Monday Morning Senitmonies: Chaos

Riders 33 – Ti-Cats 30

Just as everyone expected, the Riders became the only remaining undefeated team remaining in the West after another comeback win. After the game I had a buddy ask me “what even is this team?” My answer was “Chaos”. There’s good, there’s bad, there's elation, there's swearing, but its never boring. 

For the second week in a row we used the patent pending Cory Mace method to win. That being: score a 1^st quarter TD and then immediately quit being useful for a large chunk of the game on both sides of the ball, fail to do any kind of run blocking, fail to generate any kind of pass rush, commit more penalties than you can fathom, get to the point where pretty much everyone has given up hope and then claw your way back to an improbable victory. Definitely not a sustainable formula for success but at this point, no one is complaining about style points. Keep the wins coming no matter how. 

Its only 2 games in and I expect defenses to start adjusting as more and more film becomes available but I am liking Marc Mueller as an OC. You can tell he is scheming his receivers open. He is making adjustments when something is not working. And him and Harris seem to be in synch. Our passing attack is legit dangerous. If we could ever get any semblance of a run game going, look out. But the lack of rushing yards is not on Mueller or on Ouelette. Our O-line just plain sucks at run blocking. Its weird because they are pretty good at pass blocking and usually that is the more difficult aspect of their job. I at least like that Mueller found a way to keep Ouelette involved in the pass game this week. He’s too important not to keep involved somehow. Hopefully Sterns and Bane are not out for long. They are both impact receivers in this offense. Nice to see Baker step up and own the day (like a certain robbed prognosticator predicted). Emilus was fighting the ball today but Ajou made the most of his first reps.

Defensively it was painfully obvious to everyone (especially the Ti-Cats) that we rushed Sayles onto the roster. He was an absolute liability out there. He looked like a guy on just over a week’s practice… because he was. He had no business being on that field. D-line did the exact same thing as last week… that being next to nothing until the very end when they started making some impactful plays. We are very good against the run but the D-line can’t seem to generate any pressure even when we blitz. It’s kinda like when Scott Gordon used to safety blitz… people are running in the direction of the QB but can’t get within the same area code. Cox has some issues maintaining contain (a younger less mature Prophet would have no doubt made some sort of crude joke about not containing a black Cox… but I’m clearly above such low brow comedy now). On the positive side, Rolan Milligan is a tackling machine. Whether its on defense or on teams he sheds blocks and consistently delivers sound, impactful hits. 

Overall, chaos remain my word to describe this team. I hate that we go to sleep in the 2^nd quarter. I hate that we can’t stop taking dumb penalties. I hate that we can’t run the ball. But I love that we are so resilient that we find ways to win in spite of all of that. Defense seems to show up and make plays when needed despite being inconsistent and full of issues. Offense delivers points when we need it. There is a level of confidence in Harris and co’s ability to deliver. An amazing 60% of all points we have scored this season have come in the fourth quarter.  But at some point teams are going to stop making the key errors (like whatever Tim White did to pop that INT up) that keep us in these games.

But this week was not that week. We won. We overcame a lot. We should be ecstatic at being 2 and 0 at this point.

Other random thoughts:

-        It was technically the correct call but its still stupid. Common sense says Reavis recovered that fumble.

-        Sterns a tough bugger to hang onto that catch while his leg was bending ways it shouldn’t. Was surprised he walked off so hopefully it looked worse than it was.

-        Feel bad for Blake. Injuries seem to be following him like a black cloud.

-        Don’t want to jinx it but for all the preseason Lauther doubters, he seems to be doing just fine so far.

-        I feel for Hamilton because Bo Levi Mitchell in the last 2 games has played his best football in the past 3 years and they can’t manage to win even with that. When his body inevitably starts breaking down again in a couple games they will regret wasting this narrow window of health and usefulness.

-        Seriously, Marcus Sayles was awful.