Obligatory Playoff Commentary

There is plenty to dissect in the wake of the 2018 Rider season. What went wrong? Where to from here? Who stays? Who goes? Who gets signed in free agency and cut by August? But I will save all that for the long offseason. We will have 6 months of no football coming up and will need something to fill it. If I use up all my Rider material now, there's no telling what depths I'll have to sink to come February to fill space on this blog. Top options could include: past players I've had unjustified hatreds of, live blogging of me shopping for groceries, how POG should make a comeback and so on.

For now let's talk football while we still can. It's never as much fun when your team is out of it but if we let that stop us there are large portions of the 80s and 90s where we would have stopped watching football in September. Let's take a look at the match-ups.

Out East the RedBlacks host the Ti-Cats. Like most Rider fan I'm all in on the Ti-Cats as the team I'm cheering (I'm sure that can't mean good things for Hamilton... I'm sorry). It's been a long time since they've had a Cup. They don't currently have any players I have. Lots to like here. The thing is I think they will be in tough. It's one thing to whoop a hapless Lion team at home. Its another thing to go into to Hamilton and take out Noel Thorpe's defense with so many top offensive weapons out. What Hamilton does have going for them is Trevor Harris' playoff record. He's not exactly known as a crunch time performer. As much as I'll be pulling for Hamilton, I would bet on the RedBlacks to have a strong D and adequate QB play and win.

In the West, I have been going over scenarios that could result in both teams losing. All 44 players on both team are declared ineligible to play.  Both teams smotten from above. Immigration issues found will all import players. Both coaches renounce violent conflict and declare a peaceful truce and tie. Unfortunately those seem unlikely. Someone is going to win. As difficult a choice as this is, I guess I'm going with the Stamps. A) I'm fickle and want to see the Bombers' misery passed down to my grandchildren. I know that makes me a bad person. B) We can count on the Stamps to choke the following week anyway. Its win-win.

So let's enjoy the second last weekend of CFL action. Given how things have been going somehow David Watford will end up taking a head shot this week.