Monday Morning Sentimonies: Loserpeg

Riders 19 – Bombers 9

What a night? Friday night. Biggest crowd in a while. Slick new jerseys. Most importantly adding to the continued misery of a hated rival while moving to 5-1. Good times were had by all… well except for Bombers and their fans, but really, can they even be considered people?

Most impressive part of the night was by far the defense. They held an offense featuring a multiple time MOP, the top running back in the CFL and Demski (who always kills us) to just 9 points. Back-up QB or not, its pretty easy to win a game when your defense holds a team to single digits. I guess for a province that may have difficulty counting that high, 9 may seem like a lot. But here in the real world, 9 points means you suck.  Run D stepped up and locked down Olivera. And really, other than a few passes here and there, the pass D limited Collaros to checks downs. Those few times the Bombers did put a drive together the Bombers were forced into mistakes. Pressure made Collaros make an absolutely horrendous decision to throw into double coverage (while in scoring range) resulting in a pick. Milligan should have had an easy pick early in the game. And after calling his shot in the halftime interview, Jameer Thurman went out and delivered a textbook forced fumble (again in scoring range) effectively snuffing out any life the Bombers had left. I still find it hilarious how much the broadcast crew was hyping Collaros as being “back”. Dude has 2 TDs and a league leading 7 INTs. He’s struggling more than a Manitoban does to find a date that is not a cousin or a barnyard animal. Believe it or not its possible to acknowledge that Collaros has been the best QB in the league for 4 years and that he currently sucks. Both things can be true. 

Offensively, obviously 19 points is not going to cut it most weeks but the offense did their job and enough to win. Who would have guessed the only TD in the entire game would be by Ratkovich? There were 2 keys for me: 1 – we didn’t turn the ball over. 2 – Even on drives that didn’t result in points we moved the ball. There were very few 2 and outs which allowed our dominant D to get the rest they needed. Patterson continues to progress. This time our slow start was not on him. He hit Baker in the hands on that first drive and that wasn’t he only drop his receivers hung on him. He reads defenses well. Hell in terms of back-ups I have seen in recent years he is miles ahead on how he reads and reacts to the blitz. He’s still making some mistakes but for a guy with 3 career starts I am very impressed with where he is at. I rewatched the game and keyed in on Brammer and thought he fared quite well. He plays physical and was definitely not a liability. Ouelette had another hard running day. Even the runs that got snuffed out early went for 3 yards minimum. At the rate his body is piling up the damage at some point I expect him to roll himself to the huddle in a wheelchair, rip off a 20 yard run and then army crawl back to the bench because he can't use his legs.

And what can you say about Ajou squared? Every time the guy gets an opportunity he capitalizes with big plays. It usually takes Canadian receivers until their second year to really hit their stride in the CFL… and if that’s the case for Ajou then look out! Because a guy that size is going to be a problem for defenses. My only slightly negative comment on the O is that we need to find ways to get Bane the ball more often. Much like Ajou, he just makes things happen. 

We talked about our killer July schedule. Well now we are guaranteed to emerge no worse than .500… with a back-up QB. And with Fajardo out, a tough short week game in Montreal is suddenly a lot more winnable. Mace has this team excelling. They believe in him. They believe in each other. The defense seeks out and creates turnovers. The offense finds ways to get it done even when faced with adversity. They are fun to watch. 

Other random thoughts:

-        That awkward “attempt” at a QB draw by Collaros kinda epitomizes his season. Like, how on earth did that seem like a good idea?

-        I can’t tell if the 60 yard FG attempt was O’Shea displaying confidence in his kicker or a complete lack of confidence in his offense to produce points any other way. Either way it was a bad call and if the ref didn’t take out Alford it could have ended much worse.

-        Caleb Sanders (the Colonel as I will now call him) had a really good game. Noticed him on a couple plays in addition to his big sack.

-        I immediately regret using phrasing that results in me complementing Sanders’ big sack.

-        I like Dalke but if he doesn’t stop taking dumb penalties he will find himself on the bench soon. Ford won’t be injured for ever.

-        That PI was absolutely atrocious. I’ve seen more physicality in spelling bees. That said it shows the perils of using up your challenge super early in a game. Also, given the number of calls that have not gone our way, I’m ok with the football gods balancing the ledger a bit.

-        Lastly, need to address the hit on the last play. Firstly, Patterson did hold the ball too long and put himself in danger as a result. He admitted it. But the issue is not that Adam OverTheHill initiated contact. Its that he drove him to the ground with the intent to make him hurt. A simple shove or shoulder tackle would have sufficed. I can guarantee if Thurman had done that to Collaros, there would be tears, outrage and calls for suspension.

-        How good does 5-1 feel though?