The sign outside Mosaic
Stadium has been updated to say “3 days without a workplace fine” and in a
refreshing turn of events we actually get to talk about a football game as
opposed to fines, pre-practice squads and all that other off-field crap that
has dominated the news of late. Saturday the 1-6 Riders travel to Hamilton to
take on the 3-4 Ti-Cats. Neither team has won since Week 5.
Defensively it will be
interesting if we can keep the momentum from last game where they turned in a
great performance by our standards (admittedly it would be a barely adequate performance
by most other standards but let’s focus on the positive here). Facing Zach
Collaros now that he has worked off the rust is certainly not an encouraging
match-up… then again pretty much any match-up not featuring the #1 and 2 QBs
going down to injury is not encouraging at this point. I see two main flaws in
the Hamilton O. The first is they are the only team who hate running the ball
more than we do. The second is their O-line is beat up and giving up more sacks
than any team. I would suggest to Austin that actually running the ball might
help with pass protection issues but if McAdoo won’t listen to me, no chance
Austin does. Our D-line needs to be disruptive. Collaros is too good to give
time to make reads. Collapse the pocket, make him move around and get the ball
out quick. Kacy Rodgers will play at corner with Buddy Jackson hurt. Normally a
rookie CB would worry me but he honestly can’t be worse than Jackson. Not sure
if we’ll see some of Hecht at safety. Again not like it can hurt. If by some miracle
the D can keep it under 25 points again then we have a shot. Hamilton has by far
the most giveaways… though Maosli was directly responsible for 12 of those so
him on the bench should bring those numbers down.
Offensively they gotta
show something. I really think we’ll need 30 points to win this game. Based on
last game that would seem like a pipe dream but based on other games the fire
power is there. Ti-Cats have a strong front 7 but they have a patchwork
secondary with guys like Butler, Washington and Sears out long-term.
Interestingly enough, the Ti-Cats are #7 in points allowed despite having the
#1 pass D and the #3 run D. Some of that is probably attributable to the short
fields Masoli often gifted them (still not sure how Angry Austin didn’t murder
him). I would go with the usual attack: lean heavy on Roosevelt, involve guys
like Bagg, Demski and Collins when Roosevelt is drawing lots of attention. Be a
big boost if Chambers showed up ready to catch. This is the space where my
weekly “plea to run more that just falls on deaf ears” goes.
Another big concern is on
special teams. In one corner you have a team that is not very good on kick
coverage… in the other corner you have Brandon Banks, who already has 3 return
TDs. Hopefully Hecht will give us a boost in that department. I’m also not
opposed to the “when in doubt, kick out of bounds” strategy. Be nice if our
return game could do something useful too but it’s probably asking too much for
every phase of our game to go well so I’ll be happy with good coverage and
returns that don’t feature fumbles or penalties.
We played Calgary close
twice and I’m confident we will play Hamilton close as well. Hamilton is not
superhuman and we have played better in spurts than our record would imply. But
let’s be honest here, if you are betting on the Riders to beat Zach Collaros at
home, you can’t have watched very much football this season, that or you’ve
pulled an Elliot Friedman and mixed up your lane assignments.
Looking for a close game late
into the 4th but…
Ti-Cats by 10
No comments:
Post a Comment