Monday Morning Sentimonies: Should Probably Cover That McInnis Guy

Riders 20 – Lions 35

If I were to tell you that at one point Miles Brown had to play guard that should pretty much be all the information you need to know it did not go as planned on Saturday. Look, we all expected a loss at some point (most of us expected it sooner) and to lose to the top team in our division on the road is not the worst kind of loss… the Elks appear to have the market cornered on those. But the game did highlight some weaknesses this team has that they will need to overcome to be in the conversation with the top dogs come season end. It also unfortunately further added to an already full injury list. 

For me the game boiled down to one simple thing. We made more mistakes than the Lions and they made us pay when we did. I thought we held our own not bad. Yes Justin McInnis seemed to put up yards at will on us but through 3 quarters that only resulted in 1 TD. We were down 2 points in the 4^th quarter. Honestly the goal line stand and the Emilus fumble were the difference. Take away those 2 and it drastically changes things. Add in Sterns losing a sure TD in the roof and the missed FG that followed and we easily left another 17 points on the field. But when you play top end teams you can’t pile up mistakes and expect to win. 

I have 2 criticisms of Shea Patterson and then I’ll get to some compliments. 1 – He starts like pure garbage. His first few series are always painful and then he eventually gets it going. But he’s gotta find a way to start better. 2 – Someone needs to teach him how to strap up his helmet properly. Every single time he uses his legs, he adjusts his helmet mid stride… every time! It’s a really weird bad habit. Now to the good stuff… he’s actually a decent QB for this only being his second start. He’s no phenom but he at least looks like he belongs on the field and can manufacture drives. Hell he should have had another TD as he literally hit Sterns with the ball in the endzone (beauty throw) but Sterns lost it in the roof. Major credit to Marc Mueller who has shown a great ability to adjust his play calls when things aren’t working and find things that do. Patterson will need to keep improving if we want to get back to winning but he has certainly shown me more than either Fine or Dolegala did (though having an OC that is actually qualified for his job probably helps a lot there too). 

Defensively there was some really good things. On a day were we were very short staffed on the D-line Lanier stepped up and had a big game. Micah was impactful too. Our pressure definitely made VA feel uncomfortable. Unfortunately sprinkled in a amongst some great plays were mistakes that VA made us pay for. Not sure what in the world Williams was thinking on that 3rd down fake. He had one job and managed to fail at it. I am decidedly not sold on Lokombo at safety. I don't know enough about the kind of D we are running to know for sure but I see him a step or 2 late to a lot of plays but rarely (if ever) actually making a play. The margin for error against the top end is so small and our pass defense found out what happens when you are off, even by a little bit. 

We saw the good and bad on special teams too. Alford’s big return led to points and Lauther might run the best dribble kickoff in the CFL. But he also missed a makable FG. Just another mistake in the pile of things we could not overcome. 

Big time injuries continue to pile up. D-line is down pretty much all their depth with Carney, Albright and Dabire out (honestly Dabire is the biggest loss there). Now the O-line (already down Blake) is likely to be without Hardrick long-term. As of writing this we don’t know how long but usually leaving on a cart with a knee injury is not a good omen. That would be a massive loss and erode all our depth on O-line too. 

I expected us to lose this and we did. Looking only at the passing stats and the final score doesn’t tell the full story. We proved we can hang with the big boys. We need to make less mistakes to upgrade from hang with to beat but we aren’t far… without our starting QB.

Other random thoughts:

-        We might set the record this year for technically correct calls that are travesties of logic. This week Williams got called for unnecessary roughness… for incidentally contacting Vernon Adams while lying on the turf after previously falling down. Did he contact a defenseless runner? Yes… but a sneeze would have had more impact on Adams than that hit.

-        There was 100% holding on the Vernon Adams TD run. And not even the incidental holding that happens on every play but blatant, overt holding.

-        I love watching Schaefer-Baker run with the ball.

-        Since BC smashed watermelons when we came to town, does that mean we get to do the same with kittens when they do? Asking for a friend.