Western Semifinal a snapshot of Rider season

This year the Rider back up receivers revealed a lack of speed allowing opposing defensives to play them very physically, confident the receivers would not get anything more than a swing pass towards the sidelines. With receivers finding it tough to get open and receivers like Keesean Johnson being double teamed as the only receiver opposing teams had to be cautious of, quarterback Trevor Harris had no real options other than trying to slowly move up the field.

Running back AJ Ouellette was effective in spots along with Mathieu Bertrand-Hudon, but despite the advantage in time of possession, the Riders were unable to capitalize and resorted back to their passing game to try to keep up with the Riders.

I will throw this out for some discussion, but if the Riders had one more minute, they probably would have been able to score a touchdown and send the game into overtime. The problem is the Riders tended to come alive at the last minute and not all the time did those games result in wins.

The Riders had their garbage bag day the Sunday after the western final and now with 30 free agents comes the job of evaluating and determining who to bring back. The team is looking at other teams’ free agents to see who they may submit an offer for.

The Riders also must do some self-evaluation as well. Pundits like Arash Madani took the Riders to task for not addressing their free agent losses, but Madani is a journalism tourist and click bait champ looking to grab some eyeballs on his missives.

The first thing the Riders must do is address the situation with their defense. The number of passes over the middle resulting in touchdowns means either the defenses being called are flawed, the players are not communicating with each other in the defensive backfield, or they are not that good.

The loss of Rolan Milligan cannot be understated because as the season rolled on after his season ending injury, it became clear Milligan was the glue in the defensive backfield. The safety position was a weak spot and Cory Mace’s decision to hand the defensive play-calling to Joshua Bell was amended toward the end of the season when Mace took a more active role in defensive signal calling.

Now the Riders must look at what went wrong with that transition and determine what needs to change next season. The defense was not helped by a defensive line that got pressure, but also missed a lot of tackles and could also be run on if the time was right.

I have no problem with Mace giving his assistants more responsibility, but the interesting thing is how Mace responds this off-season to the offense and defense shortcomings. Bell might have been going through growing pains, which are understandable, and Mace did not want to be a micromanager because that is how you burn out coaches.

Bell might be a good defensive coordinator one day, but he also might be best suited to be a defensive backfield position coach. You see this in football all the time when position coaches step up to become coordinators or coordinators step up to be head coaches.

The demands of each job are different, and some guys are not built to move up the coaching chain. If the Riders self-scouting is going to pay off, especially next year when the Riders host the Grey Cup, they are going to have to be brutally honest with themselves and the changes that are required.

Marc Mueller is going to have to undergo the same process as either the play-calling or injuries severely limited the ability of the offense. The Riders running came was OK under Ouellette, but he missed several games and if Ouellette comes back next year (which I think he will) he is going to have to platooned with another running back to help reduce the workload on Ouellette and his physical running game which lends itself to more injuries.

Trevor Harris will return for another season, probably his last, because winning a Grey Cup at home has a certain Grey Cup ring about it. Harris will need some receivers with speed to break the man coverage his rookie receivers had to put up with in half a season.

There won’t be much if any Rider news for the next couple of weeks because the CFL wants all news coverage to focus on the Eastern and Western finals.

The Lions move to Edmonton to face the Elk and the Lions are feeling confident that having finally beaten the team that beat them in the playoffs the last two years clears the way to the Grey Cup.

I wouldn’t argue with that except the game is in Edmonton, they are opening the second level of Commonwealth Stadium to fans, and the game is outdoors. The CFL has been moving up the season to avoid the -20C conditions playoff games were usually played in the west, but weather, wind and field conditions will not be as favorable as they are indoors at BC Place.

Edmonton has a better defense and a running game and are coming off a two-week break since they last played a meaningful game. I am thinking about the Lions playing in Regina the last two seasons in the playoffs and how in the western final last year, the Lions receivers dropped some easy catchable balls in the colder weather.

Nathan Rourke may want to think this is finally his time, but Edmonton is coming off a non-playoff stretch of several years and they are built for this type of weather. The Lions are not.

The Elk will advance to the Grey Cup with a 28-27 win and head down the road to Calgary for the big game.

The Bombers won a game thanks to the coaching decisions of the Argonaut coaching staff and turnovers gifting the Bombers the win. The talk is on again about Zach Collaros coming back but after seeing how the Bombes and Argos struggled like two hippos mud wrestling, the only way the Bombers make the Grey Cup is if a meteor crashed into the Montreal training facilities before the game.

The Bombers did beat Montreal earlier playing a very physical running game that took the Alouettes off guard, but I think Noel Thorpe shouldn’t be making the same mistake again. The Bombers will try to put a blanket on Montreal’s receivers, but it will be like the Riders versus the Lions, it will work for awhile and then the dam will burst.

I am giving the Bombers some credit with this score, but Montreal will advance to the Grey Cup with a 31-26 win.

by Greg Urbanoski

Western Semifinal a snapshot of Rider season

What's Trending