Posts
Riders 22 – Bombers 38
My sentimonies today are going to be split into two distinct sections. One will be my sentimonies on the game. The other will be my sentimonies on the season. They are very different view points with very different levels of rage.
On
the game…
What
an absolute utter embarrassment. Just pure shit. No one on that team showed up
ready. We were outcoached, outplayed, outworked. Every single person in that locker
room from the coaches to the players should be embarrassed about that effort with
a chance at the Grey Cup on the line. I won’t go into detail but here are a
smattering of the thoughts that were running through my head as my swearing at
the TV slowly turned to silent head shaking:
-
There
was overt holding on the first Winnipeg TD drive. Suitor even managed to
inadvertently circle the infraction on the replay. Unreal that it was not called.
-
I
also thought that Baker made that catch. Yes the ball touched the ground but he
had full control at all times.
-
That said, reffing impacted the outcome of the game about as much as the moon cycle and
the temperature in Fiji did.
-
We
had one solitary effective offensive play… Baker on a hook over the middle. 95%
of our offense was just that exact play. Honestly not sure if Mueller had a second
page in his playbook.
-
Trevor
Harris picked a hell of a game to suddenly suck. He was fixating on receivers, throwing
into double coverage, not finding open receivers. Not at all the Harris that got us to this point.
-
Emilus
picked a hell of a game to regress to his midseason butter finger self.
-
Thank
you to Korsak for giving us that one fleeting moment of joy.
- I’m not sure where to start with the issues with our defense. Front 4 got zero pressure and running a soft zone when the QB is not pressured just leads to the easiest game of pitch and catch ever. We staunchly refused to change out approach even as the easiest TDs imaginable kept piling up.
- Secondary compounded things by just not having a clue. Henderson sucks. Sayles had a rare bad game. It is a slight against out recruiting and coaching if Lokombo is legitimately the best option they could find at safety. He’s an adequate run stopper but is constantly lost in pass coverage. Hardrick on crutches would be more effective out there.
-
Mace’s
strategy was all over the place. I honestly did not hate the call to go for it
on 3rd on our own 24. It was desperation time. But then on the next
drive with less time on the clock and in better field position he punted. Make
up your mind, if you are going aggressive from the 24 you should be committed
to that the rest of the way.
That was a pathetic way to end the season and I hope the memory of that loss fuels all those players and coaches in their offseason work.
But on the season…
As much as that loss hurts (and essentially handing Winnipeg a Grey Cup win over Nick Arbuckle) I have to consider this season a success and be appreciative to the whole team for what they accomplished.
What you saw on Saturday is what we were for 2 straight seasons. We couldn’t win after Labour Day. We did not make the playoffs. We sucked. For a rookie Head Coach I was realistically hoping for a 3rd place finish and first round playoff exit (like Chamblin delivered in year 1). It may have been a very unconventional way to get there but if you had told me at this time last year that we’d have a home playoff game in 2024 and play in the West final I would have laughed at you and done my best Jim Mora impression.
Mace raised the bar and got us back to where we should be. His job is far from done but he took some massive steps forward in 2024. He needs to improve if we want to take another step in 2025. His assistant coaches need to improve. This roster needs to be improved. But I give full credit to Mace. After 2 years of just hating Rider football, we got a season with some actual reasons to cheer.
Saturday
sucked… but for once we have reason to believe that next season won’t.
No comments:
Post a Comment