Pages

Monday, September 9, 2013

Something To "Mitch" About


YIKES!!! That was some kind of ugly. The 2013 Banjo Bowl will definitely not go down in the highlight reels for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

You had the feeling it might be one of those days early as the Bombers D came to play while the offensive line had perhaps one of their worst collective games in recent memory as Winnipeg got to Durant sacking him eight times while pressuring him on countless other occasions making him basically useless as he couldn't make reads or find open receivers seeing someone was on top of him virtually from the snap. If the team had been able to convert 3's into 7's in that first half, it might have been a different story, but it wasn't.

Just some thoughts

--If Rey Williams is out for an extended period of time, that could be bad news for the Riders. Williams hasn't played the way he has the first few games of the season, but he is still a force out there to be reckoned with. The Leader Post's Murray McCormick says he left the stadium on crutches. Is Joe Lobendahn available? Is he in shape?

--Have you noticed that team's rarely throw the ball at Terrell Maze. I have

--I don't know if Winnipeg has found an answer at quarterback in Justin Goltz or not. The kid is still wet behind the ears, but he does some dumb things out there.

--Taj Smith just keeps getting better and better with every game

--Does the loss of Chris Best mean that much to the o-line that was pushed around?

--Does Winnipeg have the best pass rush in the league?

--Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor have now done both Rider losses in Calgary and Winnipeg meaning the Riders are perfect when Rod Black calls their games. I ask you Rider fans if that's a good thing considering you aren't very complimentary towards Black and his call. That being said, is there a fanbase in the CFL that is complimentary to Black's call.

At the end of the day, this football team is still 8-2 and everything is tracking towards that game in Calgary next month as the one that will decide first place in the West. Perhaps Hamilton can do the Riders a favour next weekend at MacMahon, but I will go with Calgary.

Are the Ti-Cats getting their game together? It would look that way, but I'm still not sold on them. I guess it depends on the Ricky Ray injury, but I still believe the best team in the East are the Argonauts. We'll see next weekend at Mosaic how good they are in person with Zach Collaros calling the shots.

Buck Pierce to BC. I never saw that one coming. I guess Buck will be insurance to Travis Lulay. What other role could he play unless Lulay hurt himself in Hamilton.

I feel fortunate to get a chance to talk football and get some inside stuff from guys like Lance Frazier, Luc Mullinder, Matt Dominguez, Chris Szarka and Scott Schultz every week. The stories and anecdotes you get from them are first-rate. That is one of the reasons why CKRM is the place to be for football coverage. The team that's been assembled is second to none.

The first weekend of the NFL just once again made me realize how much I love the NFL. Don't get me wrong, I love the Canadian game too, but when you can turn the channel and have seven of the ten early games coming right down to the final seconds, it is tremendous theatre and a tremendous workout on the remote. One of those seven games saw the Seahawks hang on to beat Carolina thanks to a fumble inside the Seahawks 10 that killed Carolina's hopes. If the Panthers score, Seattle likely doesn't win the game. I can't wait for their Sunday night tilt at home against San Francisco next weekend.

I'm not a Chicago Bears fan, but I am hoping to see Marc Trestman succeed. If he can, it might open the doors for other CFL coaches to go south just like players do.

I will just say it right here and right now (OK, I said it first on Roughrider Gameday this morning). Jeremy O'Day will be the general manager of the Edmonton Eskimos in 2014 and the head coach will be Paul Lapolice. If its not Lapolice, it will be George Cortez.

Its tough enough navigating through East Regina's shopping area on a Saturday afternoon. Add three crashes within sight of one another and it makes for an almost impossible adventure. Thankfully, I didn't have to experience much of it.

Premier Brad Wall sits down with NDP leader Tom Mulcair today at the Legislature. I am guessing the Banjo Bowl nor the Raiders-Colts game will be a part of the conversation. Speaking of the Premier, I wonder how many barbs he is taking from Manitobans today after his video on Friday.

Who is selling at TSN and why can't they find more corporate partners for CFL games. Its become infomercial heaven on CFL games. From Zoomies to QRay bracelets to something for your kitty to scratch on to other god forsaken items, TSN is allowing these people to hammer away via advertising between games. Would you buy a pair of Zoomies? Don't answer that! It makes me long for the RONA guy and ask whatever happened to "Canadian Tire Man" and his handy-dandy gadgets from Canadian Tire that he always had to fix this problem or that.

Speaking of TSN, remember when Maggie the Monkey picked games for them. Well, now the NFL Network has a monkey picking games for them. Its been a few years so I guess you can't say the NFL Network has stolen the idea and really, its not that tough to get an idea picking an animal of some sorts to select games. Hell, Rod and I could have done that with my cat for Sportscage if we wanted, but we decided to use the good old coin last year. Is anyone else around here currently using a coin to pick games? We wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's territory.

Sundays are great when there is wall to wall football on. Agree?

