Dan Plaster
It’s been a tumultuous three weeks since the Green and White picked up a 35-30 Labour Day victory over Winnipeg. The Riders tied a team record for consecutive victories in a season (7), lost their starting quarterback for possibly the whole season, and then lost to a 2-win Ti-Cats team last week.
For many Rider fans, it does feel like the sky is falling and some are starting to panic, this is much like last season, great start, a mid-season swoon due to injuries, and then we know what happened in the end. It is a little different this season without the leader of the offence and face of the team, Darian Durant, and a rash of injuries to the Canadian core, the offence and special teams have taken some big hits. The defence has kept their injury list pretty thin, but offensively, the loss of Durant, Getzlaf (for a few games this season), all three fullbacks and Chris Best have had a tremendous effect on how the Riders move the football. The loss of Neal Hughes, Scott McHenry, Spencer Moore, as well as linebacker Scott Regimbald, long snapper Levi Steinhauer and punter Josh Bartel may have affected the special teams group more.
Like every football team on the planet, the majority of practice is spent on offence and defence, special teams usually take a back seat. This puts a lot of stress on special teams’ coordinators because they need just as much work with their group to go over all six phases (kick, kick return, punt, punt return, field goal and field goal return). I don’t envy Special Teams coordinator Bob Dyce’s job at all, but he is one of the best, and will try to find a way to make things work.
That brings us to this week and the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS. The REDBLACKS are having a very difficult debut season in the CFL. The east division as a whole has been historically bad, so just one win in 10 starts puts Ottawa in line with the rest of the division for this historically awful season. In their previous meeting in the nation’s capital, the Riders rolled to a 38-14 victory. The two clubs have almost the same amount of total offence, and the Riders cause just one more turnover, but it is the timing and location of the REDBLACKS turnovers that killed them. Also, the 168 yards (third most in a game this season) in penalties didn’t help either. The other thing that hurts Ottawa is a second down conversion rate of just 28%, that means a whole lot of two and outs, more stress on the defence, and an urge to press more, which turns into more mistakes.
It now gets worse for the REDBLACKS, in their most recent game before their bye week (a scintillating 7-5 loss to BC) they lost key offensive weapon Chevon Walker. He represented 23% of Ottawa’s offence as well as 458 of their 667 rushing yards. It’s still up in the air on who will take the place of the outstanding running back, but whoever it is, they will be a part of one of the worst offences in the CFL.
Just how bad, well, they have broken the 20 point mark just twice in 10 outings, both resulted in losses and have been held to 10 points or under four times. It all comes out to a league’s worst average of 12.7 points per game. They have a hard time moving the football with the second worst passing attack and worst rushing game. What do the REDBLACKS do well, they protect the football with just 22 turnovers, but 11 of those are turnover on downs (a league high). Take that away, there are a league best with just 11 interceptions and fumbles. Now compare that to the Riders, in 15 turnovers (league leading), 14 of them are picks and fumbles.
A lot comes down to the arm and head of Henry Burris. Over the first 10 weeks of the season he hasn’t been the Henry we expect to see. He has a passer rating of just 78.1 with six touchdowns and seven interceptions. Here’s the thing, Henry still has it in him to pull out a few games, and has the targets to pass to with Marcus Henry and Wallace Miles, so the Riders can’t take a day off defensively because it will come back to hurt them.
The REDBLACKS defensively may be the group that will have the most problems on Sunday. They have allowed the most yards rushing and passing in the CFL, but the statistic that sticks out the most, they have forced just 40 two-and-outs in 10 games this season (the next worse are the Calgary Stampeders with 56 forced two-and-outs). Opponents are also running at 50% efficiency on second down conversions.
Let’s get to the Green and White. Everything that could go wrong, did just that in Hamilton a week ago. A lot of the press went to the woes of Tino Sunseri, but Peyton Manning, Dan Fouts or the second coming of Ron Lancaster would not have been able to help the Riders win that one. The comparisons were made to Darian Durant’s first ever start, which was a 339 yard, two touchdown win over the Ti-Cats in 2008. The difference between the two: Tino is in just his second pro season with the Riders, while Darian had an NFL training camp with a brief stint on the Baltimore Ravens practice roster in 2005, then two full seasons with the Riders (’06 & ’07) before making his first start. No excuses here, but you cannot compare the two. Tino will be his own man and make his own mistakes and have his own successes, but he does need some help and he won’t have to look too far either.
Anthony Allen would have to be the Riders offensive MVP so far this season. The first year Rider running back is responsible for 23% of the team’s offence and that’s in only 8 of 11 games (including one game in the Mosaic Stadium stands waving towels). He is second in the CFL in rushing yards per game with 67.6, second in the CFL with 16 rushes of 10+ yards, and he has 23 catches for 170 yards receiving. A solid year for a player that was close to being put on the scrap heap for a couple of fumbles early in the season.
Time for some fun facts, first the good:
– The Green and White are one of the best punt return teams in the league. Averaging 8.8 yards per return (a CFL third best), trailing B.C.’s second ranked team by just .1 yard.
– Defensively, the Riders are third in points against per game (17.1), tops in turnover ratio (+15), and forced turnovers (30).
– The sack parade continues. The defence still has 12 more sacks than their closest competitor, the Calgary Stampeders who have 32 this season.
– Running the ball and stopping the run have been key. This is the league’s best rushing attack with 146 yards per game and the third best defence against the run with just 94 yards against per game.
Now, the not so good:
– The passing game is solid on first down with an efficiency of 100.9, but on second down, it drops to a CFL worst 66.5.
– The second down woes continue through the air with a CFL worst, 42 completions for first down and just 11 completions of 30+ yards.
– The punt game has taken some knocks as well, if you include return yardage, yardage from singles and penalties, the Riders are a league worst 34.2 yards net average per game. Here’s the catch, the Riders are mid-pack in the CFL in punting average at 44.6 yards per kick.
Here are five things to look for Sunday afternoon:
1. The progression of Tino Sunseri: He will get better, with a full game under his belt and more importantly, a full game tape to look at. This is not just for his own self scouting, but also to watch it with offensive coordinator, George Cortez and the rest of the receiving core to see what the strengths of this offence can be with Tino at the helm
2. Which Hank? Henry Burris still has it in him to be lethal, but for some reason, it rarely happens at Mosaic Stadium. If things even have a whiff of going bad early, the avalanche will happen and things could get real messy, real fast.
3. Punting: As mentioned earlier, things have been tough with the punting game. For the third straight game, Chris Milo will handle the punting duties. He had a great game in Winnipeg with the team’s 3rd best net average on the season at 40.8 yards. A week later in Hamilton, it was a season worst 29 net yards. Even somewhere in the middle would be fine.
4. Fast Start: In in the week one win over the Ticats (12 points), week four win over Toronto (14 points) and week five win over Ottawa (24 points), the Riders scored a combined 50 points. In the other eight games combined, it’s a paltry five points which included five blanking’s. So a good start isn’t crucial, but it sure goes a long way in rolling to a victory.
5. Copycat Game: Football is a game of copycats. If an opposing team figures out a way to defeat another, everyone takes notice. Hamilton was able to match up well against the Riders jumbo and rhino running offences and put it on Tino Sunseri to beat them. The Riders will have to game plan against that this week, and for the rest of the season to come.
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, Rider Fans.
