Posts
Saturday will either be the biggest regular season game in Saskatchewan many years… or a meaningless game where everyone involved from the players to the refs to the fans can’t wait for it to be over. There is no in between. Our fate rests in the hands of our olds friends Jason Maas and Cody Fajardo, who we never said anything bad about ever and always wished them nothing but the best.
The overwhelming odds favour Winnipeg winning and rendering our game as useless as a poopy flavoured lolly pop. But we could not have asked for a better set up given the circumstances of Montreal not caring. The game is in Montreal (a tough road place to play). Montreal has a bye next week so they will be playing most of their starters at least for a bit so they don’t get rusty from too much time off. Even their back-up QB is good enough to win games. The odds may be low but they are far from zero. All aboard the Alouette bandwagon. Let’s all hope for what the French call “le Fajardon”.
As for our game, I will have largely the same outlook regardless of whether we care or not. Calgary is not very good and the only thing between them and a merciful end to their season is a cold road game. They are going to display all the care and effort of a Marshawn Lynch press conference. If its for first place we should stomp them mercilessly. If it’s a glorified preseason game, we should still beat them. This is a Calgary team that did not win on the road at all even when they were trying. They have not won since August… a sure sign that Craig Dickenson has more influence than we expected.
Offensively the surest path to victory is to run them into the ground. They don’t care and don’t want to be there. How much effort do you think they will be putting in by the 10th or 15th or 20th run of the day? They were the worst run stopping team even when they were trying. I know Armstead deserves a ton of credit for his 200 yard performance against them but an important factor may have been that they just suck at run stopping. Running will suck what little life they have out of them. Whether its Harris or Patterson quick passes should be there as well. Calgary allows the most offensive yards. As long as we are patient and don’t turn the ball over, the extended drives will be there.
Defensively,
I honestly don’t know what Calgary will be doing at QB. Schiltz is out and he’s
about the only guy who would give me mild concern. Tommy Stevens can only score
on 1 yard plunges that go for a million yards. Bonner was deemed worse than
Maier and Maier well he clearly knows he’s done in Calgary so how much is he
gonna try even if they do play him? Also, given how well him “trying” has gone
is that even an issue? The game plan fits Mace’s philosophy perfectly: stop the
run is priority 1, force them to throw and create turnovers.
I could see this being a game where Alford finds the endzone. All it takes is one guy to get lazy in his lanes on kick coverage.
We obviously can’t bench everyone if Winnipeg ends up winning. I would expected limited playing time for Harris. Guys like Lanier and Milligan likely rest. And guys coming back from injury like Carney either don’t play or play on a very limited basis. That said, I can see Milligan wanting to put an exclamation point on his MOP resume and this is a game where he could put up some stats. One INT, 2 knockdowns and 2 special team tackles would be about perfect.
If by some miracle Montreal does us a favour then I hope to see the Riders absolutely bury the Stamps, like they did the Lions last game. If it’s a nothing game I still hope they look to end the regular season on high and enter the post season on an up note.
If
it matters, Riders by 20
In the more likely scenario that it doesn’t matter, Riders by a Shae Patterson rushing TD
No comments:
Post a Comment