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FAN ZONE Rod's Blog - View Entry[ Recent Entries ] [ Archive View ] BEATING RIDERS IS LIKE HUNTING AT THE ZOO
God bless Wes Cates for finally saying it like it is.
The Roughriders (8-3) were denied their third straight victory Saturday night in Vancouver when they were disspelled 28-23 by the hometown Lions (6-5) in front of over 38,000 fans at B.C. Place. The Lions were fired up for this one, and it showed. Most of the game was a defensive juggernaut before the Lions' offense broke open a couple of deep touchdowns in the second half to pull out the win. As it is, Saskatchewan almost came back however they were unable to recover an onside kick, nor move the ball when they needed to with a minute left to play. Whether it was a five-point loss or a 30-point loss, it still goes in the "L" column. But consider this; when my statistician Kevin Gallant starting filling in his charts before the game, he scratched his head, looked over at me and said, "who the heck are these guys?" He of course was referring to the Riders' mostly rookie receivers who were in the starting spots on the depth chart in Week 12. Back in Week 2, Gallant filled in the names of Dominguez, Flick and Fantuz on the stats sheet, not to mention the name 'Marcus Crandell' at QB. This past weekend, Michael Bishop was making only his third career start for the Roughriders. Canadian slotback Adam Nicolson was making just his second appearance for the Green, yet he hauled in a 6-yard touchdown pass in what was shaping up to be another heart-stopping comeback in the fourth quarter. I mean c'mon! The Riders' offense has been completely overhauled and retooled because of injury and because they happened to lose to a good team in a tough stadium, people are jumping off the bandwagon and second-guessing the best coaching staff in Canada! "It's true we need to stop relying on our defense," said Rider tailback Wes Cates after the game. "And we can't wait until the second half to score points. I really can't explain it but we're missing a lot of veteran experience in (injured receivers) D.J. Flick, (Andy) Fantuz and (Matt) Dominguez. That's about 15 years of experience right there. Nothing against these rookie receivers but there's things they need to learn and it's going to take time. I'm happy as heck with how they're playing but it's not the same." Hallelujah Wes!! So the key for the Roughriders over their final seven games is to manage to hold onto first-place in the wild CFL West Division with this young bunch who's learning on the fly, and clinch homefield in the West Division Final for the first time since 1976. The gameplans, on offense at least, will continue to be re-worked as coordinator Paul LaPolice, head coach Ken Miller and company decide which direction is the best to go with all this new personnel and their varied range of skillsets. By mid-October when we get into the stretch run, we'll start to see the return of these mighty ball-catchers and Michael Bishop will have settled in nicely with what he's being asked to do. Until then though, beating the under-manned and depleted Saskatchewan Roughriders will be like bear hunting with a shotgun in the wildlife cage at the zoo. Not much to be proud of at all. Week 12 CFL Scores: Winnipeg 39 Toronto 9 Calgary 41 Montreal 30 Edmonton 38 Hamilton 33 BC 28 Saskatchewan 23 Week 13 Sked:
Friday: Winnipeg (3-8) at Hamilton (2-9) Saturday: Toronto (4-7) at Calgary (7-4) BC (6-5) at Saskatchewan (8-3) Sunday: Edmonton (7-4) at Montreal (7-4) (For daily Rider news check out Rod's award-winning personal blog at www.rodpedersen.com) 17 Comment(s) | Leave a Comment Comments
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