Another season of Locker Talk begins Tuesday night at Access. Hold the applause. That's what the people at Access are doing.

The always-amusing Riderfans.com got hacked Sunday night by some pro-Syria website. Could it be that Bashar Assad has had enough of the Darian Durant bashing? Is he a member on that site? What handle does he go by?

Did anyone see the Eminem-Brent Musberger interview Saturday during the Michigan-Notre Dame game. AWKWARD!!! If you haven't seen it, Youtube it. Its there for the world to see.

Was Friday the last nice day we are going to have for a while. Cooler weather is upon us. As mentioned before, it can cool down as long as its above zero at kickoff on Grey Cup Sunday.


Congrats to all those who ran in the Queen City Marathon. You've done something I won't be doing. Then again, I could say that to Justin Verlander, Enrique Iglesias and George Clooney too.

On that note, I am done. Thanks for checkin in.






18 comments:

Curt said...

A few things from the weekend. I've said a couple of these things for years and again it was highly evident again during the first weekend of NFL. First of all the CFL needs to hire a VP of Common Sense and implement these changes immediately.

1) Eliminate the 'rouge' as no points should be awarded for failure like you mentioned on your twitter handle on the weekend. Can't stand that rule!

2) Once the NFL starts move games back to Friday-Saturday. I don't get why they don't do this anyways, some say it's due to stadium availability but that's hogwash that can be worked around. It also equals more revenue for the city for restaurants, pubs, taxi's, etc. I enjoy both leagues and you'd definitely get some of the NFL fans to tune in. Plus your guaranteed to have football Thursday through Monday which for the most part you do already. I for one can live with that and I bet many other's can as well.

3) Scrap the divisions ecspecially with the incoming Red Blacks. Makes no sense having two divisions and how exciting would it be to see a potential Riders-Stamps final.

Curt

Anonymous said...

Excellent point on TSN and all the 60 second infomercials. If this league is as great financially as Cohon suggests, where are the oorporate partners to fill those ad spaces and get the revenue. You gotta admit though that a Zoomies ad is better than the Humptys ones. Those are horrible.

Kyle

Anonymous said...

A pro-Syria website hacks Riderfans.com. That would have arguably been the best news of the weekend had it not been for the fact that RF is back up and running. That site is for the idiot chapter of the nation and that includes your buddy Hansford or Bingo Arms or Pimple on the ass of society or whatever he calls himself.

Anonymous said...

When did our o-line become porous? That was horrible. If Sheets can buy the line burgers after a 100 yard game, the o-line should chip in and buy Darian a steak supper or two to apologize.

Grant

Anonymous said...

The single point for a missed field goal is called a Rouge. It is unique to the CFL and we need it to stay unique and different then the NFL.

If we get rid of the Rouge maybe we should also go to 12 players, four downs, a 100 yard field and 10 yard end zones, no yard off the line of scrimmage by defence, no movement by receivers, etc.

We need to stay unique otherwise fold the league and lets just watch the NFL!

KJ

Anonymous said...

Rider o-line was horrid. End of story. Get it together and get back out there next week. No worries here.

Anonymous said...

Great post Curt. Agree with you 110 percent.


Randy

Anonymous said...

How come you weren't trying to schmooze with Hedger this morning Scruffy?

Anonymous said...

Well said on the football talent you guys have assembled on CKRM. It really makes the Green Zone program look sad--both pre and postgame. There's no doubt where "the home of the fans" is and it aint Newstalk Radio.

Rob

Anonymous said...

KJ. Our league is unique. It has 12 men, it is 110 yards, the field is wider, etc. etc. but there are also stupid rules and the single point for a missed FG or a punt going into the endzone is one of them. As Mitch has said, why do you reward a team for failure. Its ridiculous. Getting rid of that rule would not Americanize the game any.

Chris G

Anonymous said...

I hate Riderfans.com. I know I'm not alone in making that statement. The best thing would be for that site to go under.

Anonymous said...

Great post Curt!

Anonymous said...

Why does CJME even do a football show? Is CJME even relevant in the marketplace anymore? That station has gone soooooooo downhill in the past two years and it wasn't even that great when you were there Scruffdog!

Anonymous said...

These people criticizing Durant are idiots. The o-line gave him NO help at all. NONE!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

RF.com is the best local and provincial website....football or otherwise.
As far as football shows go....ballsy vs. davis/woods. Nuff said!

Anonymous said...

NFL has stupid rules too. I think they moved the kick offs up more so most of them go thru the end zone for a touch back. Useless play.....just put it on the 20. I truly dislike the 40 second clock. Sllllooowww!

Anonymous said...

"RF.com is the best local and provincial website".

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! I thought Obama was the dumbest poster on blogs until I saw that. We have a new champion!

RF.com is the biggest cancer the football team has ever had. Its something that is purely laughable and is something that embarrasses the organization.