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Riders Deserved the Labour Day Loss

Sep 5, 2016 | 3:55 PM

It has been a week quite unlike many that have happened in Ridersville, ending up Sunday with a 28-25 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, effectively ending the Rider season.

Mathematically, the Riders are still alive for the playoffs but the game is played on a field and not on paper, and the Riders have no one to blame but themselves for their latest loss.

The week started with the news the Riders had added Khalief Mitchell to the roster. Mitchell was a former BC Lion, Toronto Argonaut and Montreal Alouette who, if you have seen his Facebook page, or Twitter account, doesn’t think much of Jews.

Mitchell is 31 and has been out of football for two years, apparently working as an organic farmer in BC. However Mitchell seems to have been resting in a Doritos bar judging from his gut and his inability to survive practice when he showed up last week.

The anti-Jewish comments in his accounts led the CFL to state if Mitchell made any such statements from now on, he would be kicked out of the league.  There are a few points I want to make here before I carry on.

I cannot see the point of the Riders cutting John Chick, who is in excellent shape and still sacking quarterbacks, while digging up a 31 year old former player what has been out of football for two years. If Chick was cut for salary room to sign younger players, I can live with that, but even if Mitchell was in shape, his best years are behind of him.

While what I hear of Mitchell indicates he doesn’t bring his Jewish conspiracy theories into the locker room, I have to wonder exactly what the Riders 30 new scouts have been doing?

If we were going to bring anyone in last week, I would have thought it would have been an NFL cut.

If the Riders were looking to pick a fight with the league with the signing, I wish it were more clear exactly what the Riders were rebelling against. Their Mickey Mouse antics of having people produce ID before watching practice is a classic sign of an organization blaming everyone else (especially an unnamed menace) for its problems rather than confronting them honestly.

I hope Mitchell eats his way off the team. He may be a singular football talent, but his best days are behing him and I would rather the coaching staff spend their time working with younger players if they are so good.

On Friday night I watched the University of Regina tangle with the Univesity of Saskatchewan in a 41-30 double overtime win by the Huskies. There were questionable penalities called, which if you are playing in Saskatoon you have to assume the refs are in the home team’s pocket.

However the game had a flow and excitement which I found lacking in the Labour Day contest. Even though the Riders came alive in the second half, both sides of the team committed enough mistakes to make the end result inevitable.

After the Rider game I watched the University of Texas play Notre Dame in a 50-47 double overtime win. It was an exciting physical game and the common thing the Canadian university game had with the American game was the physical play of the defensive backfield and no challenges.

I understand the reasoning for the the challenges, but the CFL again successfully defended its reputaion as a fly by night organization by changing the rules in mid-season. Their definition of penalty, especially in the call against Justin Cox in the last minute of play, robbed the Riders of a chance to play for the win themselves.

The interpretation of the rules seems to be at the discretion of the ref, so if you are going to bet, check out who is reffing whatever game you are looking at. It may make the difference between winning and losing.

I’ve watched the call on Cox in the last minute of the game and heard Jock Climie talk about how he saw Cox hook Weston Dressler with his arm. I disn’t see that, and perhaps it would have been overturned if Chris Jones hadn’t screwed up with losing the right to challenge any more calls.

Jones seemed ready to challenge anything his players wanted, which would make him popular in the lockerroom, but would not make him smart as a coach. Every player when they don’t make a play feel it is someone else’s fault and the flag should be thrown. The problem with that statement is that is is not necessarily true.

That play wouldn’t have mattered if Tyler Crapigna had missed two field goals and one extra point for a total of seven points, which would have clinched a Rider win. This was especially unfortunate because Crapigna had rarely missed heading into Sunday’s game.

In the massive mental breakdown that constitutes the post-game radio show, there were those who suggestion Darian Durant had lost it and pointed towards the two interceptions in the fourth quarter. Definitely the first could be blamed on the receiver not looking for the ball while the second one could be the result of the receiver stretching the route longer than what Durant was expecting.

With that being, I watched with interest what Marshall Hamilton, a former Rider safety who was once a high school quarterback in Regina who made me look bad, had to to say on In the Huddle. Hamilton said he would have loved to play against Durant because Durant telegraphs where he is going by looking at the receiver he is going to throw to.

I would suggest Durant is not the reason for the 1-9 record, but rather the way this team has been a work in progress all season. With the Riders making on average 10 changes per game, it’s hard to develop continuity when either you or the guy beside you may be gone next game.

Chris Jones or the Rider executive have been less than honest with fans, failing to explain how the team was going to rebuild and why patience would be required. Instead we see a paranoid “they are out to get us” mentality where everyone else is to blame for the garbage fire that is the 2016 Riders instead of the people in charge.

The last game at Taylor Field should be a sell out but with the Rider record, the number of people tuning the team out will grow. This will result in more no-shows for games as fans won’t be able to find people willing to take tickets of f their hands, less money spent on merchandise (not that I have seen much to excite me there) and less spent on booze and food (the increase in prices also has played a roll in that).

As a former Prince Albert resident, who used to drive four hours to a game, spend four hours at the game, and then drive back, I can’t in good conscience urge people to follow the same philosophy because it now costs more than it did back in the 1990s and despite what the Rider board of directors thinks, not everyone is rolling in money these days.

However, let me wrap with some hope.

In the last two games, the Riders have lost by eight and three points. Both games were very winnable but mistakes made by the Riders cost them the game. Blaming the refs ignores the reality the Riders are not mentally tough enough to focus on the job on hand because with the constant roster shuffle, part of them must be wondering when they too will be removed from the roster and placed on the injured list or practice roster.

The closeness of the games has come as a result of a receiving corps that could well be impressive and fewer roster changes that have resulted in players getting comfortable with each other.  The defensive secondary is looking much better, although it still gives up a big play now and then, and the familiarity will produce starts like Justin Cox, who got screwed on the phoney pass interference call against Winnipeg.

The Riders are getting somewhat better, and they are getting entertaining, which is probably all that should have been asked or expected of the club to start the season. With eight games left, they should be able to beat Edmonton and Montreal at Taylor Field, a good shot at beating Winnipeg in Winnipeg, and perhaps Hamilton here. They could beat Ottawa if Henry Burris maintains his grip on the starting job there.

Toronto is also beatable and can probably split the home and home with BC. That would conceivably end up in a 7-1 run for the Riders for an 8-10 season record. I’m not sure if that would get them into the playoffs, either in the west, or in a cross over, but if they do manage a 7-1 run, with some luck, it would make people somewhat happier.

But not as happy as winning the Labour Day game.