Dan Plaster
Hi Rider fans. We sure are coming off a roller coaster week, winning the seventh game in a row while sweeping the series with Winnipeg, then finding out that the man who led the Riders to the 2013 Grey Cup, Darian Durant, will be out for the season with a throwing arm injury.
Tino Sunseri will be making his first ever pro start. He has had major action already this season with a come-from-behind win on the road over the Lions, then game managing the win last week in Winnipeg. This is a smart, capable and good person that has the help of one of the top offensive lines in the CFL as well as a running game and defence that is the envy of most in the league. If the former Pitt Panther (21 touchdowns to 3 interceptions in his senior year and finished 6-7 with a BBVA Compass Bowl loss to Mississippi) follows the game plan and keeps the turnover slate clean, more wins will accumulate.
Sunseri had to overcome a lot in college. He had a whopping five different head coaches during his three year stint as a starter with Pitt. They were: Dave Wannstedt and Phil Bennett (interim) in 2010, Todd Graham and Keith Patterson (interim) 2011 and Paul Chryst in 2012. This would be the first time in either pro or college that he has had the same offensive coaching staff for two consecutive years. If anyone has the capabilities of overcoming adversity, it would be Sunseri. He will also have the knowledge of Darian Durant, who will basically become a quarterbacks coach for the rest of the season.
This will be the third time that Tino Sunseri and Hamilton starter, Zach Collaros face each other. While the two were Big East foes, they met twice. On December 4, 2010, Sunseri’s Pitt Panthers knocked off Collaros’ Cincinnati Bearcats 28-10. A year later on November 5, 2011, Collaros returned the favour in Pittsburgh 26-23.
Now flashback to week one in the rain at Mosaic Stadium. The Riders ran for 164 yards, led by Anthony Allen’s 156 yards, picked up 10 sacks and forced three turnovers. Well, little to anyone’s knowledge that would be a sneak peek into what the identity of the Rider’s would truly be; pound the rock, get to the quarterback, and win the turnover battle. Fast forward to last week, the Riders ran for 198 yards, led by Anthony Allen’s 121 yards, picked up 4 sacks and forced 5 turnovers in the win over Winnipeg. Don’t expect things to change from here on in.
The Hamilton Ti-Cats are finally into their new home at Tim Horton’s Field. This is a good football team that was in the Grey Cup a season ago and has faced their own adversity this season. They were a team without a home until Labour Day when construction delays kept them off their new turf. Not an ideal start to any season. A routine, a place to go everyday for work, the same locker space and meeting rooms, etc. is so essential to a successful team. Great facilities may be one of the more underrated aspects of success. Throw in the early season injury to starting quarterback Zach Collaros, and a pile of injuries to their receiving core, this has been a very trying start for Head Coach Kent Austin.
The Ti-Cats match up well with the Riders. They are second in the CFL at stopping the run, giving up just 87.7 yards per game. This is due to a pair of solid linebackers in Simoni Lawrence (72% of his tackles come before first down yardage is gained) and Taylor Reed (leads the Ti-Cats in sacks with 4). The problems come when they have to get after the quarterback. In nine games this season, Hamilton has just 19 sacks, with a linebacker (Reed) leading the way.
Offensively, with the revolving door of quarterbacks (Collaros, LeFevour, Masoli) and injuries to the receiving core (Fantuz, Ellingson, Banks, Tasker and Koch), the offence has had a tough time rounding into form. They seem to rely on running back Mossis Madu the most, he is responsible for 12% (383 yards) of their offence, which is lowest team leader in league, next is Curtis Steele for the Argos at 15% of their yards (552 yards) from scrimmage.
As for receivers, Andy Fantuz picked up his first two touchdowns of the season in their loss last week against the Alouettes. Jake Tasker is the key target for either Collaros or Lefevour; he is tops on the Ti-Cats in first down passing targets and second and long targets. The Hamilton offence is also very explosive, with the second most big plays passing (30+ yards) in the CFL. In the red zone, a different story, just 10 TD’s on 23 entries into the scoring situation. With all of those fireworks, they have just nine touchdown passes this season.
