Monday Morning Sentimonies: Grey Cup Bound!

Riders 35 – Stamps 13

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is absolutely surreal! Move over Rob Ford because Rider Nation is now officially higher than you… and also in a drunken stupor to boot (I can't comment on our eating habits... though I have my theories).

I expected to win, but expected it to be a lot closer. Fortunately the Riders had other ideas. Offensively Durant turned in his second straight rock solid performance. But unlike last week where he took the team on his shoulders and willed them to victory, he had a lot of help along the way. First was the run game, which was absolutely dominant! Sheets had 177 and Sanders added 61. We dominated the trenches and just ran it down their throat and they couldn’t do a damn thing about it. With the line and run game firing on all cylinders Durant had time to make his reads and be effective passing (screw effective, he was deadly). Pretty sure Dan Clark was the only guy not to get a reception (we are saving that for next week, book it). We spread it around and just relentlessly attacked a very talented Stamp D and made them look like junk. We knew the Stamps would be weaker in the middle with 2 DTs out and took full advantage. Full credit to Cortez and Durant for a killer game. Also props to Sheets for being the best back when it mattered most.

When your defense takes the highest scoring offense in the league and limits them to levels that wouldn’t even cut it in Winnipeg you know you’ve had a good night. We allowed just 1 TD and 2 FGs (and one of those FGs was because a huge kick return put the ball inside our 10). The game would definitely have been very different if Calgary had not fumbled on all those long passes but most of those fumbles were us making plays (like Jackson’s strip) not fluke. Also add in the outstanding plays like McElveen (who is one hell of a talented guy to have coming off the bench) and Maze. We also made Cornish a non-factor (well unless you count yelling at Tate and taking penalties). We chased Glenn, made Tate look useless (minus that one pass) and even got to give Mitchell a taste of the failure. This was the dominating defense that we have come to expect and will need in order to hoist Lord Grey’s Cup next Sunday. Suck it Cornish. Be he would trade all of his upcoming individual awards to get to hoist that Cup like Sheets will.

This is what happens when both the O and D play solid simultaneously.

I’m am still shaking with excitement this was just such a huge win for our province. We had only one goal this season and we are poised to make it a reality. Can’t take the Ti-Cats lightly but honestly they are not as good as the Stamps are so we are heading into the Cup as favourites on our home turf. The biggest Grey Cup party ever seen has kicked off… Stand up Rider Nation let’s make the prairies rock.

PS – Apologies to by boss, family or anyone who expected me to be of any use this week. That has all gone out the window and you should just be happy if I keep my pants on more often than not.