Thursday Morning Sentimonies: Preseason Thoughts

Riders 16 – Bombers 25

This 2 games in one week stuff is killing me. I mean I could just mail it in and just post once and you would expect it given my usual effort level, but I enjoy talking football so am going to take full advantage of it. But I’ll probably spread a week’s worth of effort out over 4 posts so lower your already low expectations accordingly.

Tuesday’s preseason game got started in the most fitting way I’ve ever seen. The Bombers won the toss and elected to kick. The refs then turned to the Riders for their choice… and they promptly deferred. A polite but firm ref indicated that “you cannot defer”. Preseason indeed,

Hat tip to the Riders sound guy for playing the Kurt Angle theme song when the Bombers came out. If you are not a wrestling fan google it. I sincerely hope this catches on because it could be awesome. 

When its backups vs. backups its hard to get a good read on who did or not do well. Our D-line got good pressure early but it’s amazing how much better you look when its not Winnipeg’s all-star O-line blocking.

Here’s a smattering of my random thoughts on the game:

 -        Gotta be happy with the RB battle… unless your name is Pope (in which case your name is trending to appearing on a plane ticket and not a roster). Morrow showed his usual flashes. Newcomer Hickson had a few great runs. Even Cooper had a good return. No clear cut winner yet.

-        Paul McRoberts did not help his quest to end his practice roster exile. Sure the pass was high but you want to prove you belong with the starters you gotta make the hard ones.

-        Tevin Jones also did not help himself. He ended up making 4 receptions but his one mistake was a biggy and competition is tight.

-        Aristilde looks too much like Naaman Roosevelt to wear #82. You’d swear he’s a clone.

-        Emilus looked good. Jonathan Johnson caught some attention with his big return. Also turns out that Schaefer-Baker guy is still pretty good.

-        Not sure there was a clear winner between Dolegala and Fine. Both struggled early and put nice drives together late. Probably slight edge Fine in my books at this point.

-        There was a clear loser and it was Troy Williams. Not only did he fail to throw a dry ball once. His 1 yard plunge skills make Brandon Bridge look like an all-star by comparison.

-        Defense was really good at getting pressure (though again against a back-up line) but terrible at playing contain.

-        Guys I noticed in a positive sense defensively: obviously Lanier and Robertson stood out but they are essentially starters so that’s expected. I liked Kenney, Alvin Jones and even AJ Allen had some moments. Draft pick Tommy Bringi had 2 special teams tackles which was nice to see. And I think we all hope Christmas makes the team and promptly changes his first name to Lloyd.

-        Secondary had its issues… one of those issues was that Winnipeg made every damn catch. Kudos to them because there were some very difficult catches that they made.

-        Noticed Nurse not in a good way a couple times. Reavis had an up and down game.

-        Nicolas Dheilly looks like a receiver.

-        Vedvik looked damn good punting.

-        Lauther’s job is very safe if Nell is our alternative option.

-        One of the most impressive things for me was that we had 1 penalty in the first half. That’s great in a real game, that’s extremely impressive in a preseason game. Sure things went to hell in the second half a bit but things tend to do that late in preseason games.

Going to do something stupid and predict our 10 cuts… its stupid because the real list will likely be out by the time you read this and show how off I am.

Offensively: Pope, T Jones, Prall, Ubosi, Lewis (not that he did anything wrong but with Emilus, Baker, Picton, McInnis and Harty around he’s not cracking the roster and if you are developing someone I’m much more intrigued by what Boersma showed) and Richardson

Defensively: Coe (can’t make the club from the tub), Cole, Henderson and Taylor

What is more likely to happen is we juggle the roster with injuries and whatnot and only cut 6-7.

That’s it for now. Back at it tomorrow.