Riders 27 – Lions 19
It certainly couldn’t be described as a
job well done, or even decently done but it was a job done by the Riders on Friday
night and that’s what’s important. They needed a win to keep their hopes of
first place alive and that exactly what they got. It was closer than it should
have been and I’ll admit to uttering a least a couple curse words during that
awful opening half. But in a results-based business they got results. If you
have been a Rider fan for any length of time you have developed a healthy
tolerance for ugly wins.
The defense did their job. Through 3 quarters
they allowed just 9 points and 3 of those came as a result of Shaq Evans
fumbling in FG range. They force turnovers. They notched 6 sacks. About the
only thing you can fault them for not being able to contain the super-human
catching abilities of Bryan Burnham. Short of shanking him I’m not sure what
more you can do to stop him… and even them he’d probably still make the catch with
the shiv still hanging out. Penalties are trending down but there were still
too many of them for my liking. Better teams will make us pay for those kind of
mistakes. Judge made his impact felt in his return and you get the sense that
Elimimian is starting to peak at the right time of the year. Another week another
solid game by Chad Geter. Still wondering what led to the decision to release
him at the start of the year.
Offense was unfortunately a familiar
song and dance. We started slow yet again, essentially sleeping through all but
the final 2 minutes of the first half. Not sure if we need some caffeine in Fajardo’s
Gatorade or what but we get off to consistently slow starts. In our last 6
games we are averaging 3 first quarter points. That won’t cut it come November.
I also thought our offensive play calling was suspect. While the pass game was
sputtering to start, William Powell was not. Three of his first 4 runs went for
10+ yards. So naturally we gave him the ball just 6 times in the first half and
opted to continue to lean on a struggling pass game. Hell Powell even managed to get a first down
on a Cody Fajardo run when Cody fumbled and he saved the day. Fortunately we
figured things out in the third quarter and got rolling. Roosevelt continues to
be our most valuable WR. In know he doesn’t have the most yards or TDs but he
is what makes our pass game go. Evans and Moore are WRs trending in opposite
directions. Evans has had a rough couple games
while Moore has caught all of his targets in consecutive games and made
some key catches including a TD in this game. Not saying we should give up on
Shaq but I think we could maybe benefit from giving a bit “Moore” love to the
hot hand of Swerve (I know that pun was awful, I do not apologize). We need to
get better at finishing drives. 4 FGs is too many. Again, when we play teams
that actually made the playoffs a lack of finish like that can hurt us.
The game really seemed to me to be a
case of playing down to our competition. The game wasn’t ever really in doubt
but was way closer than it ever should have been had we played up to our usual level. You can see the times in the
game where we tried (i.e. end of the 2nd, whole 3rd) and
when we were in coast mode (1st and latter portions of the 4th).
We need to be better but it’s not time to panic. We got the win we needed.
The
Bombers did us no favours… useless buggers. So we are still sitting in second
place. Technically we have not clinched a home playoff game yet. In the unlikely
event that both the Riders and Stamps lose out and we finish in a 3-way tie
with the Bombers then we could finish 3rd still. We can ensure it doesn’t come to that with a
win next week over the Esks. I won’t say I like the chances of the Bombers
actually doing us a favour and winning. They have a hard enough time winning
with a mobile Streveler. A gimpy Streveler is certainly not going to improve
those odds. They may have to decide between a concussion prone Collaros or
non-running Streveler to salvage their slim hopes of a home playoff game. For the
love of god let give Collaros a chance to be the hero Rider Nation always hoped
he’d. Also for the love of god, Stamps don’t kill him.
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