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Riders Stumble to Rumble in Hamilton

Aug 18, 2016 | 10:15 AM

After the recent farce of fines and losses, the Saskatchewan Roughriders tried this week to shake things up including a trade with their arch enemy, Calgary Stampeders, to improve their defense prior to Saturday’s game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

 The Riders traded two Negotiation List players for Fred Bennett and Jeff Hecht of the Stampeders.

Bennett was a starting defensive back with the Stampeders who got played off the roster by younger and cheaper talent.

Since CFL teams have a chance to dump veteran talent before Labour Day before those contracts are guaranteed and NFL cuts are coming up, Calgary was making room for what they think is reinforcements for their title run.

Bennett is 32 so how long he stays in Saskatchewan is up for debate and Hecht is a special teams player who can do spot duty in the defensive backfield on occasion. The Riders cut defensive back Johnnie Dixon Jr. and defensive lineman Ross and signed wide receiver Joe Craig, defensive back Demetrice Morley and defensive lineman Tony Criswell.

Please book your Grey Cup tickets now.

An interesting cut by the Montreal Alouettes, who are probably in cap trouble, is Canadian defensive lineman Vaughn Martin, who had a lengthy NFL stint with San Diego before coming back to Canada. After Jim (Of course I can coach – look how my hair obeys my commands!) Popp ripped his team for its lack of heart and said cheaper reinforcements would be coming in, he had to do something to open up cap room for potential reinforcements.

The Riders have already signed former Montreal backup quarterback Brandon Bridge and their three man rush could use some muscle, especially from a Canadian. However, it is up in the air if the Riders would make a move for Martin, perhaps saving their dollars for when Brett Jones comes loose from the New York Giants.

The Riders also continued their trend of recycling players Rider GM and Coach Chris Jones has cut before in Edmonton by signing Alonzo Lawrence, another defensive back. He may be joined by Rider draft pick Elie Bouka, who is ranked sixth on the Arizona Cardinals depth chart at defensive back and would be a welcome addition.

On the hot seat is safety Kevin Francis the converted wide receiver who is learning on the job and has so far mastered the turn and chase maneuver although it is unfair to slam him because he hasn’t played the position before.

It might not matter that much because there was word out of Wednesday’s practice the Riders’ offensive line was once again being mauled by raccoons and wasps and the Riders might be making more changes there before the Hamilton game.

I doubt anything will change the final picture, but for the sake of argument, let’s review the four games on tap this weekend.

First we have Montreal visiting Ottawa and Montreal as mentioned is cutting high priced veterans that allowed Jim Popp to look like he was doing something last fall but his lack of coaching ability, combined with the Noel Thorpe fiasco has left Montreal with a defense capable of smothering Saskatchewan in its sleep and an offense capable of putting the rest of North America to sleep when it hits the field.  It will help Montreal to have Duron Carter on the field, avoiding the one game suspension he really needs to serve for hitting Ottawa coach Rich Campbell.

Ottawa on the other hand had to juggle its ratio and cut running Nic Grigsby, who if he doesn’t go back to selling cars in Florida, is likely enjoying the hospitality of a few establishments in Hull until the Ottawa ratio numbers sort themselves out. Then of course Ottawa has Henry Burris, who proved yet again why Rider fans love getting under his skin with his rant against TSN for “disrespecting” him even though they haven’t played the game…according to Hank.

Ottawa is going with a dual Canadian running back system which maybe I can recall in Edmonton and maybe the Riders back in the Reign of Error. If the extra American is to bolster Ottawa’s offensive line, it makes for Ottawa deciding to keep Henry upright is a bigger priority than running the ball. That will be one less thing for Montreal to worry about but Montreal is still a one trick pony on offense with Carter and the big question is if good Kevin Glenn shows up or bad Kevin Glenn. Much like whether Good Henry or bad Henry shows up for Ottawa.

My guess is despite Ottawa throwing a curve with two Canadian running backs against the Montreal front seven, Ottawa still has more weapons than Montreal and Ottawa wins what may be a heated battle 26-20.

Then we have the game of the week with Calgary going to BC and this one should be lots of fun. The last game between these two went to the wire with Calgary pulling out a win in the end after BC basically threw the game away.

Calgary is coming off a game in Saskatchewan where they thought they would roll over the Riders, and if the Riders had a defense and an offense, maybe Calgary would have been in trouble. However Bo Levi (Rat) Mitchell had his touchdown streak broken and the Riders provided Calgary with an idea of how to proceed in winning the rubber game of the match between these two teams.

BC is coming off a game where it roared to a big lead against Hamilton and then just hung on as Zach Collaros did his best to knock the rust off. If it wasn’t for the turnovers, Hamilton may have been able to record its second big comeback, but BC at least learned how to put away a team in a situation like that.

It should be a fast track under the BC Place roof and just as the first two games came down to the end, so should this one. The trend this year is for road teams to win games and Calgary proved last week it could win ugly. I don’t think Calgary wants to see to if it could do that again, but this has the makings of a playoff game, even a western final – Calgary 29-26.

Then there is Edmonton at Toronto on Saturday where Toronto Argonaut fans will gather by the dozens to tick off the Toronto soccer fans. Edmonton is fat and sassy after it snapped its losing streak against Montreal, which rational observers may say so what, although in Saskatchewan that comment is a luxury.

Edmonton’s offense looked disjointed and its defense was lucky it only had to concentrate on stopping Duron Carter. If Edmonton thought it got easier this week going against Logan Kilgore who looked ordinary or even like the second coming of Brent Smith against the god less Winnipeg Blue Bombers, then the collapse of the oil sector has truly left them delusional.

I like Rich Stubler’s defense against the Eskimos and with an improved pass rush, Toronto should be getting good pressure against Mike (Whiney) Reilly. The big question is whether Toronto’s offense will be able to mount much of an attack.

Assuming Kilgore does what he is told, makes quick reads and gets the ball off quickly, it should help against a Deadmonton Defense that has grown fat and sassy and lost too many players to NFL tryouts. However, this will be an extremely close game and Toronto wins 26-25 in what some would consider an upset but others would call frontier justice.

Finally we have the game that will allow many to switch over to the Olympics in peace and quiet with the Riders at Hamilton. If I had to choose after the first half of the BC Hamilton game last week, I would have thought the Riders had a chance. Then when Hamilton made its furious comeback, and considering the Riders defensive backfield has all the consistency of Swiss cheese, once again bitter reality hit Riders fans in the head like a bunch of drunken toothless Bomber fans in search of a 7-11.

As mentioned the Riders made changes and their defense kept them in until the fourth quarter. The Rider offense needs to make use of the penalty challenges or get some guys back from the injury list especially on the offensive line as John Chick licks his chops at the chance to prove Chris Jones is an over-rated defensive coordinator who lucked into a General Manager spot.

But I digress. If Jones could stump Bo Levi (the Rat) Mitchell with a defense made up of recycled and scrap heap parts for three quarters, then it is theoretically possible for the Riders to keep it close with Hamilton.

But as Zoey the Magnificent Himalayan likes to point out, this is not likely to be that movie – Hamilton 29-23.