That one last week against Montreal was a weird one. The Ti-Cats dominated Montreal offensively; almost double the total offence, that included a 338 yard passing day, seven more minutes in time of possession and 30 less yards in penalties. The difference, Hamilton gave up five sacks and turned the ball over five times, and that is never a good recipe for success.
Offensively, there isn’t much difference between the two teams, especially when it comes to points scored. The Riders average 21.7 points on offence while Hamilton averages just 2.8 points less per game. It changes when the Riders special teams and defensive points are thrown in, tack on an extra five points per game for the Riders, Hamilton, just 2.5 points.
With the Riders’ potential for a pair of wins over the East division, it would set up a mad dash to the finish line with five of the last six games against Calgary and Edmonton. It would also mean the Green and White would finish the mid-third of the schedule 6-and-0. No one, and I mean no one, could have predicted what would have happened to this football team over this first two-thirds of the season and no one can predict what will happen the rest of the way.
A few things to think about as you are eating pancakes during the 11am kickoff in Hamilton:
– The Riders are undefeated when they have more net yards than their opponents (6-0).
– They have scored a whopping 100 points in the second quarter (including 26 last week) while giving up the least.
– Fourth quarters are still a different story, second lowest in points scored and they have given up almost 100 points (92) in the final frame.
– The defence is still tops in sack differential (+18) and turnover ratio (+15). Of those turnovers, the Green and White leads in fumble recoveries and second in picks.
– Great in red zone touchdown percentage with a CFL second best 67% with 16 touchdowns on 24 entries into the go-zone.
– Still looking for more Yards after the Catch (YAC). Still a league low 673 yards, and that is by a considerable margin.
– There have been five 100 yard rushing performances by Rider running backs this season: Allen with two, Will Ford with two and Jerome Messam with one.
– Chris Getzlaf is just 24 yards away from hitting the 5,000 yard mark receiving.
– On the current 46 man roster, 16 players are in their first year of CFL play.
– Tino Sunseri is the fourth quarterback to make his first career CFL start this season. Jeremiah Masoli, Dan LeFevour and Jonathan Crompton are the other three.
Here are five things that I will be looking for while eating pancakes during the 11am brunch-time start:
1. Anthony Allen is the man. His week one performance against Hamilton and last week against Winnipeg, Anthony Allen seems poised to be the man to carry the rock on a regular basis for the Riders. Against one of the top run defences in the CFL, it will be a big task for the CFL rookie.
2. Hamilton Receivers. This is a good group of pass catchers in Hamilton, and they are starting to get healthy. With Bakari Grant, Andy Fantuz, Greg Ellingson, Luke Tasker and Sam Giguere, they are not the speediest of receivers, but they are solid route runners and pass catchers and will give starter, Zach Collaros a lot of targets.
3. Rider Defensive Front. The last time these two teams met, the Riders picked up a whopping 10 sacks. By no means expect the same sort of output, but I think the Rider group of pass rushers will be able to get to the Hamilton starter. This is also the first CFL start for Florida State product, Markus White, taking the spot of Trevor Guyton.
4. Special Teams Difference. This was a major factor in the Riders win over the Bombers last week. It was easy to pick out the blocked field goal and the punt return touchdowns, but the cover teams on Chris Milo’s punts were fantastic, only giving up 34 total return yards on the six punts. If this continues, a lot of stress will be taken off the defence.
5. Tino. This is the easy and obvious one to watch. As the eyes of Ridernation will be on the 25 year old quarterback.
For the best Rider coverage, keep tabs on riderville.com, and tune in Tuesday nights for Rider Rewind and Thursday nights for Countdown to Game Day. Also, follow me on twitter @dan_plaster. See you in the stands.
