Monday Morning Sentimonies: A Tie?

Riders 22 – RedBlacks 22

They say a tie is like kissing your sister… a great accomplishment in the province of Manitoba but considered a disappointment anywhere else. 

That game was… something. There was not a lot going on for most of the game and then it suddenly devolved into the most ridiculous ending to a game I can recall. I am always amazed at the ability of the Riders to leave me disappointed in a game I fully expected to lose. Its a gift. 

As disappointing as the end was, to escape that game with anything but a loss is an accomplishment. On a short week, with a depleted roster, I was very impressed with the effort the team showed up with. Well let me clarify that. I was very impressed with the way the defense showed up. The offense was the source of much cursing for me. Still they managed to dig deep and recover when it mattered. 

I don't think the defense is getting enough credit for what they accomplished. Five sacks, one interception, turnover on downs, one forced fumble and 2 blocked kicks. They did everything in their power short of scoring to keep us in that game. They played so well I am even willing to forgive Marcus Sayles’ hands of stone. Hell, I actually witnessed Nelson Lokombo make a play! Obviously the injury to Dru Brown impacted things (Dustin Crumb remains a poor man’s Streveler) but even the short time that Brown was in he wasn’t doing much except overthrowing his receivers deep. CJ Avery played well in the middle (hopefully his injury is just minor). D-line made their presence felt. Sure there was a couple blown assignments and many missed tackles or tackles where we hit them but got dragged for 5 more yards. But allowing 13 points in regulation speaks for itself. Defense had a bounce back game despite missing some key parts. 

My god can someone please catch for Patterson! You could likely double his stats this season if the beautiful passes he threw that his useless receivers dropped counted. So many bad drops. Obviously Patterson had a rough go of things and needs to own a lot of the reasons why, but some sure hands would help the guy out. His passes were all going too high and often to the wrong coloured jersey. Thankfully Patterson figured out that the only sure hands on the team belonged to Mitch Picton and Dhonte Meyers. I’m sure you got sick of me pumping Meyers’ tires since the preseason but this guy delivered in game 1! Sure hands, big time catches. My only concern is that after seeing his halftime interview I’m not sure he’s of legal working age and we may be committing labour standards violations by employing him. Bane to his credit also had a pretty impactful game despite a bad drop. O-line looked exactly like you’d expect. They struggled. Lots of pressure on the QB, no push in the run game. About what you’d expect given who we were fielding out there. I honestly thought Nick Jones was less of trainwreck than expected. He has no ability to stop an inside pass rush move but was not awful for how quickly he was thrown into a starting role. 

Special teams did their job. Lauther turned up with a perfect game when we needed him. Cover teams were strong. We punched out fumbles, we blocked kicks. We won that phase of the game against likely the best special teams unit in the CFL. 

Ok… now lets get to the finish.

 First is the PI on Bane. Many are saying there is no difference between the PI on Bane taking away what Ottawa thought was a victory and what happened to us. That is just plain wrong. The booth did not insert themselves on the play. Mace challenged (as he had the right to do) and the call was correctly overturned. I will readily concede that the booth has not called more blatant PI that was challenged this season but that was definitely PI. The TD pass to Emilus that followed was a thing of beauty.

In the second OT, holy hell did our D dominate the trenches. We just kept pushing Ottawa backwards. Then we forced and recovered a fumble that everyone in the stadium believed ended the game. Refs waved the flag, hands were shaken, players were in the dressing room. But CFL Command Centre would not let the game end without making their presence felt. Now in fairness to the Command Centre it was a turnover so they were obligated to look at the play. I have no issue with that. But their review should have been limited to whether Crum was down by contact or threw a pass prior to fumbling. Quite clearly neither happened. Should be an open and shut case. But Tom Valessi said “F$*& Them” and decided that a very marginal contact by McClain on Crum somehow met the definition of “clear and obvious” and that someone the fact that the only reason said marginal contact occurred was because he was cut blocked by the offense was irrelevant. To decide that was someone so egregious that the game had to be restarted was beyond ridiculous. The Command Centre overstepped pure and simple. For my full thoughts on the command centre check out my Saturday post (yes, I was so enraged I was motivated to an unplanned post this week). 

As disappointing as getting jobbed out of a win was, to salvage a tie is still a pretty good outcome. The odds were way stacked against us and we went toe to toe with Ottawa despite lacking rest and healthy bodies (fully healthy I think we stomp Ottawa). One point is better than a loss. Credit to the Riders for fighting hard. 

Other random thoughts:

-        There was some outright power on display in that game. On one play Baldonado took out 2 blockers and a returner. On another Sanders bull rushed an O-lineman straight back into his QB.

-        “Colonel” Sanders is turning into a hell of player.

-        Amari Henderson has his weaknesses but dammit is he good at diagnosing those WR screens and making the tackles.

-        Not a Rider observation but I can’t see TSN putting live mics back on the Stampeder sideline anytime soon. Whole lot of very clear F Bombs were picked up in their game.