
Saturday’s loss, I have heard lots of talk about how this was the defense’s
fault. Believe me I will be getting to the many, many failures of our D in a
minute but if you don’t think the O and special teams (Dressler TD aside) shares
just as much blame then you obviously didn’t watch the same game.
Our offense was
abysmal for 3 quarters, putting up just 7 points against a very mediocre
defense. Then like a drunk ex they showed up in the fourth quarter for a booty
call giving us the naive fans, hope of a happy reunion but left us disappointed
in the end. The wind appears to be one of Bob Dyce’s many kryptonites. Our O
consistently produces nothing into the wind despite the fact that our opponents
are giving us a firsthand tutorial on how it can be done. Another Dyce
kryptonite showed up as well... not running in the 2nd half. Sheets
had 3 runs in the 2nd half. Three!!!! Admittedly we did try getting
him the ball throw the air in the fourth but he displayed Patrick Thibeault
hands. Durant struggled but no more than anyone else. Our O-line got roughed up
something awful, Durant had no time to work. On that last play of the game the
Als only set 3 pass rushers!!! And still the pocket collapsed faster than an
old man with a heart condition at a wet t-shirt contest. It was embarrassing. 5
on 3 and we got schooled. We need Fulton back and soon. The ghost of Greg Carr
made an appearance which was nice to see but he never had a pass over 10 yards.
I honestly have no idea why we even bother bringing in tall receivers
(Rodriguez, Baker, Harper, Carr) because they only ever run short stuff. Bottom
line, you can’t mail it in until the 4th quarter and hope to beat a
team as good as the Als.
Our defense should even be ashamed to show
their face in public this week. First of all I’m not sure if we were too busy
game planning against Green and London, but how in the bloody hell did we
forget about Jamel Richardson?!?!?! Over and over and over (I could keep going).
I realize Richardson is among the top WRs in the league and he will get catches
but we let him have free reign out there to play pitch and catch with Calvillo.
Evidently we were more concerned with limiting the receiving force known as
Eric Deslauriers. Just like in our first meeting, the Als used the same dump
pass to the RB to victimize us over and over again. I mean outside of
Richardson and that RB dump to Jennings, Clavillo only completed 4 passes. Probably
because the first 2 options were so easy to complete he didn’t need to look at
other ones.
This of course brings
me to most embarrassing part of the day, letting old man Calvillo run for not
one but 2 TDs. Run actually isn’t the right term, it was more like casually
saunter. The old man almost had better stats then Sheets. For a defense that
was supposed to be built on speed letting that happen once is an epic fail...
twice, well there isn’t enough words in the English language to describe how embarrassing
that is. We should ask Calvillo what’s Spanish for “bent us over and had his
way with us”.
If this is the kind
of performance we can expect from the Riders at home against a banged up team
with nothing to play for then our post season will likely be short and painful.
Collectively the team (coaches included) needs to look themselves in the mirror
and man up because we only have 2 games left and a lot of work to do to get
back the winning team we have been at times throughout this season.
Other random observations:
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2
kick return TDs in 1 year!?! I didn’t think that was even possible for a team
that went over 4 years without one.
-
Isn’t
it amazing how good things happen when you introduce a bit of creativity into
the short yardage team?
-
The
decision to even attempt that FG into the wind was a poor one.
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I
wonder what was said or done that led to Emry nut shotting Labatte... something
tells me it had something to do with his mom. Mabye Labatte offered to take
Mrs. Emry out to a nice shrimp dinner and never call her again (anyone out
there catch that reference)
-
What
an idiot Emry is.! And then to swear at the ref while being escorted out...
dude you sucker punched a dude in the balls after the play... short of untimely
muscle spasms I’m not sure how you can justify that?
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I
have always been a huge James Patrick fan but I fully expect this season to be
his last with us unless he’s willing to take a pay cut.
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Tahnks
to Andy Fantuz for getting into the playoffs despite our crappy play.
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I
love how we have just given up putting effort into halftime. “What can we do
that’s easy and cheap?... I got it we’ll just drive Geno around the field. Sure
we’ll do it again when he’s inducted into the Plaza and again when he makes the
Hall of Fame but screw it.”
-
PS
thanks to Scott Schultz for at least adding some entertainment value.
3 comments:
As I said - the Riders do nothing to help themselves when a chance to do so comes along . Esks get blown out by BC the night before and the Riders have a chance to go 4 points up and seal their fate - No way ! that would be too easy ! Then again , there is the possibility that Edmonton and the Riders are competing for the crossover spot. Would you rather go to the Eastern pool and play indoors or go to Calgary and freeze in the snow ...
Pat
I don't think it matters, either way i see us winning the semis whether its in Toronto or Calgary... then i see us getting stomped in the finals. Both BC and Mtl will be really tough to beat at home.
I guess I prefer the west because i think we will play with a lot more emotion against our traditional western rivals
Manzi top 10 after but after reading Xinert video, found himself shocked, I did not expect the ice method can so to the force, so the lamb, began a tour of their own Master.
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