Monday Morning Sentimonies: Blame Lauther

Riders 23 – Als 26

Football the ultimate team game. It takes all 12 players on the field doing their assignment in all 3 phases. So its very rare that you can ever blame a loss on one guy. I’ve lived through games where the kicker misses a game deciding kick but even then you can look at the rest of the team and find where they contributed just as much to the loss as the scapegoat kicker. But this one was the exception.

Brett Lauther lost the game. Plain and simple. The other players were certainly not perfect but had Lauther done his job even mildly competently we win. Instead he missed 4 FGs one of which cost us a return TD. So in a game that we lost by 3, he was single handedly responsible for an 18 point differential. That's about as bad a day at the office as I think I’ve ever seen. To his credit, Lauther was man enough to face the media and answer for his performance (there’s a reason he is a team captain, guy is full of integrity and heart). But the fact remains he sucked and cost us a very winnable game.

Were this only a one game aberration we would probably be quick to forgive and move on based on Lauther’s high level of play over the years. But its unfortunately part of a very troubling trend this season. Lauther simply is not reliable right now. He missed a total of 6 attempts in the preseason and coming into Friday’s shankathon he was already the least accurate kicker in the regular season not named Bede. No one had missed more FG attempts than him. Then he went out and damn near doubled his misses. Some misses we can forgive. He missed a 57 yarder by inches a while back. No issue there, that’s a tough kick. But 3 of his misses coming into Friday were from less that 50 yards.  Friday his longest attempt was 48 yards and he missed one from 30 and 38. I love Lauther and am not calling for him to be cut. But he needs to sit for one game. You can’t preach accountability and then give Lauther a free pass. Can Joe Couch kick? I don’t know. But we can’t trust our current kicker to hit from 30 so would Couch really be that risky at this point?

The missed kicks and the final result overshadow a really sad fact… we drastically outplayed the best team in the CFL. Their defense averages 18 points allowed per game. We hung 24 on them despite Lauther costing us an additional 11. Their offense averages 29 points per game. Our defense held them to 19. We went toe to toe with the best, outplayed them and still somehow managed to lose. That hurts, a lot.

It's amazing how different a game is when the defense has the benefit of film on the opposing QB. In particular our D-line has stepped it up a level over the past few weeks. Carney has upped his play big time. Micah is a flat out stud at the age of 87. At some point we get to add Lanier back to this. Amari Henderson is a frustrating guy to watch. I don’t think I have seen a DB (outside of Milligan) diagnose and tackle on screens as well as him. And I don’t think I have seen a DB be so bad at any other tackling situation. Williams gets beat in coverage now and then but give me his sure tackling at this point over the roller coaster that is Henderson.

Offensively the return of Harris had an impact. Reminder, that the context of this game is playing the stingiest defense in the CFL. Harris led 2 TD drives and 7 FG drives. I would have preferred a few more of those FG drives led to majors but he moved the ball, put us in scoring position frequently and did not turn it over. Its not his fault “scoring position” for our kicker in this game happened to only extend 7 feet from the goal posts. Give me all the Dhonte Meyers. I have been on his hype train since the preseason and he continues to deliver. Johnson also stepped up big time. When he wasn’t being damn near decapitated by the defense he showed sure hands and an ability to find the open space. It would be nice if some of our veteran WRs could learn to catch like the newbies (cough, Bane, cough). Would also be nice if our coaches didn’t do stupid things like decide not to do a routine plunge and stupidly try to draw the defense offside only to attempt a longer FG then we had to (bold choice on any day let only based on how the kicking game was going).

Been a while since I left a game that mad. I’ve left disappointed. I’ve left disillusioned. I've left inebriated. But Friday I was mad (and maybe a little inebriated, but mostly mad)! We had the defending champs on the ropes and pissed away the opportunity. The way the West is heating up, every point in the standings is going to be important and we gave 2 away. It’s almost as disappointing as the sheep not escaping at halftime this year. 

Don't look now but after starting 4-0 we have managed a 1-4-1 record since. We've hung in there with any team but "hanging in there" won't get you a playoff spot. Need some wins.

Other random thoughts:

-        Sayles was jobbed on that PI call. Haven’t seen a dive like that since the Olympics ended.

-        I’m torn on the “was Alexander out of bounds?” call. Initially I fully agreed with the call, there were a couple shots that showed a sliver of green between the sideline and his cleat. Obviously now a shot as surfaced that disputes that. But we are almost the victims of our outrage there. After last week’s incident people were calling for quicker reviews and the booth not over officiating. That’s what we got.

-        Once again Gainer took prizes away from fans in the Flip a Card sideline fan promotion by winning. It’s quickly becoming my favourite thing to watch. Screw the fans, Gainer needs to pad his stats. Also in this economy it’s a great way for the Riders to keep this promotions budget low.

-        Speaking of contests, the “Where are they?” promotion has been so dumbed down its sad. Friday the question was essentially “this POOL is located in WASCANA park. Is it Saskatoon? The WASCANA POOL? or Egypt?”. Its approaching Celebrity Jeopardy levels. Next game the question might legitimately be "Where are you right now? A) Here B) Not Here C) Somewhere Else". Save us Sean Connery and Turd Ferguson.