Oh how times can change in
17 weeks. Week 1 seems so long ago; when the Riders lost to the Als in the
season opener. Questions abounded in Riderville about the quality of our team,
coach and kicker. The Als were riding a wave of optimism and were viewed as an
early contender in the least… err I mean East. Flash forward 3 months and the
Riders are playoff bound and should reach double digit wins (our kicker is
pretty good after all too. Go figure). The only thing the Als are contending
for is 1st overall draft pick and tax exemption due to their senior
citizen status. I still can’t believe we lost that game to them. Then again I
can’t believe that of Montreal’s 3 wins, 2 of them were against us and Calgary.
I’m sure Durant had
something different in mind for this game when the schedule first came out.
Instead of leading a strong Alouette team into his old stomping grounds and
making all Rider fans desperately miss our former leader, he instead is getting
a pity start because Kavis feels it’s the right thing… that and the Als’ other
QBs are terrible. Most teams out of the
playoffs adopt a “play the young guys” philosophy to audition for next year.
The Als are playing Durant… though on their aged roster maybe Durant does count
as “one of the young guys”. I expect and will be fully participating in an
extended ovation for Durant. The guy poured his soul into this franchise and
was a key player in arguably the greatest moment in franchise history. He is
the second most successful QB this franchise has ever had and deserves to know
he is appreciated. Once the game starts though, I also expect and will be fully
participating in thunderous boos for every pass he bounces off the tuft (that’s
a lot of boos). See it’s possible to respect an opposing player but still mock
him mercilessly.
I could list you any
number of stats to demonstrate that the Als are terrible. Nine straight losses
(by an average margin of 23 points), winless on the road, least points scored,
most points allowed and on and on. And it’s not just on the field that they
embarrassing themselves. Off the field has been highly entertaining (for anyone
not associated with the Als franchise): trading SJ Green for a 6th
round pick; cutting Bear Woods and having the GM and coach disagree on the
reasons; firing said coach (though he was admittedly a bad coach); pretty much
anything involving Kavis Reed (which unfortunately for the Als is everything).
They are screwed and the fact that they think Kavis is the guy to fix all this (with
his right hand man Joe Mack) is further evidence of how screwed they are. Dig
up stupid!
On to the game…
Offensively, we need to get back on track. Last week’s points total was inflated by a punt and INT return TD… and a fumble that set us up on the 3 yard line for our lone offensive TD. Glenn starts and honestly I think this has to be his last chance as the starter. If you can’t produce against the worst team in the CFL then what hope is there for the November games that really matter and involve credible teams? To help him out we need to stay as committed to the run game as we were in Calgary. It may shock you to learn that Montreal has the worst run D so we should be able to ride Richardson to a lot of yards. Still say we need to find ways to get Christion Jones involved in the O and if there was ever a game to experiment, this is it. When we pass, nothing in that secondary really scares but I would certainly be looking to exploit former Rider Tevaughn Campbell (he remains an extremely fast guy with minimal ball skills. Case in point the time he gave up a safety on an interception).
Offensively, we need to get back on track. Last week’s points total was inflated by a punt and INT return TD… and a fumble that set us up on the 3 yard line for our lone offensive TD. Glenn starts and honestly I think this has to be his last chance as the starter. If you can’t produce against the worst team in the CFL then what hope is there for the November games that really matter and involve credible teams? To help him out we need to stay as committed to the run game as we were in Calgary. It may shock you to learn that Montreal has the worst run D so we should be able to ride Richardson to a lot of yards. Still say we need to find ways to get Christion Jones involved in the O and if there was ever a game to experiment, this is it. When we pass, nothing in that secondary really scares but I would certainly be looking to exploit former Rider Tevaughn Campbell (he remains an extremely fast guy with minimal ball skills. Case in point the time he gave up a safety on an interception).
Defensively bring the pressure.
For all the things the Als do poorly (aka pretty much everything) they can run
the ball effectively (#2 in the League). We need to take that away from them. I
have always been a big Durant fan but one of his recurring deficiencies was
that he is not good at the hot route. Pressure will lead to mistakes… or balls
where the intended receiver is the hash mark. Duron will be manning the corner
again. I expect Durant (who is oddly more accurate on deep balls than short
ones) to test that. I don’t think Duron is super human on the corner, he can be
beat but you are playing with fire because one off throw is all it takes for
him to score and that amps up everyone. This is a defensive unit that held
Calgary without a TD in 2 games… I like their chances of standing up to a unit
that no longer cares and wasn’t very good even when they did.
After a big win over the
best team in the league this game has all the potential of a letdown/trap game
and I would honestly worry about it… were it not for how bad the Als are. This
is a game we should win and should win easily. We have failed to score 30
points only once at home… and that was against the best D in the League. By
contrast Montreal hasn’t held a team under 29 points since early August. So
essential the outcome hinges on whether you think Montreal can score 30 points
against us. Given that they haven’t accomplished that feat in over 2 months I
like our odds. Can’t overlook this game still have to go out and play hard but
in the end…
Riders by 20… you heard
me.
2 comments:
By 20?? You and your green-colored glasses lol.
Montreal has only won 3 and lets examine those three:
1. One TD off a blown coverage and it took bad clock management and a missed FG to beat Sask
2. Vs Calgary. Their best win of the year but got a defensive TD and Messam kicked out of the game.
3. Beat Toronto when Ricky Ray was hurt and missed the game.
Look how perilously close based on that they came to something even worse, like being winless.
20+ point win sounds right.
Als are a crap team but perhaps could have had another win or two if the stuck with Chappy. Not saying he’s much of a coach but at least he sort of knows football, Kavis does not. If Kavis was coach from the start of the season in Montreal we would have one more win.
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