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Saturday the 3-2 Argos come to town to tangle with the
Riders. My hope is that after laying an egg in Calgary and basically sleeping
through the first half, that the team will bounce back and actually play 60
minutes as opposed to spotting our opponents a 30 min and 3 score advantage (or completely giving up in the final minute 30 and blowing a 2 score lead like the Als).
The game will feature the return of many familiar faces including former receivers
Armanti Edwards and Jeff Fuller, president of the Chris Jones fan club (I
assume) Shawn Lemon and last but not least a man whose impact on this team
(both positive and negative) were so big that we will never forget his name
around these parts… Corey Chamberlin.
Offensively we will be facing a very legit Toronto defense.
The additions of guys like Ball, Woods, Laing and Sears has made for a very
intimidating defense. That said, the Argos are coming off a short week and will
be missing half their D-line starters (Butler and Laing). We need to set a
physical tone early. As Corey Chamblin would say (or at least a vaguely recall
him saying this while readily admitting I may have fabricated this memory): “Hit
them in the mouth!” Our OL needs a bounce back game after an embarrassing first
half last week and what better way to do it then to put them on the attack and
run it down Toronto’s throat. Use Marshall early and often to wear down the
defense. It may not pay off right away but the longer the game goes, the bigger
the runs will get.
The following is not a paid advertisement by Duron Carter,
but we need to get Duron the ball a lot more. I get that his presence is
opening up opportunities for guys like Grant (and Kevin Glenn is a master of
taking what the D gives him… even if occasionally what they give him is a
chance to throw an INT) but Carter is way too talented to be used solely as a
decoy. 16 receptions and 156 yards is criminally underusing him (though
admittedly his numbers could be slightly higher if he caught more of his scarce
targets). I’m not advocating forcing it into double coverage or blindly
throwing streaks to him but any quasi-competent OC could draw up a few plays to
move him around the field and get some favourable match-ups and meaningful use.
Toronto has the most takeaways in the league so another
offensive key is not giving them that luxury and protecting the ball. We also
need to keep Glenn upright. Toronto leads the league in sacks but the loss of
Butler and Laing will have a big impact there. Attack early, be physical,
control the ball and it could be a very good day for the offense.
Defensively we have to deal with a rejuvenated Ricky Ray. Now,
for all the hype around the Trestman/Ray offense here’s the reality… the Argos
are an offense that passes for a ton of yards and then kick a ton FGs. They are
3rd worst in terms of offensive points and an absolutely awful 29%
in the redzone. So yeah our struggling secondary against the top passing attack
is concerning but I see through the hype and see an offense that has its
issues. One issue is an underperforming OL. They are giving up a lot of sacks
and producing the lowest yards per rushing attempt. Our defensive front was
embarrassed in Calgary so this is a great chance for them to bounce back. If
Ray has time in the pocket, he will carve up our secondary so we need to get
hits on him, or at a minimum get him moving. There will be a lot of pressure on
our LBs (please don’t embarrass yourself again Sam Williams) as Ray loves to
use his RBs for quick passes and let them run for extra yards. There will also
be pressure on whoever is covering SJ Green. AJ Jefferson is a Rider in part
due to being lit up by Green in Ottawa. Glad to hear Rodgers is expected back. We
need to take away the big plays to Green. That will go a long way to continuing
the Argos’ trend of settling for FGs instead of majors. If we can keep them settling for 3 then we
have a solid chance in this game.
If we are being honest with ourselves here (something that
is as foreign to many die hard rider fans as bathing is to Blue Bomber fans) we
are a 1 win team whose lone win came against the only team in the standings
worse than us, so cockiness should not be a thing for us at this point. That
said when you factor in the home crowd and a beat up Argo roster on a short
week, there is reason for optimism. We have the tools offensively (at least
when they decide to show up) and while I have fairly limited confidence in our
defense, a struggling Argo O-line, a short week and a thunderous home crowd do
sway things somewhat to our favour. I honestly just hope the defense can play
half decent and keep the Argos under 25 points and hope that our O can score
enough to carry them.
If you are betting money on this game I would encourage you
to bet on the Argos because admittedly that is the safer bet. But maybe its
just because I have dipped into the Weisers a bit early this week but I’m going
with my heart and staying the Riders will somehow steal a win in a very tight
game.
Riders by a Crapigna field goal.
1 comment:
I think the Riders win this game because of the short week for the Argos, time change & key injuries. As for Carter, yes he needs to be more involved but only Roosevelt has more targets & then only 7 more over 4 games. Carter is 16th in targets in the CFL & 34th in yards. He needs to get his head in the game. I'd be interested to know how many drops he has had on 2nd down conversion attempts. And some of the drops have been very easy throws. Let's state the obvious. This is pretty much a MUST win. Next comes BC back to back, the bye then travel to Edmonton who may have some of their injured back by then. That takes us to Labour Day. That's not to say they can't steal a win or two (prime example Montreal vs Calgary) but you don't want to be going into that 3 game set knowing you HAVE to win, although maybe we're past that point already regardless of what happens this week. My feeling was the Riders had a good chance to start the season 3-0 based upon the competition and no worse than 2-1. Lost opportunities.
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