Riders vs. Lions: Homeward Bound

If you are wondering, yes today’s title was really just a poorly veiled excuse to mention beloved 1993 classic movie Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. But if you love terrible segues then brother, hold on because the Riders’ INCREDIBLE JOURNEY this season might lead them BOUND for a HOME playoff game. 

If you were to go back in time and tell people in Week 4 of the season that the season would end with the Riders and Lions competing for a home playoff game no one would be surprised. But they would never believe the path the teams took to get there. Very similar paths in that both started hot, decided to become religiously opposed to winning for a long period of time but seemed to have stabilized things of late. Things could not be simpler for the Riders, win and you guarantee a home playoff game and get to finish the season with a bye followed by a meaningless scrimmage against an amateur football team (you can’t consider the Stamps a professional franchise at this point). Lose and you leave your fate in the hands of others and most likely finish 3rd. 

I’ll be honest, of all the teams in the CFL, BC is the one I understand the least. They should be really good. Yes its taking some time for Rourke to re-adjust to the CFL but they should be a top end team. Some times they look like a top end team… but other times they look like an orange version of Calgary. They could stomp us by 30. They could stink out the joint and lose by 30 and pretty much any outcome in between and none would be surprising based on how their season has gone. 

Since TSN/the CFL is insistent on cramming Nathan Rourke down our throat, let’s start with our defense. Look, I am all for hyping your stars and Rourke is a star to be hyped. But its got so exaggerated that Rourke could take a dump on the field and proceed to slip in his own dookie and the announcers would still somehow spin it as evidence of his greatness. 

I think Rourke has all the talent in the world but this season is proving that he is human and readjusting to the CFL takes time even for the best. BC is 6^th in points scored, 7^th in offensive yards, Rourke is last among starters in completion % and has just 4 TDs to 7 INTs. Its been a struggle. The issues start much before Rourke though. Their OL gives flashbacks to the Riders OL in 2022 and 2023. Rourke has been sacked 18 times despite only playing half a season. That’s where we need to attack. We need to dominate the line of scrimmage and should be able to. Disrupting a player as good as Rourke is the key to limiting him. Based on the last time we played, it might also be a good idea to cover McInnis. 

Offensively we are starting to get healthy Ouelette will start. Picton adds some nice Canadian depth back and most importantly we are getting some OL back. Godber is still a week or 2 away but we do get Fry and Brammer back. That’s good because what scares me most about that BC D is the front 4. Robertson, sack leader Teuhema, Banks, Covington and Betts. But beyond that line they are a very average defense. 5^th in points allowed, 6^th in yards allowed. The key with them is patience. They allow the highest completion % to opposing QBs of any team (73.8%) but the second least plays of 30+ yards. They won’t give you huge chunks but you can move the ball on them. Assuming our OL can keep him upright, Harris is very qualified to take advantage of that. I think this is a game where Ouelette can be very effective in the short pass game. Keeping him involved will keep the D-line honest and open space for Baker, Emilus and Johnson. We can’t see the errant throws we saw in Edmonton. This will be a closely contested match and winning the turnover battle and owning the line a scrimmage are the keys to coming out ahead. 

Some people will try and sell you on the emotional boost of having Durant and Shivers in the stadium. Its about damn time we honour Shivers and I maintain that Durant is second only to Ronnie in terms of the best QBs to ever play in Saskatchewan. For fans like me, there will be an emotional boost. I would honestly pay money for halftime to just be Roy with an open mic. But emotional boost for the players… pure BS. Remember the game after Lancaster died, or the final game at old Mosaic, or the game after Reed died? We lost every single one of the despite the supposed “emotional boost”. That will not be a factor in the outcome. 

This is a matchup between two teams that have shown that at their best there are contenders and at their worst they make you wish for temporary blindness. A win for either side is equally possible. I think the Riders should win but my deeply engrained pessimism is shining through. I just have a feeling the Riders won’t do things the easy way (if its any consolation I picked them to lose 2 of the last 3 as well so my pessimism may be beneficial). 

BC by a Stanback 4^th Q TD.